General

Long since sleep science agrees: when sleep is getting every elementarily and above all naturally preconditions and neither gets disturbed by noise, light, electromagnetic pollution or in the early morning by a rattling alarm clock, under this circumstances the sleep is the most valuable one.

Living and sleeping against the internal clock or against nature’s clock (sleeping at night) or constructing a sleep debt by a chronical lack of sleep disturb our well-being and are a hazard to our health of body and soul.

Any violation against the natural laws of sleep and any artificial intervention in the sleeping process, no matter whether it is happening by an alarm clock or by chemical sleeping pills, leads to an impairment of well-being, vitality and performance, our creativity and stress resistance. Especially people, who just let go their individual need of sleep are able to take full benefit from their potential of body, mind and soul and especially of their creativity.

Permanent problems to fall asleep or sleep disturbances, chronical lack of sleep and non-recreational sleep are wearing down our life-energy. From this perspective Dr. Piotr Wozniak’s (biologist) “free running sleep” is not only gaining more and more supporters but is getting more and more therapeutically applied. Especially when having stress-symptoms, exhaustion and burn-out it is one of the most valuable and reasonable therapy-support at all. Days off, vacations, long weekends offer the ideal opportunity to do so. Living and sleeping against the circadian and natural rhythm is demanding a high price – sleep disturbances, tiredness, high blood pressure, metabolic disorder, chronical infections and diseases and so on. Furthermore, it is demonstrably having a negative effect on our mood, intellectual capacity and our raise of awareness. Just the random regulation of the own sleep is leading to sleep disturbances in the end!

The healthy, Bioenergetic® Sleep needs the nature-given rhythm of day and night – during the day we should be wide awake and during the night get a sufficient amount of deep- and REM-sleep. Exactly these things get optimally supported by the sleep-healthy-concept (SAMINA). The core is built by the “sleep-healthy-trio” bed/sleeping system – sleeping place – bedroom. Exactly like a top athlete needs a corresponding equipment for good performances, we need a nature-like sleep-healthy-concept for the best possible sleep. This is not only supporting a good falling asleep and sleep through but is also leading to an optimally sleep efficiency. That means, ideally we sleep save and sound during the time we spend in bed.

Statically and in reference to health and life expectancy, the optimal sleep duration is between seven and eight hours. A small group of people needs more or less than these seven to eight hours of sleep. Everything under six hours is injurious to health in any way and is having a negative effect on the quality of the day. If someone knows, that he has to less sleep during the working days, he should go to bed earlier now and then and sleep late during weekends – have “free running sleep”, so to say.

Since on the one hand, the interplay of awareness and sleepiness is a constant and yet complex process of sleep-debt and on the other hand a permanent stimulation from the surroundings is happening it is difficult to evaluate the personal sleep tendency. The degree of falling-asleep-probability is therefore depending on two counteracting forces: on our “actual sleep-dept” minus our momentarily level of attention or awareness. It is constantly possible to get excited or stressed from external stimulations up to a level that one is not even aware of a huge sleep debt!

It is not possible, to reduce a huge sleep debt in one night. Let’s say, you slept too less on two consecutive nights – you won’t (be able to) sleep for 14 or 16 hours the following night. In case you want to reduce your sleep debt, you better go to bed earlier than you are used to. Otherwise, you would change your normal waking-up time and this usually would make it much more difficult to fall asleep the following night at the time you are used to. Out of this reason, it is much wiser to pay back your sleep debt during the week by repeatedly going to bed earlier. So, you are able to maintain your normal waking-up time. And this is very important for a steady sleep-wake-rhythm.

It is possible to reduce cumulated sleep debt with power napping at lunch time or early afternoon. At all costs, you should avoid power napping in the late afternoon because this would change your circadian rhythm and this in turn would make getting up in the morning to a real struggle.

Avoid new sleeping debts in future
After figuring out your personal sleeping needs and having paid back your sleeping debt hour by hour, you should permanently install and consider these findings and experiences into your sleep-wake-life. Besides the use of the sleep-healthy-concept and the compliance to the sleep-healthy rules, a steady sleep-wake-rhythm and especially the consideration of your biological necessary sleep duration should become to one of your most important rituals for the rest of your life. In future, avoid new sleeping debts resp. balance them as soon as possible!

