Have you ever noticed that when you don’t sleep well you feel more stressed the next day? or feel like you have a shorter fuse? and what does this possibly have to do with fasting and yoga?! Allow me to introduce the idea of a sleep practice in your life.
Sleep has been getting a ton of attention the last few years. One of my favorite reads this last year was ” why we sleep” by Matthew Walker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MuIMqhT8DM). He provides substantial reason for us to build a sleep practice just as we would build any other practice in our lives. I not only concur with him, I believe that if you don’t have this practice, your fasting and yoga practice may suffer.
Due in large part to the endemic, I found myself slowing down my morning routine. Rather immediately, I was not getting up at 4:30am some days to get to the gym, so I could be home by 6am, get ready for work, get my daughter off to school and get to the office. I was able to sleep later in my morning and show up to work more easily because my office was now just down the hall. I started sleeping for 9-10+ hours. Yup, sounds ridiculous right?! I thought this was crazy but I gave myself permission to sleep as much as I needed to. Within about 4 weeks, I started to sleep closer to 9 hours, upon waking, I felt really rested. I mean, really fucking amazing kind of rested. Wow, is this what rested feels like? I had strived to get my “8” hours of rest most days but, as it turns out my body needed more than that.
Creating a sleep practice or regimen is likely even more important than fasting or yoga. Your body will revolt without adequate sleep, making it so difficult to fast and who wants to exercise when they feel exhausted? so then you’ll miss yoga or another form of exercise. When we don’t get enough sleep, our body cannot repair itself, months and years of this negative sleep pattern takes a toll. That extra 10 pounds you just can’t seem to lose? It might be linked to you not getting enough rest. You’re cortisol levels are continuously elevated, your body is inflamed because it hasn’t had enough time in repair more and Boom! you’re heavier than you want to be despite the calorie restriction, HIIT workouts etc.
Experiment with what you might need in terms of hours of sleep. Start with not forcing yourself up to an alarm. If you didn’t have to get up, how long would your body rest? Another super simple sleep hack for me was to sleep with an eye mask. You can go on Amazon and get a pure silk sleep for about $12 dollars. Using a sleep mask allows your brain to not be triggered by any light that may come in your bedroom, moonlight, cars driving by, anything. Any light disturbance, even if it doesn’t wake you, disrupts your brain during sleep. Some nights, I put my mask on, and just the pure darkness is so incredibly de stressing, I fall asleep in minutes.
I invite you to experiment with instituting a sleep practice. You will feel better and your fasting and yoga practice will be easier for you to maintain when you get the adequate sleep for you.
sweet dreams,
Alli