#20 Sleep - The Most Powerful Indicator of Your Health and Vitality with Dr Vignesh Devraj

Welcome to Ayurvedic Healing & Beyond Podcast. It's your host Dr. Rukh Nish Devraj. The purpose of Ayurveda is to live young and healthy as long as possible. I want to be healthy, it's the best decision you can do for your loved ones, family, friends, your colleagues and above all yourself. No matter what state of health you are currently having, remember you always have a choice to get healthier. My mission is to guide you become your healthiest version in order to live your best life ever. Remember, your health is your greatest asset. Today, we are going to have a short wisdom on the importance of sleep in our health. According to Ayurveda, in Chareka Samhita, one of the most revered scriptures on Ayurveda, there is a subject called as the Three Pillars for Fantastic Longevity & Whiteality. According these Three Pillars, the first pillar is called as Nidra. The word Nidra can be understood as deep relaxation or sleep. And it is said that, one third of our life, we spend on sleep. And if we compromise on sleep, our life is compromised. Usually, we are told that sleep is something not for someone who is productive. Sleep is something, not for someone who is hardworking. Sleep is something for the lazy person. But we have to re-analyze this whole idea. Because when you live in a world where productivity is appreciated, peak performance is appreciated, hustling is appreciated. And we always associate all of this with hard work and lack of sleep and becoming a night all. But in Ayurveda, so many diseases, especially the lifestyle diseases that you see today, is a real cause with lack of sleep or keeping ourselves awake at midnight. And in Ayurveda, Nisha Jagarna or staying awake at night is considered to be one of the biggest cause for increase of Vatadosha. Which means, our anxiety can go up, our ability to focus is reduced, our memory is compromised. And not only that, many research has shown, sleep deprivation is the number one cause of road accidents. And it is also the number one cause for being less productive. And it can increase your medical expenses, increase your number of sick leaves, and definitely lot of property and environmental damages. And also do you know that when people are not having enough sleep, their metabolism becomes inefficient, a people who are having inefficient sleep or deprived sleep tend to eat more unhealthy. Now imagine you are not having a good sleep, you wake up very tired and immediately you need a energy boost. So you look for a heavy coffee. And afterwards you need something with too much of sugar, so you get some good energy. And then you look for instant gratification that will give you an energy pump. And by night you feel you are not able to sleep well because your body is so caffeinated and your body is full of toxic stuff. And again you look for something to numb, so sometimes people resort to alcohol. Now imagine doing this for one day it's fine. But if this becomes a week, then months, then years. And after few years then you realize suddenly you are overweight, you are having neck pain, back pain, and you are having high blood pressure, you are diabetic. And then the doctor gives you lot of chemical pills and say you have to live with it. Remember all of this started because our sleep was compromised. What happens when we sleep? Sleep is the body's way of resetting our whole nervous system. And it clears all the plagues from our brain. And a person who is having a deep sleep has a better long term memory. And lack of sleep is associated with the beginning of dementia or even Alzheimer's. So never compromise on your sleep. If you are compromising on your sleep, you are compromising on your health. If you compromise on your health, you are compromising your whole life. And also the people who are depending on yourself. Now how to take this in our daily life? Today we are all told that all we need is just 6 to 8 hours of sleep. But what we are not understanding is the time we go to sleep and the time we wake up is very important, not just the number of sleep that we have. For example, imagine you are staying awake the whole night. When you go to sleep at 4 o'clock in the morning or let's say 6 o'clock in the morning, even if you sleep for 10 hours straight, there is a high possibility we are going to get up tired. Why? Because our sleep is not at its best after the sunrise. Our sleep is best after the sunset. Because as human beings, we evolved around 200,000 years ago. And we were designed and we still are in a process where we have to go to sleep after the sunset. But after Edison invented the bulb and after the industrial revolution happened, we all are programmed. We have to work 3 shifts. We have to work like a computer. We have to work like a robot. But this comes with a huge expense. No matter what money you have, no matter what fame you have, no matter what power you have, if you don't have health, it is all good for nothing. And the first step that deteriorates your health is when we start compromising sleep for a longer period. So make it a point, going to bed after the sunset, at least 3 to 4 hours after the sunset, which means the sunset in a tropical climate like India is at around 615 to 645. Whether you are listening to this from a northern hemisphere, if the sunset is 10 o'clock, depending on the season, now let us keep the time. I go to sleep between 9 o'clock and 10 o'clock. And I have 8 hours of sleep and I get up by 5 o'clock and 6 o'clock. According to Ayurveda, the most powerful habit of a healthy person is someone who wakes up fresh in the early morning hours. And it is called as Brahme Mohurte Uthi state, which means a person who gets up at the auspicious time, which is called as Brahme Mohurte. The word Brahme Mohurte means a time when we can tap into our most creative self. This is just before the sunrise and which we can correlate it to the current times between 4.30 and 6 o'clock. If you can get up every single day in this point of time in the morning, when you are fresh and when you have also digested the previous night's food, you are setting up yourself for a victory for the rest of the day. When you win the morning, you win the day. Make it a point to go to sleep early at night and you wake up early in the morning. This is one of the best gifts you can do to yourself. And not just for your health, for your metabolism and also for your productivity and people who wake up early in the morning and who are waking up fresh in the morning are more known to be happier, healthier and they are less prone to get depressed or having anxious thoughts. Because when you get up early, your thoughts are fresh, you become more creative. And your metabolism at its best. Now make it a point. If I want to make health as my number one priority, because if you don't make health as your number one priority sooner or later, everything in nature will force you to make it because your life depends on your health. And if you want to make health as your priority, make sleep as your number one priority. Make it as a non-negotiable thing. No matter what happens, I make sleep as my priority because I value myself, I respect myself. If you are interested in knowing more about the habits to become your healthiest version according to Ayurveda, I am holding an online workshop this coming Sunday, which is the 21st of June. The events of this program, I have attached it on the show notes of this podcast. Thank you for listening. If you like this podcast, subscribe it and review it and please share it with your friends.