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“What we are is the result of our past thoughts.”

Just when you want to fall asleep, negative and destructive thoughts are arising. Sometimes it is obsessive and we have the feeling that we are not able to do something against it – and sleep is “unthinkable”. In this situation, it would be desirable to be able to turn off the thinking process – just like a computer.

To control negative thoughts is a very important and health-supporting mental skill – especially before falling asleep. But, it is also very helpful during daytime. Without any stressful programs, attitudes and thoughts we are able to come to a decision in our job or sports easier and more precise, too. Especially in top-class sports it is proved in studies, that an athlete is only able to bring peak performances when he or she is free from negative thoughts. Only then high and positive energy is available.

Now back to sleep: when you’re having some experience, the feeling of inner peace will get more and more intense and falling asleep will happen by your tiredness and your letting go almost by itself. Exactly this will work with an easy technique, and with some experience you will quickly know how to handle it: learn to neutrally observe your thoughts. In this way, your thoughts lose control over you. This is the beginning of the end of involuntary and obsessive negative thinking. Let your thoughts come and go, just don’t evaluate them – neither mentally nor emotionally.

The technique described below is initially coming out of the Zen-Buddhism and is also part of the Indian Yoga-meditation-system. It will also help you to “clean” yourself from destructive and negative thoughts. What is special about this method is, that you were thinking something and in addition to that you have been watching your thoughts, the “thinker itself” at the same time. When you practice this exercise during the daytime regularly, you will fall asleep in the evening unburdened. By using this simple technique a movement towards more consciousness is developing. This will help you, to experience your life and therewith your sleep more consciously.

EXERCISE – Observe your thoughts:

•    Keep your eyes closed and pay attention to your thoughts.
•    Watch your resp. listen to the voice in your head.
•    What are you thinking about?
•    As soon as you catch your thoughts neutrally watch them or their topic.
•    You don’t evaluate, you don’t dwell on the thoughts, you just observe.
•    Let your thoughts pass by like clouds in the sky.
•    It is helpful to shortly hold on to an arising emotion in mind and once repeat it there – again, without any evaluation.

Duration of the exercise: about three minutes, then increase it up to fifteen minutes.

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All living organisms – and consequently also the human being – are swinging in the rhythm of inner and outer time bases. The climate, the seasons, the sun and the moon as well as the particular time of the day have an influence on our body. One of the most important time base for us is the change from light-day-alertness-stress to darkness-night-sleep-recreation.

The outer time bases are mostly of electromagnetic quality that are coupling into our bio-electricity, like the natural magnetic field of the earth, for example. Meanwhile, this is scientifically approved as “biological regulative factor” and is essential for all biological systems. Just like the (sun-) light, that is nothing else than electromagnetic oscillation in visible range. It is assumed that electromagnetic impulses in the invisible range are playing an important role for our inner clock, since it was observed that the inner clock of blind people is largely working synchronous to the one of all other people. In the sixties a surprising finding was made: blind people, who got glass eyes instead their seemingly  useless eyes, lost their usual daily rhythm. They kept their normal change of phases of sleep and alertness to a large extent, but altogether, their day got mostly a bit longer than 24 hours.

A variety of psychological and physiological indicators is changing rhythmically. Well known examples are pulse and breathing, the change of body temperature or the blood pressure during the 24 hours of a day or the 28-days-menstruation-cycle of a woman. Some rhythms are only applying to some organs or apparatus. The outcome of this is the so called “organ clock” of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), that shows the rhythmic activity-cycles of the single organs in a time pattern.

With healthy people, the different rhythms are in line with each other and have a harmonious interaction – just like the musicians of an orchestra. The body temperature, for example, rises considerably at the end of the nightly sleeping phase until shortly before waking up. That gives a feeling of alertness in the early morning. On the other hand, in the evening the body temperature is diminishing and by that is preparing the organism for sleep. That is why we are not able to sleep well and recreative in a room where the temperature is too high. Also, most people experience a decline of the body temperature between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.. That explains the fact, why tiredness and along with that a decline in output is often occurring in the afternoon. Also, the risk of accidents is rising in this period of time statistically verifiable.

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