Your Soul Also Needs Sleep!

Sleeping disorders are at an all-time high in this day and age. Not getting enough sleep is related to many health factors including, weight gain, heart disease, lethargy, headaches, memory loss and irritability. It also creates a dependency on caffeine, sugar and other stimulants.

Most people need seven to nine hours of sleep per night. Few people are actually getting that. Many are tossing and turning and not having quality sleep or enough REM (rapid eye movement sleep) time. I believe this time is when our soul leaves our body and spends time reconnecting to the spiritual realm. To me, this human respite and spiritual connection is just as important as the health effects quality sleep has on the body. We need time to dream and resolve our problems and conflicts. Even my dogs dream as they twitch and growl, finally getting to catch that pesky squirrel that keeps eluding them during their waking hours. Resolution!

Based on the Kundalini yoga and spiritual science philosophy I teach, there are changes that happen in the brain that create sleeping disorders. Yes, too much caffeine, too much radiation, and too much drama and television can create sleep disorders. But more often than not, it is our breathing patterns, that disturb our sleep.

Yes, our breathing affects our sleep. How? The right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body. Both are considered the yin, feminine, subconscious, intuitive, spiritual and creative side. The left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body. Both are considered the yang, masculine, active, analytical, methodical sides.

Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world ~ Heraclitus

During the day, we breath primarily through the right nostril, stimulating the left side of the brain. This being the energetic “thinking” side. At night we breath primarily through the left nostril, stimulating the right side of the brain. This is the subconscious, spiritual side.

When you wake up in the middle of the night, try a breathing test. Plug up each nostril and see which one is pulling in more air. If it’s the right nostril, you are probably thinking about all of the things you need to do the next day, all of the conversations you had that day at work, shopping lists, and much more.

To switch to the side that helps with deep sleep and relaxation, lie on your right side (opening up and taking pressure off of the left nostril). Plug up the right nostril with you finger and breath only from the left nostril.

No, my soul is not asleep. It is awake, wide awake. It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches, its eyes wide open far-off things, and listens at the shores of the great silence ~ Antonio Machado

This is not a quick fix. Most people find it takes 30 or more minutes to force the brain to switch to left nostril breathing. In time the brain switches much faster. Many of my yoga students report that with regular practice the brain switches within minutes.

We need our spiritual time at night. Time when the soul leaves the restrictions of the human body and can have its time to fly. When you are in the beginning stages of sleep and you feel a falling, jolting feeling, that means your soul was beginning its flight, but the body was not yet relaxed enough to let it go. Take care of yourself and your soul. Get enough sleep and fly!