our-yoga

by Nina

Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens: A Detail by Joan Webster

On Tuesday I read a short little piece in the NY Times questioning the adage “Never go to bed angry” (see here). It was one of those bottom line pieces, and the bottom line was this:

“Going to sleep upset or disturbed preserves the emotion, research suggests.”

In the cited study in The Journal of Neuroscience, scientists exposed 106 men and women to images that elicited various emotions. In some cases the emotions were negative and in other cases the emotions were positive or neutral. The researchers then looked at what happened 12 hours later when the subjects were shown both new images and the previous ones, either in the morning after a night of sleep, or at the end of a full day of wakefulness. The conclusion was:

“The scientists found that staying awake blunted the emotional response to seeing the upsetting images again. But when the subjects were shown the disturbing images after a night of sleep, their response was just as strong as when they had first seen them—suggesting that sleep “protected” the emotional response.”

That doesn’t sound good, does it? Going to bed angry and waking up angry is not only an unpleasant experience for you, but it probably doesn’t enhance your relationships with the people around you. Besides, it's also not a good idea to go to bed angry if you are concerned about getting a good night's sleep. Your stress levels will be high and your sleep, if you can sleep, will be restless—maybe filled with upsetting dreams—and you won’t feel rested in the morning.

But very probably you—unlike the people in the study—can’t just put away an “upsetting image” when you are very angry. In fact, the chances are you’ll keep having one angry thought after another, and with each angry thought you’ll get another jolt of adrenaline (that’s why they call it the “fight or flight response,” people), keeping your stress levels as high as they were before.

The good news is that Baxter says it takes only about 90 seconds to clear the adrenaline released in your system by an angry thought if you switch to a more neutral topic. So to put away your anger, he recommends a structured breath practice, in which you measure your inhalations and exhalations, and count your breaths to engage your mind. If you combine this type of breath practice with a supported inversion (such as Legs Up the Wall pose) or a supported forward bend (if you find those soothing), both of which help switch your nervous system to relaxation mode, you’ll get a double dose of calm.

You could also use a guided relaxation (see here) as a way to engage your mind and relax your nervous system at the same time.

by Nina

Field of Tulips by Melina Meza

I recently read a very disappointing list of same-old, same-old tips for better sleep. You know, don’t use your bedroom for anything but sex or sleep, light candles, take supplements, blah, blah, blah—does that stuff even work?—and nothing at all about addressing the root causes of insomnia. And I thought, really I could do a lot better than that. So here goes:
Five Tips for Better Sleep
1. Reduce your overall stress levels. Because insomnia if often caused by chronic stress, regularly practicing conscious relaxation or calming yoga poses can help prevent the busy mind and over-stimulated nervous system that is keeping you awake at night. See The Relaxation Response and Yoga, Yoga for Insomnia: Part 1 and Conscious Relaxation vs. Sleep for information. 
2. Plan your day. What you do in the hours before bed can affect your state when you get into bed. So schedule your stimulating activities, including aerobic exercise and strong yoga practices, such as flow practices, standing poses and backbends, for earlier in the day. (Of course, you don’t want to be watching an action film in the late evening, either.) Start to wind down before bed with calming practices, such as restorative yoga or meditating, so you’re in a relaxed state when you get into bed. See Day to Night for information.
3. Get comfortable. Physical pain or discomfort can keep you awake, so think about your sleeping position the same way you would about a yoga pose. Use “props” in bed, such as extra pillows, towels, and so on, to help get more comfortable. If you are having back problems, sleeping on your tummy can overarch your lower back, exacerbating back problems. You could try placing a folded blanket or towel under your lower abdomen to see if that helps, or, even better, sleep on your back instead with a pillow under your knees. If you’re having neck problems, sleep on your side or back, rather than on your tummy. If you try sleeping on your side and find that your knees press together uncomfortably, place a pillow between your knees. If nocturnal leg cramps are keeping you awake, stretch your legs before bed (see Nocturnal Leg Cramps and Yoga). 
4. Practice yoga in bed. Sometimes just getting into bed—even if you’ve been relaxing beforehand—can trigger worries about your life or fear about falling asleep. Instead of letting your mind race, try your favorite relaxation practice while you’re falling asleep (in this case, it’s okay if you fall asleep while you’re relaxing) You could practice a guided relaxation or yoga nidra (by listening to an audio recording or just talking yourself through it) or even do a restorative yoga pose, such as Child’s pose, with a mental focus to calm yourself down. See Yoga You Can Do in Bed and Yoga Tricks for Better Sleep for information.

