Sleep : Nature’s Restorative Formula

Our foremost sleep scientists have still not been able to come up with a satisfactory explanation for sleep. Some say the exhaustion of the physical body leads us to sleep in order to rest it while others say that in sleep we make nerve energy which helps us function through the day.

For most of us sleep seems to be the boring interval in our day. It seems as though sleep has been made to pass time during the night when not much can be done, or to be able to survive a very boring meeting or lecture or to prevent us from working 22 hours a day and conquering the world. Young mothers complain of their children not sleeping enough and these same mothers complain of their teenagers sleeping too much. Wives do not want their husbands to sleep on Sundays because that is the only day they get. Teachers want the children to study at nights, how else will they become intelligent? Sleep seems to be a cruel joke that Nature has played on us to keep us from doing all that we want to!

Have we never wondered why would Nature do that? What is the purpose of sleep in the health of our body? Is sleep a luxury or a necessity?

Sleep is a very vital aspect of our lives. It is an automatic process by which the body renews and regenerates itself.

RHYTHM OF NATURE AND THE BODY

In Nature everything flows, but even in the fluidity there is discipline. Nature has a rhythm. With the sun rising, activity starts…birds are chirping, the bees buzzing, and flowers blooming. And as the sun sets everything in Nature slows down and comes to rest. Similarly we too are instinctively sleepers by night. Through the day we are more active, aware and conscious and as we move towards night our bodies and mind slow down in preparation to sleep.

Just like the seasons in Nature, our body too has an internal body clock. Though all activities in our body are occurring simultaneously each activity is more pronounced at a certain period as the enzymes and hormones that support it peak at that time.

From 4:00am to 12:00 noon the body is its cleaning cycle and eliminates all unwanted residues. Through 12:00noon to 8:00 the body is in the digestive phase where it can break down the food we eat into nutrients. And from 8:00 PM to 4:00 AM the body is in the restorative phase during which regeneration occurs. Regeneration and assimilation of nutrients can only happen if the body is in a state of sleep.

In the early 1900’s with the invention of the Electric bulb and the clock we started moving away from this Natural Rhythm of the body. Instead of waking up with Nature and sleeping with Nature we started following the clock.

No longer was Nature able to control us, we thought we had started controlling Nature. Instead of sleeping when sleepy, eating when hungry and moving when we feel like it, we started scheduling our lives according to the clock. So now we eat only at lunch and dinner time, we exercise according to the schedule in the gym or our work timings and not when the body demands movement and we sleep after we have finished all that we planned to do that day.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE SLEEP?

Through the day in order to maintain the tone of our muscles, our brain sends very very minute electrical impulses to all our muscles. When we are agitated/ stressed/ unhappy/ wired/ unsatisfied these electrical impulses become stronger. As the impulses become stronger the muscle correspondingly contracts more anticipating action. But action never comes, because all this agitation is occurring in our head not because there is a danger in our environment that but because we are thinking thoughts that are negative or unhappy. The action which unwinds the muscle never comes and the muscles stay in a perpetually contracted state.

A contracted muscle requires more fuel. This means that all systems in our body need to start functioning at a faster rate. The heart has to pump blood faster; the lungs have to take in more oxygen, sugar and triglycerides in the blood need to increase. Our bodies need to work 5 times harder to supply nutrition to a contracted muscle.

During sleep, our body is able to unwind this muscle and relax the various systems of the body in order to return to balance.

Ageing or degeneration which we accept as part of getting older is not the norm in Nature. Look at Nature, it doesn’t age it grows and matures. A seed sprouts into a plant, a plant grows into a tree. A tree flowers and the flower gives us a fruit. This fruit holds a seed which restarts the circle of life. Why is it that only humans suffer as they age? Any machine that is used goes through wear and tear, similarly our body to goes through wear and tear. The cells that get worn out need to be replaced in the body. These new cells can only be formed when our body is in a state of rest i.e. not involved in movement/ thought/ digestion. This means regeneration of the body only occurs when we are sleeping. When we do not sleep and do not allow the body to regenerate our body starts showing degeneration which is wrinkling of skin, graying of hair, joint pain, weakened bones, tired muscles, etc.

Our body has been designed for continuous growth. Growth for the body includes balancing of hormones, formation of new cells, boosting of immunity, converting the day’s events into long term memory, breaking down recycling and eliminating all that is not required. This process of growth happens only when we are asleep.

