As a firm believer in our natural ability to heal ourselves, my stance on insomnia is that our first step should be in understanding the nature of our predicament before looking at external-based solutions.
It is no secret that those who develop insomnia have a stress management impasse. The natural and most effective way of dealing with this is to meditate regularly. Not only will the situation be overcome through the lowering of stress levels, but also practicing meditation will contribute personal insight and understanding. I would also like to mention that the practice of meditation is essentially an unwinding exercise. If your goal is to reduce stress levels only, a simple westernised meditation practice would be preferable to learning a traditional style that offers a more supplemental approach.
When I first learned to meditate I was told that a 20-minute meditation was as good as 2 – 3 hours of sleep, so I tried sleeping less just to find out if it was. The only thing I found was that sleeping less caused me to feel more tired, and I would frequently fall asleep during my meditations!
I decided to do some research because I felt intuitively there was a connection between meditation and sleep. The obvious was that regular meditation naturally reduced stress levels. Being more relaxed was a major factor in getting to sleep and staying asleep.
There was also one other factor worthy of consideration. Regular meditation not only improved my sleep patterns, but it also made me feel “more awake”. This led me to another gem of important information. Sleep deprivation, is retained within the muscular system of the body and over time we can build up a “sleep-debt”. This compromises our physical and mental abilities, not to mention the body’s vital systems. Because it happens incrementally, we are not always aware of its full effect until our mid-life years.
Logically, one would imagine a person with a sleep-debt would fall asleep easily – not so! Sleep deprivation leads to major stress problems that not only prevent sleep but also compound the sleep-debt itself. The fact that regular meditation not only reduces stress but also enhances our alertness, points squarely to the reduction of our sleep-debt. Practicing meditation not only contributes to sleeping well, but also to feeling more awake!
Emotional stress is the major contributor to insomnia. The resulting dilemma we find ourselves in can at times feel impossible to overcome. With emotional swings there are literally thousands of chemical changes happening in the body all at once. Sleeplessness has a chemical representation within the body and by comparison to sleeping well, has a chemical imbalance. Drug intervention addresses this and attempts to rebalance the body’s healthy chemical composition. However, apart from the side effects, this form of intervention is effectively the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff . . .
We have the natural ability to address the cause ourselves. Regular meditation is the essential pathway to take, along with natural supplements and an open mind.
Finally, one of the most natural supplements we can take is received as sound through our ears and as vibration through every cell of our body. In the earliest days of our ancestry, music was medicinal.
Today, music is largely an entertainment. While this in itself has a healing effect on us, there is a new form of music that is more specific to emotional healing and can be experienced at a whole new level. It is a music that rebalances our vital systems naturally and its stress relieving effects are tangible and profound. This music makes the practice of meditation simple and effective. Children love this music, which is by far the most natural endorsement, and people of all ages have connected to its healing vibration as a way of developing a strong sense of their inner peace – a prerequisite to healthy sleep patterns.
Over thirty years ago I parted from entertainment music to work in this area of healing music. I have written and recorded many extended compositions that support healthy living and healthy sleeping. This music empowers its listener to take control of their health and wellbeing through the easy practice of meditation. Having the music playing around you in general is no different to eating healthy. Healthy listening is an important wellbeing consideration – if you’re not doing it, then its time to start – and that’s worth sleeping on!
May your inner peace be conscious.
Sleep well,
Jeffree
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