The Long and Short of a Good Night’s Sleep – Roger Cole

be uncomfortable in bed and sleep poorly. Of course, getting good sleep is one ingredient for overall well-being and can contribute to lack of disease.

Styana (sluggishness). Sometimes, I simply have no motivation to move my body—especially when I’m tired from not getting enough sleep! It’s a catch 22 because exercising the body during the day leads to more restful sleep at night, which in turn makes it easier to practice overall.

MENTAL

• Samsaya (indecision or doubt). There may have been a part of me at one time that doubted whether eight hours of sleep was really that important, but now I’m certain that I need at least that much to feel refreshed. Depending on the day, I may still weigh my options in terms of getting more sleep or going out with a good friend. And I can be indecisive about what steps to take on any given night when getting ready for bed. In a similar vein, when I’m struggling to fall asleep or when I’m fatigued during the day, I can doubt my own efforts toward establishing good sleep habits and then spend a lot of time worrying about this.

Pramada (carelessness or negligence). When I choose to do the things that keep me from getting a good night’s sleep— like staying out late or watching movies past my bedtime—it’s a careless attitude. I’m flat out neglecting my overall health and ultimately affecting many other aspects of my life, which can actually create a domino effect of imbalance.

Alasya (idleness). I can have a sort of mental laziness when it’s time to practice relaxing, sleep-inducing yoga poses in the late evening. Part of it is that I get overwhelmed by all the steps I need to take in preparation for keeping myself in balance. I end up wasting time in some idle way while I

Illustration: Curtis Settino

THE LONG AND SHORT OF A GOOD

NIGHT’S SLEEP By Roger Cole

If you have a sleep problem or are sleepy during the day, first find out whether you have sleep apnea. If you snore loudly, there’s a good chance that you do (and some people have apnea without loud snoring). Ask someone to listen while you sleep or use a smartphone app that can record snoring. You can’t tell by yourself if you snore; a lot of champion snorers have no idea that they are doing it. If you do snore significantly, get checked for apnea at a sleep clinic (they may provide you with a takehome, medical-grade monitor). If you have apnea, get it treated! One effective treatment to consider is an oral appliance, which is essentially a prop that you wear in your mouth while you sleep. At present, there are no yoga sequences known to treat sleep apnea.

If you have insomnia (especially if you fall asleep at first but wake up and have trouble falling back to sleep), here are two options. For each option, it may help to sleep with an elastic bandage wrapped loosely around your head, covering your eyes.

Option 1: Short Time in Bed If you choose this option, start by shortening your total time in bed each night to approximately six hours—and do this night after night on a strict, fixed schedule. Don’t take any naps or practice any restorative poses during the day or evening (except three minutes or less of Savasana after an ordinary asana practice each day). Continue your usual seated pranayama practice if you have one. During the six-hour scheduled bedtime period, if you don’t fall asleep within 15 minutes of getting into bed, or if you wake up and lie awake for 15 minutes, then get

out of bed and practice seated meditation or pranayama (emphasizing exhalation) in the dark, wrapped in warm blankets, until you feel sleepy, then get back into bed to attempt sleep again.

After a few nights of sticking strictly to this schedule, you should be sleepy enough to sleep through most of the night with few interruptions and get at least five hours of sleep. When this happens, keep avoiding daytime and evening naps, and set your time in bed to six hours and 15 minutes. Repeat the same procedure as above, with a target of sleeping for at least 85 percent of that time. When you achieve this goal for two or three nights in a row, increase your scheduled time in bed by an additional 15 minutes.

Over a few weeks, gradually increase your time in bed 15 minutes at a time, but only do it if you have succeeded in sleeping for 85 percent of your previously scheduled time for at least two or three nights in a row. When you reach a point where you can no longer increase your sleep to the 85 percent mark, reduce your scheduled time in bed to the previous, successful level. Keep that as your new sleep schedule indefinitely, seven days a week. And after reaching this stable sleep time, you can start practicing restorative poses again.

WARNING: During the weeks it takes to optimize sleep time, expect to be sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation increases the risk of making errors and having lapses of attention. This can be dangerous while driving or operating machinery, and can cause a number of other problems.

Option 2: Long Time in Bed If you choose this option, turn the lights in your home down low or off at sunset and go to bed each night at least ten hours before you have to get up in the morning. Before going to bed, do whatever nondrug method it takes to help you get to sleep—meditation, pranayama, restorative asanas, a warm bath, etc.—or simply get into bed, turn off the lights, and try to go to sleep. Don’t worry about how long it takes you to fall asleep or whether you wake up in the night—you have plenty of time to rest or sleep before you get up in the morning.

You’re likely to wake up in the night, and if you do, then do whatever peaceful activity you like, as long as you do it in very dim light or in the dark (no bright computer screens, phones, TVs, etc.). A very good thing to do is to simply remain lying down and let your mind wander in the dark, not being concerned about whether you are awake or asleep. Other things you might do are hold a conversation, consider what I need to do before bed. If I could spend that time doing even just one or two sleep-benefitting activities, I’d be in much better shape.

Avirati (overindulgence). Giving in to sense gratification and stimuli like TV or Facebook—or even being greedy for more experiences or social activities—can certainly keep me from getting good sleep.

INTELLECTUAL

• Bhrantidarsana (confusion or delusion). This is a good one—I can convince myself that I’m taking care of myself, when in fact, my yoga practice or bedtime routines are not quite on the mark. It can be a subtle thing to discern, but when fatigue, depression, and ongoing restlessness continue, it’s a good bet that I’m not getting very good sleep.

Maybe I’ve rushed my practice or skipped part of the bedtime routine or consumed something a little too stimulating. Or maybe I’m just going through the motions.

