The Importance of Rest
By Bonnie Pariser
I spent years asking ayurvedic practitioners, acupuncturists and western doctors why I was always so tired. It was so obvious, I missed it: I wasn’t resting enough.
My mentor suggested that I go to sleep earlier — 10 p.m. at the latest, he said. “Impossible,” I said. Do it anyway, he said. So I did. He was right.
An early bed time has physiological benefits. Yoga’s sister science ayurveda teaches that our body goes into detox mode around 10 p.m. Getting to sleep before then helps this process work. Some people who stay up past 10 p.m. find that they are unable to fall asleep until the cycle ends, around 2 a.m. Don’t think that this is a kind of second wind. You’ll pay for it, the following day or over the course of years.
Yoga asana classes always end with 5-15 minutes of rest in a pose called savasana. Some claim this is their favorite pose. You get to lay on the floor and do nothing and it feels great. Savasana allows our bodies to digest all the benefits of the movements we just did, and our nervous systems have time to integrate the re-calibration that takes place during movement and mindful breathing. Some hatha yoga styles take a few moments of rest between every pose they do. And if someone falls asleep, it’s because they need it. Yoga Nidra (the sleep of the yogis) is a led deep relaxation practice that is done for between 20 minutes to an hour. One hour of yoga nidra can equal about 3 hours of regular sleep. This practice is key to unwinding deeply held stress.
Not only do harmful levels of stress decrease with rest, our immune system is bolstered as well. A client of mine recently laid in bed for 4 days after a particularly grueling few weeks of work and socializing, not because she was ill but because she was able to feel she "needed" it. She thinks this may be the first year she did not come down with a debilitating cold or flu.
Without adequate rest our brains falter. Stimulants like caffeine don’t get us clear enough to make heart-based decisions. Rather, we tend to do what we have done before — even if it’s clearly not working.
When my clients have tried the early-to-bed solution the results have been astounding. Those who suffered from insomnia, chronic lateness, frequent illness and angry spouses who resented their being up late found that getting to bed by 10:00 helped to alleviate these problems.
Once I regularly got to bed by 10 p.m., I had more energy, needed fewer breaks during the day and had better focus.
I also added a short rest break during the day. When I didn’t fall asleep as soon as I closed my eyes, and was able to stay alert throughout the afternoon, something that I have struggled with for years, I knew I was on to something.
Try it for yourself. For just two weeks try to get to bed at 10. Despite the loss of late night work hours, you’re likely to find that your productivity does not suffer. It might actually increase. And by the way, my mentor said a hot bath at 9:45 is time well spent.
