Sleep: A Pillar of Life

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.” 

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