5. Work with your breath. One of the easiest things you can do to calm yourself before you fall asleep or if you wake up in the middle of the night is to work with your breath. This moves your mind away from your worries onto a neutral subject and triggers the Relaxation Response, which will help you fall asleep more quickly and sleep more deeply. You can either practice simple breath awareness or work on gently lengthening your exhalation (see Yoga for Better Sleep). If you have trouble breathing because you have a cold or allergies, try working with a mantra (a phrase you repeat to yourself) of any kind instead. 

by Ram

Siesta by John Singer Sargent

According to the Ayurveda philosophy, there are three supports or pillars of life. Sleep is one of the pillars, with the other two being good digestion and sexual restraint. These pillars endow the body with strength, complexion and healthy growth that can continue until the full span of life, provided the individual does not indulge in activities that are detrimental to health. According to the Charaka Samhita, a foundational Ayurvedic text:

“Happiness, misery, nourishment, emaciation, strength, weakness, virility, sterility, knowledge, ignorance, life and death -- all these occur depending on proper or improper sleep.”

Proper sleep and rest is essential for the well-being of any individual. The body utilizes the sleep time to repair itself of any damage sustained during the waking hours. Sleep helps us thrive by contributing to a healthy immune system and balance our appetites by helping to regulate the levels of hormones that play a role in hunger and satiety. So when we’re sleep-deprived, we may feel the need to eat more, which can lead to weight gain. A good night sleep enhances the same positive feelings and states of being that we achieve through our yoga practice. Good sleeping habit plays a direct role in how full, energetic and successful our lives can be. There's no question that we feel better after a good night's rest. It seems that, if we want to live to our full potential, we must approach sleep as a personal practice.

According to the Harvard Women’s health watch, there are six primary reasons to have sufficient sleep:

• Sleep helps the brain sustain and preserve new information to memory; people who have a good sleep after learning a task do better on tests later
• Sleep deprivation triggers weight gain
• Sleep deficits contribute to accidents, falls and traffic mishaps
• Sleep deprivation triggers emotional disturbances
• Sleep disorders can be a cause of hypertension and irregular heartbeat
• Sleep deprivation lowers immunity making the individual more susceptible to degenerative diseases or infections

How sleep is beneficial and how we are affected by sleep is of great interest to sleep researchers. In a landmark study, scientists discovered that during sleep the brain clears out harmful toxins thereby reducing the risk of several brain diseases. Nina elaborated on this study in one of her previous posts Sleep, Alzheimer’s Disease and Yoga.

In another recent study, a group of researchers from the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory of Chicago showed that good sleep is the antidote to fear. In experiments involving 15 normal human subjects, the researchers demonstrated that specific fear memories of human beings were wiped out during the slow-wave sleep. The complicated small sample study involved exposing the human subjects to two fear contextual cues: pictures of faces accompanied by an electric shock (to generate a fear response) and specific aromas associated with the faces.  All test subjects learned to fear the faces and the aromas that came with an electric shock. The subjects were asked to sleep and all the subjects were exposed again to the specific smells associated with the fear when they entered the slow-wave sleep cycle. Interestingly, the fear response to the specific odor had significantly waned in the slow-wave sleep cycle, suggesting the importance of sleep as a therapy to boost fear extinction memory.

In addition to supporting the Ayurvedic concept of sleep being one of the pillars of life, the above-mentioned research studies appear to offer a reasonable explanation of the need to have good and timely sleep. Proper sleep contributes to psychological health and well-being. However, most of us will encounter sleep disturbances throughout the course of our lives. In fact, one out of three people will experience sleep disturbances at some point in their lives. Sleep disturbances do not allow the proper repair of injuries making the tissues more susceptible to further injuries. This leads to the body breaking down. Sleep deprivation/disturbance is also a major source of stress among adults. A mere week of unrest or sleep deprivation can cause severe mood disturbances, depression and emotional upheaval. In a multicenter, randomized controlled trial for sleep quality among cancer survivors, a yoga program consisting of breathing exercises (pranayama), 16 gentle hatha and restorative yoga postures (asanas), and meditation was found to be a useful treatment for improving sleep quality and reducing sleep medication use among cancer survivors. Yoga participants demonstrated (a) greater improvements in sleep quality, quantity and efficiency, and daytime dysfunction and (b) decreased intake of sleep medication.

