Lisa Sanfilippo - Sleep Recovery: The Five Step Yoga Solution To Restore Your Rest

GREEN TREE

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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This electronic edition published in 2020 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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First published in Great Britain 2020

Copyright Lisa Sanfilippo, 2020

All illustrations by Masha Pimas, except those by David Gardner

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Contents

I NTRODUCTION TO SLEEP RECOVERY

Waking up happy starts now

WE ALL KNOW A MAGICAL UNICORN SLEEPER: lucky people who can do whatever they want, put their bodies in bed at any hour, close their eyes, and wake up eight hours later with no problem, feeling totally refreshed. Im not one of those people. I have to take care with what I do all day for my sleep to stay in tune. And even if you were once such a magical beast with easy, carefree sleep, Im guessing this isnt the case for you right now so what we will do together in this book is uncover simple things you can do for yourself, any time, anywhere, to ensure you get the good-quality sleep you need so you wake up refreshed, with plenty of energy for the day ahead. Youll never have to worry about your sleep again.

For many years now, Ive been holding workshops that gather people together to sort out whats going on, and to help them find lasting sleep solutions. If you were there, Id ask you to raise your hand when I get to the problem(s) you recognise:

Are you struggling to fall asleep, even though youre exhausted?

Are you waking up in the middle of the night with your mind or your heart racing?

Are you waking up after only a few hours sleep and feeling like the day drags on in a fog?

Do you seem to sleep forever and still not feel rested?

Are you here because you want to help your partner, your child, or a friend whos having trouble sleeping?

By raising your hand and looking around, youd see how many other people in the room share your problem with sleep. Then Id tell you that I too had most of those problems, and wish Id known that I wasnt alone. Ive had nearly every kind of sleepless night and all manner of insomnia, but Ive learned to repair my sleep and manage my energy all day and because of this, I know I can help you find your way through it.

Insomnia and me

As a long-suffering insomniac, I bought every lotion and potion, tried every technique, tool and prop, every herbal remedy, aromatherapy, and pillow spray: you name it, I tried it. These all failed to get to the root of the problem. What I came to understand is that sleeplessness is a symptom of something else in our lives that has gone out of balance.

During a bout of devastating night-after-night insomnia in my mid-twenties, I visited my doctor in desperation. She checked me over and found nothing wrong with my breathing, my thyroid or my hormones: there was nothing physically wrong with me that would cause insomnia. She then gave me a great gift by refusing to prescribe sleeping pills; since I was so young, she worried that shed be encouraging a lifetime of dependency. This was a good call on her part: I had to find a non-drug way to get to sleep and stay asleep. She suggested that I start doing yoga, and work with a counsellor or therapist. What she could see but didnt articulate in so many words was that my sleep problems had multiple roots, in my body and mind: my psychology, my nervous system, my emotions and maybe something deeper still.

I decided that if I didnt do something about my sleeplessness and the chaos it caused me, Id be in for a life sentence. Out of desperation, and because I really wasnt willing to tolerate a lifetime of crippling exhaustion, I took her advice and in the process became a yoga therapist and psychotherapist myself.

How I learned to just relax

Back when I was at my lowest ebb, if youd told me to just relax Id probably have wanted to shout at you: I AM TRYING TO RELAX! If I could, I really would have, but I genuinely didnt know how. Life involved perpetual low-level tension, some part of which would never budge. Times that were supposed to be fun (senior prom, graduation day, birthdays, vacations, at the hairdresser, even in a massage) were not: on edge the whole time, the knot in my stomach was a constant. The sense of tightness and its companion, anxiety, got worse when Id try to sleep. Id get into bed, slowing down for the first time all day, and notice the buzzing in my legs, shoulders bunched up to my ears, brow permanently furrowed even my feet felt tight.

My first yoga class came free with my membership to a gym occupying a converted bank in Brooklyn. The basement cardio studio, free weights occasionally crashing into the floor overhead, was yogafied with foil-wrapped tea lights around the perimeter of the room. As the grey-haired yoga teacher, clad in floaty linen, offered each