Chronicle Books - Deep Sleep: 50 Natural Sleep-Inducing Techniques

In this fast-paced world, we are often expected to focus our attention on many different tasks at once. Juggling the pressures of our work and home lives means that we have limited time to catch up on our rest. Furthermore, increasingly long days at work mean that we often end up out-of-synch with our natural body clock, perhaps snatching a late supper after working well into the night. Night owls may be forced to behave as larks, and larks to behave as owls. It is not surprising, given the demands placed on our time, that sleep quality suffers as a result.

Many of us experience anxiety and stress, and these too have adverse effects on our sleep. We may find it difficult to wind down after a stressful day, and consequently lie awake for an hour or more, reviewing a list of unresolved problems.

Deep Sleep provides the perfect antidote to such modern ills. It offers ways to relax before bedtime, so that sleep comes naturally. We might go through a specially prepared pre-sleep ritual whose very predictability has a calming effect, or we might prefer to play a CD of ocean sounds, make a milky bedtime drink, take a warm bath with essential oils, or take part in a relaxing mutual massage with our partner. And if we still find ourselves tossing and turning during the night, there are various rescue techniques for bringing sleep our way.

Even if you feel that your sleep quality is perfectly acceptable already, it is worth trying some of the tips suggested in these pages. You may be surprised to discover that your slumbers can become even deeper and more refreshing.

We spend approximately one third of our lives asleep, which is more time than we spend with our friends and family, or even working. Why is this? Or, to put the question another way, what is sleeps biological function?

Sleep is a state of suspended awareness. Special mechanisms in the brain filter out the flow of information through our senses. At the same time, brain signals immobilize many of the bodys main muscles. Perhaps surprisingly, the purpose of the shutdown is not energy conservation: the amount of energy saved during eight hours of sleep is roughly equivalent to that of a glass of low-fat milk! It is more likely (though the science of the subject is still far from certain) that sleep provides the body with an opportunity to repair wear and tear, and the brain with a quiet period for reorganizing its days worth of data.

What we can be sure of is that evolution would not bother to have made us sleep if it did not greatly benefit our health and wellbeing. And we all know how irritable we can feel when were deprived of sleep, or when the quality of our sleep is for some reason diminished. We know by experience that a good nights sleep leaves us feeling fresher and more energetic the next morning.