The secret of sound sleep

First thing first. There is no measure of sleep for anybody. It varies from person to person. For instance I may need a 6 hours sleep while you may need 9 hours sleep a day.

Secondly, the quality of sleep. Good quality sleep of 6 hours is enough. By standards, an adult needs 6-8 hours sleep in night.

Most of us today usually pass most of the time of our night in tossing and turning in bed. Everyone knows that this is because mind and/or body is not relaxed enough to fall asleep. This is all subconscious so you can not force yourself to fall asleep. 

The effort to find the cause for this restlessness will take us into the oceans of information on remedies, dietary treatments and tips for getting sound sleep. None seem to be working sometime.

Why Ayurveda or Yoga?

Ayurveda doesn't try to make you asleep for one night, like a sleeping pill does. Rather, it will find the root cause and remove it, rest will be done by the body system.  Root cause of every disease is imbalance of any of the three natural elements of body i.e. Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.
Insomnia is the imbalance of Vata.Medication is not recommended for insomnia as in most cases it is a result of unbalanced routine, heavy smoking and other demands of modern life. Still if insomnia lasts long, few home remedies should be considered:

• Celery(Ajmud) juice with little honey before going to bed. 
• Cumin seeds(Jeera) powder mixed with ripe banana can be eaten before going to bed.
• Well known Dhara therapy in ayurveda is capable to cure even chronic insomnia.

Small things that can help big

1. Maintain a routine of going to bed and rising early at the same time daily. This is sufficient in most of the insomnia cases. Nothing else is needed. First two/three days it will be difficult to rise early as you would have fallen asleep late. Still if you maintain rising and falling at same time daily, pleasant results can be surely expected.
2. Morning exercise (avoid evening) is the second most efficient way of having sound sleep in night. 
3. Have a difference of at least two hours between dinner and sleep.

Shakti Mudra:

Mudra can produce results instantly. The results that can be seen or felt. I wont write how to do it, the image below is showing  it. All you need to do is to focus on breathing and exhaling should be slower than inhaling.

Yoga 

Uttangasana, Sarvangasana and Halasana are good for people suffering form restlessness.  Several poses including these three can be done in succession to have a sound sleep in night. Watch this video:

 




Best wishes