It's good that you already have good consciousness on your status.
If I may suggest few things:
- try to have at least 2 (better 3) hours of no-eating before going to sleep. In the evening, try to avoid meat and spicy things as they are classified as very dynimizing and before sleep is not good.
- sleeping on the left side is, under an energetic perspective, the best solution, because it enhances right nostril to breath, helping energy circulating better during night.
- when in bed, instead of falling sleeping unconsciously, you can lay dowon on your back, make deep inhalation from the nose, breathing jsut from the belly and trying to keep the chest completely still. This is a type of breathing very relaxing
- sugar should be avoided in general as it's not good, and especially in the evening can create sovrastimulation and understimulation during the sleep that can lead to bad quality of the sleep (and therefore waking up earlier).
- if you can manage, try to sleep 4.5, 6, 7.5 hours, so a multiplier of 1.5h that is the REM phase duration.
Hope this helps. If you have any question, I am more than happy to help you and the community 🙏
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Thanks Mike! This is very helpful.
I normally read my book on my right side... and lay there for a moment after I closed my book, but then I rolled over to my left side and fell asleep straight away.
I did wake after 4 hours though, which was frustrating, and basically drifted in and out of sleep for the next 5 hours.... so I've woken up feeling very groggy and fatigued, and probably didn't hit REM properly.
I've decided that I won't eat after 6pm, and I go to bed at 10pm... so I'm getting a good 4 hours of no-eating before bed... so thanks for that advice, glad I'm on the right track.
I've never heard of the breathing with the belly while keeping the chest still... I'll have to try it out next time I struggle to sleep.
Thanks for all of this! Super appreciate it!
Indeed!
Also from an Ayurvedic perspective (which I recently started studying), the belly breathing is considered the "kapha dosha" breathing, that is the "most relaxed one" across Doshas (fundamental constitutive types). This also helps the diaphragm to move and get relaxed, helping energies moving more freely in the body.
Aside that all what you are doing is good. Take care of not "somatizing" eventual stress you have during the day, as that would become partially unconscious, and it would be a little bit harder to remove afterwards. In general, it will be great if you observe yourself how you react to different things in your life and that will create an awareness filters of what will really go into your subconscious.
Thank you for the appreciation. Very glad to support (and hopefully help)