By Denise Everheart | Posted: May 21, 2020
With the opportunity to catch up on sleep while we stay at home, somehow many of us are not sleeping well, waking up tired and a bit bewildered by the strange dreams happening more and more frequently. Although it is easy to understand the sleeplessness given all the uncertainty in a pandemic world, the odd quality of our dreams is perplexing. Even Saturday Night Live recently covered this topic depicting a combination of strange imagery and hopes for the future as each cast member slumbered. But what does all this mean? And how do we cope in what seems like an endless surreal dream, even awake?
Five types of dreams
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the Art of Living, global humanitarian, and master of meditation, explains in this video a little about the 5 types of dreams we have. The first type of dream has to do with unfulfilled desires. It could be anything, even resisting that piece of cake today could later find its way into your personal dream space. The second type of dream has to do with past experiences, impressions in the mind and is probably the biggest contributing factor to this global phenomenon of vivid, unusual dreams. The third type of dream is one of intuition or premonition, you might awaken feeling you dreamt about the future or later something happens that you previously dreamt. The fourth type has to do with the place we are sleeping. This is especially evident when we sleep in a hotel or travel abroad. Sometimes we can even dream of speaking in the local language. the fifth and most common type of dream is a mix of all five types and is the reason why it is difficult to analyze dreams with great accuracy.
News diet
One obvious factor contributing to increasing sleeplessness and odd dreams is how much we tune into the endless news cycles. The daily news stories really don’t change that much from hour to hour. If you are someone who is constantly checking in with the news of the day, give yourself a break! Try setting a limit for how much news you watch in a day, especially right before bed. Watching significantly less news and taking more time for self-care will reduce these impressions and overall help you to get a better night’s sleep.
Yoga for sleep
Have you ever experienced restlessness when you tried to go to sleep? Tossing and turning, it’s the body that can sometimes keep us awake, not just the mind. Going for a nature walk in the late afternoon or early evening can go a long way to help, and so can doing some simple yoga postures.
Ayurvedic warm milk
Here’s my recipe to aid sleep using warm milk and Ayurvedic spices. Just warm your choice of milk or non-dairy milk; I love using unsweetened oat milk because it is naturally sweet and creamy. For every cup of warmed milk, add: a pinch each of ground ginger and ground nutmeg, ⅛ t ground cardamom, ¼ t cinnamon, and a teaspoon of ghee (clarified butter). Heat until steamy hot; don’t let it boil. Drink right before getting into bed! Kids love it too!
Bubble baths and sound baths
A warm bubble bath before bed can help to wash away tension and even quiet some of the noisy thoughts leftover from the day’s activities. But one of my favorite tools for a peaceful night’s sleep is to use a sound bath when I first get into bed. A sound bath uses particular sounds to soothe your mind, emotions, and even the environment. One of the most powerful sound baths uses the mantra Om Namah Shivaya. Om is an ancient primordial sound and can be found in other forms in many traditions: Amen, Amin, and Shalom all contain the sound Om. Na, Ma, Shi, Va, Ya, all correlate to the five elements- earth, water, fire, air, and space. Listening to or chanting these sounds aloud leads to a deeper restfulness for sleep, as well as meditation. Listen to this soothing guided Om Namah Shivaya chanting by Sri Sri.
Breathwork
As a lifelong meditator, and especially during this pandemic, the tools that help me cope the most are breathing techniques, like straw breath, alternate nostril breathing, Ujjayi breath, and SKY breathing meditation as taught through the Art of Living Foundation.
Body scan
The Art of Living Journey app has a wealth of guided meditations for managing stress, increasing calm, and decreasing anxiety. Download the app today and enjoy Deep Sleep: Release your tension by bringing your attention to the different pathways of the body. Listen right from bed and naturally drift asleep.
Improve your sleep with SKY Breath Meditation
Learn how SKY Breath Meditation improves the quality of your sleep when you attend a free introductory session, Beyond Breath.
In this current time of uncertainty, one thing is certain, Life is but a dream, make yours one worth living by looking within.
Want more tips? Read our meditation sleep guide.
Denise Everheart is a freelance writer, life-long meditator, SKY Breath Meditation instructor, party planner, veg chef, and recipe designer. Follow her @everheartstudio4meditation and @celeplateyourlife on Instagram.