For more on yoga programs for sleep disturbances check Nina’s articles on these specific topics, including Day to Night: Yoga for Better Sleep. I hope after reading this article you will appreciate the importance of good sleep. Remember, good sleep is essential for a person’s health and wellbeing, and if you are experiencing sleep problems there is quite a price to pay.  I am reminded of Mahatma Gandhi’s quote from one of his speeches:

“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.” 

by Nina

Sun Behind Clouds by Melina Meza

One of the worst fears I think we all share about getting older is of developing dementia. Just recently I had a long phone conversation with a woman who is trying to deal with a mother in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, and it was just so sad. I had some advice for her, but no solutions, of course. Then I heard a news piece on NPR “Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep”  that gave me  glimmer of hope.

Scientists have been trying to figure out the purpose of sleep for a very long time. A recent study “Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain”  published in Science Magazine, proposed a fascinating new theory. The team of researchers from the University of Rochester discovered that while the brain sleeps it clears out harmful toxins, a process that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. According to the NPR interview, during sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain increases dramatically, washing away harmful waste proteins that build up between brain cells during waking hours. Professor of Neurosurgery and an author of the study, Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, said, "It's like a dishwasher."

The waste proteins getting washed away during sleep are toxic to brain cells, which could explain why we don't think clearly after a sleepless night and why a prolonged lack of sleep can actually kill an animal or a person. The results appear to offer the best explanation yet of why animals and people need sleep.

“Thus, the restorative function of sleep may be a consequence of the enhanced removal of potentially neurotoxic waste products that accumulate in the awake central nervous system.” Lulu Xie, et al.

Alzheimer's Disease researchers say this research could help explain a number of recent findings related to sleep and AD. Dr. Randall Bateman, Professor of Neurology  at Washington University said this about beta amyloid, which is the main component of certain deposits found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's Disease.

"Beta amyloid concentrations continue to increase while a person is awake. And then after people go to sleep that concentration of beta amyloid decreases. This report provides a beautiful mechanism by which this may be happening.”

The team of scientists discovered the cleaning process while studying the brains of sleeping mice. Dr. Nedergaard said that during sleep the system that circulates cerebrospinal fluid through the brain and nervous system was "pumping fluid into the brain and removing fluid from the brain in a very rapid pace.” When the mice went to sleep, their brain cells actually shrank, making it easier for the fluid to circulate. But when the mice woke up, their brain cells enlarged again and the flow between cells slowed dramatically.

The researchers speculated that the reason the brain doesn’t do this cleaning all the time is because the cleaning uses a lot of energy, and it’s probably not possible for the brain both to clean itself and at the same time be aware of its surroundings, talk, move, and so on. So getting enough sleep—which we already know is vital for our physical and mental health—may be one key to preventing Alzheimer’s Disease as you age.

But what does all this have to do with yoga? Well, if you’re having trouble sleeping, yoga can help with that. Because insomnia is so often related to stress, yoga’s stress management techniques can help you quiet your nervous system so you fall asleep more quickly and sleep more soundly. For  information on how yoga can help you sleep better, see Yoga for Insomnia, Part 1  and Day to Night: Yoga for Better Sleep. The Supported Inverted poses I wrote about recently (see All About Supported Inversions) are poses that I've found particularly helpful.

We’re so careful here at YFHA not to make any false promises and of course as this research is new, we can’t promise that getting enough sleep will definitely make a difference for you. But encouraging you to get a good night’s sleep can’t be harmful in any way, and if this gives you more motivation to practice stress management techniques, which are helpful for preventing a whole host of health problems, we’re doing you a favor. And if you'd like to add an additional practices to encourage brain health, start meditating on a regular basis (see Meditation and Brain Strength) and keep practicing your yoga asanas (see Yoga for Brain Health?).