If sleep is such a vital and automatic function of the body, why has it become difficult for us to sleep? We have turned this beautiful aspect of living into a disease and formed a therapy around it!

Why is it that we cannot sleep?

We have started multi-tasking in all aspects of Life. At any given point in time we have a million things running through our head. This capacity of humans is what has allowed us to progress so much. But along with this our machine requires to clean and repair.

WE always clean a mixie while it is switched off not when it is switched on.

We do not service a car while driving it with the mechanic sitting on the bonnet. We service a car when it is switched off.

The body too needs to clean, repair and grow in a state of relaxation and sleep.

If we run through our days pushing our body against the Rhythm of Nature, our body releases adrenaline to cope with it. As adrenaline increases, digestion in the body slows down, excretion increases, sugar and triglycerides in the blood increases and the body gets switched on. In a wired state like that our body is unable to sleep. We are constantly on the go, we are constantly thinking like we need to do more, we need to achieve more. When we gear our mind and body for constant action how we expect to suddenly hit the pillow at night and fall asleep? Over stimulation of our senses through constant TV or computer or phone use, through artificially maintained temperatures, honking, blaring music, artificial smells, etc keeps us hyper-alert. IF we are not relaxed we are not able to sleep well.

The second aspect that doesn’t allow the body to sleep well is the over burdening of the digestive system. From morning to night we are eating foods that take too long to digest. Especially just before going to bed, our last meal of the day we want to enjoy (read eat a heavy meal) kick starting our digestive system and then we hit the sack expecting our body to be able to fall asleep.

In order to sleep the body needs to be in a state of rest. In Nature this was achieved through twilight. Just as the sun was setting the lights dimmed automatically and everything slowed down and eventually we fell into the silence of sound sleep.

Body functions on light and darkness. In light certain enzymes; hormones are produced for activation and movement. Mainly serotonin, it keeps us active and alert. In darkness Melatonin the opposite hormone is produced to relax us, induce sleep. This hormone is released directly into the blood stream so that it can move into the cell to activate the DNA for cell division. Cells in our body function on this clock. It doesn’t know Standard Time. This leads to abnormalities in cell growth which result in tumours, hormonal imbalances, obesity and immunity suppression.

With a constantly stimulated mind, digestive system and cells not functioning in ‘sync’ the body is never relaxed enough to be able to sleep soundly. Some of us may be physically exhausted and fall asleep when we hit the bed, but then we wake up in a few hours or wake up in the morning feeling like we haven’t slept well. While others are so wired that we cannot fall asleep when we lie down and are only able to sleep after a few hours till the body relaxes.

The very simple solution to this is to relax your mind and digestive system to sleep. Sleep charges the body’s battery.

When do we charge our phones? When the battery runs low!

How long do we charge it for? As long as it requires to get to full battery!

So like Dr. Venkat keeps reiterating we need to sleep when sleepy (i.e. charge the body when it asks for it) and wake up only when eyes open (when the battery is fully charged!). The body has a capacity to store food, to store oxygen within the body, but it cannot store sleep.

Sleep is a necessity not a luxury!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE DEPRIVED OF SLEEP?

If we do not sleep enough, or we sleep at a time when the body’s assimilation phase is over as do shift workers, or we constantly sleep late… our body is unable to finish what it needs to do through sleep.

Cleaning and repair two very important aspects of maintaining health in the body cannot occur unless the body is switched off as in sleep.

If cleaning does not occur to optimum the toxic residue which needs to be thrown out of the body stars getting accumulated within the body leading to damage of organs, decreased functioning, formation of ulcers, tumours and cysts, etc.With repair and renewal of cells not happening the body starts degenerating leading to pain, joint degeneration, graying hair, wrinkling of cells, loss of sight, loss of hearing, decreased appetite, weakened bones, hormonal imbalances, infertility, decreased immunity, etc.

If the body is unable to relax the contracted muscles, the systems of the body continue to function in a hyper active mode resulting in increases wear and tear this leads to increased pressure (especially diastolic), increased sugar and triglycerides in the blood, contracted and painful muscles, increased levels of adrenaline.

Our brain too requires to rest to function at optimum. With lack of sleep people show behavioural changes like increased anger, irritability, decreased cognitive function, decreased motor activities, memory loss, lack of self-esteem, increased sense of insecurity.