sleep patterns?

[Guest guest]

i wonder if anyone has experienced changes in

sleeping patterns after starting a more serious ashtanga

practice? i'm waking up in the middle of the night where

that has never happened before. sometimes all night

doesnt seem too restful. is there something i should be

doing differently? <br><br>thanks and namaste

[Guest guest]

Maybe your practice schedule is throwing off your

circadian cycle somehow. I've read that for some people it

is very easy to accidentally stimulate an advance in

the sleep cycle. I would try switching the time of

day I practice, i.e. from morning to evening or vice

versa, depending on when you practice, and see what

happens.<br><br>For me Ashtanga practice has had the opposite effect

- I've been a chronic insomniac since childhood,

but the more regularly I practice (morning or

evening) the better I sleep.

[Guest guest]

Yoga has wired me at times.<br><br>Have you tried

taking magnesium? Someone once suggested Malic Magnesium

(by Ethical Nutrients).<br>It has smaller dosage of

magnesium but is better absorbed due to being combined with

malic acid.<br><br>And....it has the added benefit of

not only helping you to relax and sleep but also

helping the muscles to relax and not hurt after yoga

practice.<br><br>I see results within 1-3 days of taking it.

[Guest guest]

How much savasana are you taking? I find I need 5-20 minutes, or else I get a

little hyper and also have the same sort of sleep problems. <br> Just a thought.

[Guest guest]

I thought I would weigh in on the sleep pattern

disruption. I am in an instructor training course that lasts

for one year, taught by Robert Boustany and he told

us not long ago that we could expect to start waking

up at around 4:00 or 5:00 AM. <br>Reason: as our

energy level raises thru intense practice, we tend to

activate our Biorhythm cycle for the lungs, which cycles

at between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM. You wouldn't believe

how many people in the class nodded their heads and

seemed to say to themselves...so that's why I'm waking

up. If this is not the time frame you are referring

to, you might check out the chart to see what is

being affected. Hope this helps.

[Guest guest]

thank you. that is so good to hear. what you

describe is very close to what is happening. 2:30 or 3:00

is about the time i wake up, and it started right

after i got serious about the practice. if anything

else was mentioned about possible solutions i'd like

to hear about it. magnesium? longer savasana? sleep

less? i will do some research on Biorhythm cycles.

maybe get some books on the subject to read at 3 am. is

that why 4am is a common time to practice? thanks

again for the input.

[Guest guest]

When I started with second series my sleeping

patterns went pretty whack. Woke up in the middle of the

night with a a nerve twitching in my right arm, and

then next night was woken up by a nerve twitching in

my left arm. Often quite wired, and even (I admit)

imbibed beer or a glass of wine to help me get to

sleep.<br><br>The back bends, particularily of the 2nd series, seem

to have that effect.<br><br>In "Yoga International"

May 2001 issue there is an article entitled "How to

stay grounded" that discusses the 3 doshas (energies).

It states that of the three, vatta, or expansive,

moving energy, is associated with backbends. It then

dicusses poses associated with Kapha, or stable earth

energy, which might have the opposite effect of grounding

or calming you down. This ayurveda theory seems to

echo my personal experience so I believe it.

<br><br>Spend a bit more time in sivasana and forward bends.

You will pass through all the seemingly chaotic

nervous energy that arises when you activate your spine,

or at least learn to channel it better.<br><br>My

apologies in advance to Omboy, Shining skull, and

funkybadlady for taking this message board so off-topic from

its apparent current mission, ie personal

invective.<br><br>Cheers, <br>Dan McGuire

[Guest guest]

<< My apologies in advance to Omboy,

Shining Skull, and funkybadlady for taking this board so

off-topic from its apparent current mission, ie personal

invective. >><br><br>Omboy does not practise astanga

vinyasa yoga.

[Guest guest]

<<and even (I admit) imbibed beer<br> or a

glass of wine to help me get to sleep>><br><br>Jo

DD dude !<br>Did you imbibe "Bantam", "Bali Hai" or

was you drinking that imported beer ?<br>Respect +

Peace, Mrbrahmac.

[Guest guest]

first of all, if you are to refer to me by name,

please be good enough to do so in the context of the

topic of this club.<br><br>secondly, in the interest of

satya, please refrain from perpetuating the falsehood

that i am engaging in personal invective. i was

subject to bigoted attacks by a number of anonymous

screen names at this club, and have repeatedly asked the

persons (or person) responsible to stop. were you subject

to this vitriole i would do the same on your behalf.

i certainly wouldn't blame you for being the

subject of such aggressive ignorance. funny how my

friends of all colors and orientations don't seem to have

difficulty understanding what baiting is, or what a

pernicious phenomenon it is, and how it should be stopped at

every turn.<br><br>may your yoga practice bring you

liberation.

[Guest guest]

"as our energy level raises thru intense

practice, we tend to activate our Biorhythm cycle for the

lungs, which cycles at between 3:00 AM and 5:00

AM."<br><br>Hey panzer, thanks for this info. Would you mind

asking your teacher if he can recommend any good books

on the subject of biorhythms, especially relating to

the lungs as you mentioned? I'd really like to learn

more about this subject and would really appreciate

it. Thanks.

[Guest guest]

We have class this weekend, but Swenson is in

town and we will be doing a weekend workshop with him,

so I may not get an opportunity to ask many

questions. I can tell you where I got the meridian details

from. The book is called The Complete System of

Self-Healing by Dr. Stephen Chang. The cycles are:<br>1-3 am

Liver 1-3 pm Small Intestines<br>3-5 am Lung 3-5 pm

Bladder<br>5-7 am Large Intestines 5-7 pm Kidney<br>7-9 am

Stomach 7-9 pm HeartConstrictor<br>9-11am Spleen-Pancreas

9-11pm Triple Heater<br>11-1pm Heart 11-1 am

Gallbladder<br><br>The book goes into great detail about how to balance

the energy levels of the particular meridians

according to their time cycles. To answer your question

relating to what to do about the lung meridian activation,

Boustany said to get up and do breathing exercises,

described well in Swami Rama's book, Path of Fire and

Light. There are 18 books on his required reading list

for the training class, but I think these relate to

what you are interested in.<br><br>Hope this

helps.<br><br>Mark

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the info Mark. I'll check out Chang's

and Rama's books. In context of sleep it's

interesting to compare these cycles to the circadian rhythms

described in sleep medicine, especially the two periods of

the day in which the brain is automatically

stimulated into alertness. The first is in the morning

starting around 6:00 AM and peaking around 9:00 AM and the

second is in the afternoon starting around 4:00 PM and

peaking around 9:00 PM (on average in the people who

participated in the sleep lab studies anyway). It would be

interesting for a sleep lab to do a study on people who

practice ashtanga.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Vic