Dixita Mehta
Imbibed with high values of spirituality since childhood, fuelled by passion for the science of psychology along with expertise and experience in mass education, Dixita Mehta is here to create something of substance for mental health issues. She has been a Co-founder to ‘My Zindagi Foundation’ (an organisation working towards mental healthcare for all) and Lighthouse (an organisation supporting active non-profit goals).
Her objective in this series “Give it a thought” remains to make mental health issues more understandable, interesting and scientific. To facilitate the process of converting psychological researches and theories into everyday life uses, both professionally and personally, to promote Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) and create an environment conducive to mental healthcare patients. To ‘actually’ know what our mind is all about. To shatter the myths and reveal the scientific knowledge of workings of our brain and mind.
This column will appear every Saturday..
(Part-2) – Do one favour for your brains, please Sleep well!
Laugh and the world will laugh with you, snore and you sleep alone. The basics of sleep is the same everywhere – close your eyes, go to sleep for as long as your body requires. This is the Mega slogan to keep in mind (approximately 5-6 hours of continuous sleep, depending upon age, illnesses, climate, environment, stress levels and alike other factors). Despite of this simple life formula, how many of us complain about sleep? Sheep counts, reading books, burning jasmin candles, using essential oil, tossing and turning on our beds and many other tricks hardly helps when we are in those days of reckless restlessness. And the irony is: during these restless nights we require the most sleep to heal the mind and body, all at once.
Some people sleep for 12 hours at a stretch, yet they feel tired, anxious and depressed after they wake up. The waking state after such prolonged sleep can be compared to zombie-like state, your body feels drained of energy, and the productivity level decreases (all these symptoms showcasing opposite of what sleep is meant to do). We all have experienced this, one time or another in our lives. The mantra here is, (sometimes) sleeping more is neglect-able. But if it continues for days at a stretch, it is a matter of concern. Sleeping more and yet feeling tired and drowsy is a complain of many young children and their parents. It not only hampers your current body growth, it has an adverse effect on long term psychological, neurological and biological workings.
The entire body-mind system goes in a whirlpool. The term given for excessive sleep disorder is hypersomnia (excessive sleepiness, with recurrent sleep within the same day, and prolonged sleep episode of 10 hours a day which has non-restorative property. The person feels difficulty being fully awake even after they wake up). One very essential note to be taken: one should never self-evaluate on any of the psychological disorders. Once in a while, sleeping for 12 hours at a stretch is what your body demands. There are many factors to take into consideration before marking yourself or others as hypersomnia patient. So self-evaluation of any psychological disorders or illnesses is not advisable. One thing is for sure. Sleep is, without any doubt, an essential part of evolutionary process. What we eat is what we become, but how we sleep is also how we become. Many complex problems that we think/feel exist can be solved by a good night’s sleep.
In the sleep world, there are only two common complains I hear: ‘I cannot sleep much’ (insomnia) or ‘I sleep a lot’ (hypersomnia). And both these complains are valid, and if stretched for even few days can affect your body. How will you access your sleep schedule? How will you find out if your body is getting the sleep it requires or not? The simple test is- the burnout you feel when we deny ourselves the required amount of sleep. This test is enough to let us know that something is not in the rhythm.
What will you do to avoid yourselves/your loved ones from dragging into mindless sleep patterns? There is no single pill that will help all. Everyone has different forms of making their own sleep patterns. Yet, there are certain scientifically proven general principles that can be marked as a good sleep.
- Less light in the room- light supresses the production of melatonin. Bright lights brings restless sleep. Even if you think you are sleeping for 6-7 hours with lights on, the subconscious levels the matter is different. The process of brain cleansing hampers. Minimum lights (low voltage bulbs which exuberates lesser lights is advisable). Knowing this science, some companies have also devised special bulbs that sync with our sleeping system.
- The blue light disaster- the mindless usage of electronics devise just before going to sleep is hampering our sleep beyond measures. As we discussed in the prior paragraph, light hampers oru sleep. But the blue light emited from the TVs, mobile phones, gadgets, e-readers, etc are beyond measure disastrous to our sleeping pattern. And at the sub conscious level it puts our thoughts and emotions into a circus of troubles. It is an active stimulus which will frustrate your body’s ability to go to sleep later and even if it sleeps, the stages of sleep will be confused and the neurological cleaning comes to a halt. According to a study conducted, more than 70% people sleep with their mobile phones right next to them, especially the youth. We should think of this blue-light emitted from the mobile phones and other gadgets as an anti-sleep drug. If that becomes a case, would you still g ahead and consume it?
More over its not just the screen that’s the problem, but also what on them. Emotional investment in the social media pages, intellectual investment in the work load or e-reading devices, and health investment by mere staying awake to pay heed to our over-anxious brain. And despite of this, we feel there is nothing wrong with using gadgets at night. I’m not suggesting to be anti-social, but the timing and usage of social media at night (especially) should be avoided.
- You want to sleep tight, then you should eat right.
When it comes to food and drinks, it’s more of what can be avoided than what we should eat. Cancel few food and drinks that have sugar and caffeine based contents prior to your sleep. A caffeine or sugar jolt in the evening can wake us up and even if you don’t ‘find it difficult to sleep’ the sleep you get after disturbed on the sub conscious level.
There are certain drinks and herbs that help us sleep. Warm milk is one of the magic portion for a good night’s sleep. It is associated psychologically to childhood memories. And those who are dairy-intolerant can switch to coconut, almond milk or even chamomile tea. Milk also provides us with calcium, magnesium, and vitamin B which are sleep regulators.
Avoid big meals right before sleep. Now again, some may argue that eating more makes us drowsy. Well, for some people big meals can lead to acid reflux. We have this major illusion that “just flip the switch” and we can sleep, eat, and do whatever we want. But the case is entirely different. Living life with this mind set disrupts our biological workings and our daily body rhythm is interrupted. Fatty food, spicy food, oily food right before we go to sleep at night are major issues what pile up and give us mental, emotional and physical disorders at later stage in or lives.
(to be continued)