Sleep Like a Baby!

Insomnia is most often thought of as both a sign and a symptom that can accompany several sleep, medical and psychiatric disorders. It is characterized by persistent difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep or sleep of poor quality. Insomnia is typically followed by functional impairment while awake. One way of defining insomnia is “difficulties initiating and/or maintaining sleep, or non-restorative sleep, associated with impairments of daytime functioning or marked distress for more than one month.” The disease can be classified as primary and secondary (co-morbid) insomnia. Primary insomnia is a sleep disorder not attributable to a medical, psychiatric or environmental cause. A complete diagnosis will provide a clear difference between insomnia as secondary to another condition, primary insomnia co-morbid with one or more conditions and free standing primary insomnia. Sleep studies using polysomnography have suggested that people who have sleep disruption have elevated night time levels of circulating cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. MUDRA

• Lie on the ground, face downwards
• Put your hands on the ground with your palms facing the ground
• Place your chest on your hands
• Make sure your nose touches the ground
• Raise your thighs one foot above the ground, making sure your legs are straight.
• Keep the legs up for 11 seconds and gently lower your legs to the ground
• Repeat this 11 times

2. UDDIYANA BANDHA

• Lie on the ground. Keep your face downwards with your palms facing the ground
• Place your chest on your palms
• Make sure your nose touches the ground
• Keep your legs straight on the ground
• Pull the abdominal muscles inward and upwards so that the organs of the abdomen touch the muscles of the back
• Hold this pose for as long as you can (at least 21 counts)
• Relax the abdomen and chin and then exhale through the nostrils
• Repeat this 21 times

3. STEPS (1) AND (2) COMBINED

• Lie on the ground. Keep your face downwards with your palms facing the ground
• Place your chest on your palms
• Make sure your nose touches the ground
• Keep your legs straight on the ground
• Pull the abdominal muscles inward and upwards, so that the organs of the abdomen touch the back muscles
• Raise your thighs one foot above the ground, making sure your legs are straight.
• Keep your feet together
• Hold as long as you can
• When you cannot hold anymore, relax the abdomen and legs and then exhale through the nostrils
• Repeat this 21 times

Source: Original Article
Written by Nithyananda Times in Nithya Yoga & Nithya Kriyas