Another way this obstacle can manifest is through lack of confidence, or a false perception of my abilities. I convince myself that I can’t do a certain asana or that I’m simply wired in such a way that good, deep sleep is out of reach.

Obviously, this sort of attitude is self-defeatist and will never get me where I want to go—and it can interfere with decent sleep!

SPIRITUAL

• Alabdhabhumikatva (lack of perseverance, missing the point). More and more, my life is centered around my practice—not just asana, though I do some asana every day—but also around my philosophies and understandings of what “my path” should be. When I fluctuate from this, losing track of that path, which invariably will happen, or I rush through my asana or pranayama practice, then I feel off balance emotionally as well as physically. And then sleep becomes more difficult.

Anavasthitatvani (backsliding or regression). No matter how much I long for balance and despite my efforts in fostering well-being, my mind remains restless and chatty, and at bedtime, that is especially unhelpful. When I’ve been thrown off balance because of my lack of perseverance, then I can become restless and want to just do something to make myself feel good in the moment—eat something indulgent or stay up too late and then dive into bed without even trying to calm my mind and nervous system. This regression, sort of giving up on the routine in the moment, affects not only my desire for good sleep, but my entire yoga practice.

And so it goes that poor sleep means I don’t practice as well. When I don’t commit as much time and effort to my yoga practice, my mind and body are more restless. And when my mind and body are restless, I don’t sleep as well.

So How to Break the Cycle? Ironically one remedy, outlined in Sutra I:38, for overcoming these nine obstacles is contemplation of dreamless or dreamfilled sleep, or the unconscious and subconscious mental planes, respectively. This contemplation helps transform the different states of consciousness—sleeping, waking, meditating—into one, flowing and calm state. So perhaps I’m on the right track by focusing more on my sleep habits overall.

Over time, my health and well-being—including getting restful sleep—has become the most important aspect of my life, and my yoga practice is at the heart of this. At 48, I’m officially in perimenopause, and my body demands sleep. Overcoming insomnia now has my full attention, and I have been trying a few different approaches. Experts say it’s important to establish a consistent sleep schedule, so I’m making an effort to do that. I’m making fewer evening plans, especially on week nights. I’m trying to wrap up the work day before dinner and shut down all technology. At the first signs of sleepiness, I begin to down shift. I dim lights and avoid talking about “serious” things. I focus on quiet activities like reading or knitting.

And to help relax my nervous system, I take hot baths, drink herbal teas, and take magnesium. The cats are no longer allowed in the bedroom at night because their comings and goings can be disturbing. (My 19-year-old cat developed the charming habit of standing on my pillow several times in the middle of the night and meowing loudly in my ear.)

I’m also trying to use my yoga practice to help foster more balanced sleep. At minimum, I do a few forward bends before bed. Years ago, I took a six-month introductory teacher training with Julie Lawrence and one of our assignments was to practice headstand and shoulder stand every night before bed. Just to observe. That experiment had profound results. Not only did I fall asleep more quickly than I had been, but I slept more deeply and woke up feeling refreshed. It’s a great practice.

In fact, in the back of Light on Yoga, Guruji’s sequence for insomnia is basically that, plus a couple forward bends and some pranayama:

Sirsasana and cycle Sarvangasana and cycle Paschimottanasana Uttanasana Bhastrika, Nadi Sodhana and Suryabhedana pranayama without retention Sanmukhi mudra Savasana

You would think after such terrific results, I would commit to this practice for the rest of my life—but it’s not that simple. (See the list of disturbances and obstacles above. I’m working on it.) I find that if I respond to my body’s desire to sleep, I can fall asleep more quickly, sleep more soundly, and wake up feeling rested.

Lately, I’m trying to keep the majority of my evenings open for quiet, personal time. In addition, the biggest change I’ve made has probably been to just respond to my first feelings of sleepiness. If you don’t jump on the sleep train when it comes to your station, it will take off and leave you behind. And this is science. Our bodies are programmed to shut down at a certain time every night. The hypothalamus is responsible for shutting down the brain’s arousal signals and causing the transition to sleep. We have the ability to override the hypothalamus, though, and some of us can easily ignore those signs of sleepiness. When we do this, the hypothalamus starts up again, inspiring the brain’s arousal signals, which is how we can get a second wind. I used to do this all the time and just stay up later and later, and then ultimately struggle to get to sleep—and sleep well.

But now, I find that if I respond to my body’s desire to sleep, I can fall asleep more quickly, sleep more soundly, and wake up feeling rested. And this means that I end up having time to do both pranayama and asana in the morning, with a kitty-petting break in between! And, I end up feeling more focused and creative throughout the day, which is not too bad, either.

Michelle D. Williams lives in Portland, Oregon, and is the editor of Yoga Samachar. She has been practicing Iyengar Yoga since 1994.

Roger Cole continued

read in very dim light (preferably red light), or do any of the before-bed activities mentioned above. You can get up but avoid getting cold, standing for prolonged periods, or exercising. It’s okay to catch up on non stressful work or leisure activities in the middle of the night as long as they meet the criteria above. If you are awake long enough, it is almost inevitable that you will eventually get sleepy and fall back to sleep.

After several days on this schedule, if you feel that you are not getting enough sleep, then set your bedtime earlier or your wake up time later. Over time, settle on a generous sleep schedule that feels right to you.

Roger Cole, Ph.D., is an Intermediate Junior III Iyengar Yoga teacher and neuroscientist. Since the 1970s, he has trained students, teachers, and medical professionals worldwide in the anatomy, physiology, and precise practice of yoga, relaxation, and sleep.