I am unable to sleep at night.. Too anxious.. Any suggestions?

Take a ripe banana, cut the ends. Put the whole banana with skin in a pan with two cups of water. Boil till the water reduces to one cup. Remove the banana, strain the water and drink before sleeping.

Continue for 30 days, if sleep doesn't improve, please comment your experience.

Hi  if you are upset, angry, and anxious about any situation at work or home here are a few things you could try:

Write down whatever you are feeling and tear that off.

Do candle gazing regularly.

Atleast 60 – 30 minutes before sleeping keep all gadgets off.  Retire to a room, switch some aroma oils on.

When you cannot sleep at night, and feel frustrated, do not get up and switch on the light. Infact you may get out of your bed, go to another quiet place and try mediation or focusing on your breath.  Do have the trust and faith that this is only a phase and you will get back to your natural rhythm.

Go Zumba dancing, running, yoga or swimming. The hormones you release will help you sleep better.

Hi… There are two aspects which have worked in my case to improve my sleep.  I have always had very dreamy sleep. And over some years, with long working hours and too much refined foods in my system this only kept becoming worse.  There were nights where I will get up and not feel I have slept at all. Do know that lack of or improper restorative sleep is one of the most common problems of our times.

Here are a few things which happened in last 3-4 years, which have helped me improve my sleep. I did an overhaul of my lifestyle, both on food and exercise front.

I moved to whole plant based foods.  Eliminated processed, packaged and refined foods completely.  Introduced the concept of fresh, raw, seasonal, local. Introduced fruits, vegetables, nuts, sprouts significantly into my daily intake.  One of the other key things I did, was reduce cooked foods and moved to fruits only breakfast in morning and 2 cooked meals a day. All my cooked meals were with ample doses of salads.  If one has to intake higher raw, to provide the right material to the body you cannot do it if you are stuffing yourself with 3 cooked meals. Then there is just no space to eat the real foods, which is what the body needed to repair and heal.

Another key change was eliminating dairy.  For me this impacted my health very positively.  Earlier I could easily have like 2-3 glasses of milk a day. Presently, its very rare I take dairy. I do eat curd or paneer once in a while, but not for nutrition only for taste.

 Once this happened, I had more energy to exercise. So Yoga, walking, swimming became regular part of my routine. As I exercised more, and established a daily rhythm my sleep quality improved.  I feel less anxious, more stable emotionally. For me, daily gratitude meditation or sun salutation have also worked in helping this challenge

Hi … Pls note that lack of sleep is associated with multiple reasons such as anxious thoughts and emotions during day time, too many medications, wrong foods, lack of a consistent routine, lack of exposure to daylight etc.  Mostly when we deviate from nature and natural living, our sleep is often the first to be impacted. Many times it needs a review of your daily day actions to see what is causing the poor sleep.

Here are a few things you must evaluate:

Sleep & daylight exposure:  We are creatures of nature. And sleep is one of the most natural acts.  But we need a good dose of sunlight and daylight exposure to be able to sleep better.  The artificial lights in today’s urban life (from laptops/ TV/ phones/ in malls & offices) on the other hand have this very significant impact of disturbing our internal sleep cycle.

If facing sleep issues, pls relook at how exposed you are to natural light and artificial light. Create a routine where you are getting up at consistent time and going out in nature – make this a regular routine. Even if you have had a bad night make sure you are greeting the sun,.  It is only natural Sunlight which helps our pineal gland to function naturally and most optimally – this gland has a direct correlation to melatonin and our sleep cycle.

Sleep & food intake: Are you taking enough raw, fresh, natural foods in form of fruits and vegetables.  This may sound oversimplified, but difficult to digest food groups such as grains, non veg and milk, consume a lot of our energy.  Processed and packaged foods or foods made in refined oil, maida (such as breads ) and refined sugars also do the same. The body is tired of constantly doing the clean up and elimination of toxicity created through these foods.  You need to have a good look at what you're eating, and at what time to know if this is impacting your sleep. A simple golden rule to simplify your food intake is moving to whole plant based foods consistently over a period of time.  

Sleep & thoughts: Are you stressing over a situation at work or home? Are you upset with someone and cannot get over a grudge.  Are you feeling emotionally well. If not it’s time to look at breathing, meditation and your emotional wellbeing.

Its hugely frustrating to be not able to sleep, especially when you are tired and really want a good restful snooze.

If you want to improve your sleep quality, you have to examine your day activities to understand what is keeping you too buzzed.

Here are a few tips to help you unwind before you sleep --

· Deactivate from tech gadgets such as the phone and TV at least an hour before you hit bedtime.  When tossing and turning in bed, you will be tempted to go back to your phone and find your answers, that is not so great strategy as it will ‘wake up’ the brain further.

· Sleep in pitch dark. Put in dim lamps in your rooms & even bathrooms, so that if you waking up in between at night, you don’t have to go back to buzzed state.

· Start winding down a few hours before you hit bed. Dim the lights at home, have a restful meal with family, put some nice aroma on, listen to soothing music. It sends a signal to brain that its sleep time – and body would secrete the right hormones to induce sleep.

· Dip your feet in hot water for at least 15 minutes (as hot as you can) – put some instrumental music on and relax. Massage hot oil of your choice on your feet.

· Preferably, no reading before sleeping esp. no news. As that may keep the brain in ‘switch on’ mode too.

· Doing Bhramari pranayama both in morning and night, candle gazing and saying Om also helps.

· Babbling like a child in loud voice and writing down all the gibberish that’s in your mind will also help.

· Don’t forget to take in the sun in the morning even if you have had a bad night. Sun is our main source of energy and can really set our body clock right.

· Deactivate during the day too …every 4 hours for 5-10 minutes. Stretch, breathe, take a quick walk.

Medicines will only provide symptomatic short term relief. Try and address the core.

And most importantly, be rest assured, this is body’s signal to take a corrective and supportive action. Through right measures you would get back into the rhythm. Afterall sleep is our most natural state... It will come back to you :)

 Try dimming the lights at 8 and eat light at night. Take deep breaths, focus on ur breath, bore ho ke u will doze off. Some time back I used to start babbling at night... My hubby wud think I've gone mad... Looking at his reaction I wud laugh lots and doze away happily!