The importance of a good night’s sleep

On World Sleep Day, experts come together to recognize sleep and its importance for our physical and mental wellbeing

Hyderabad, March 2021: Shri Ram Chandra Mission (Heartfulness Institute) organized a wellbeing webinar, “A Capsule of Energy – Yoga Practices and Sleep”, on World Sleep Day today as part of the YOGA for Unity and Well-being program by Heartfulness Institute being held in the run-up to the International Day of Yoga 21 June 2021.

The yoga for unity and well-being initiative aims to unite people across the world by practicing yoga and meditation for 100 days for a healthier and happier life.

The guest speakers included Luke Coutinho, Holistic Lifestyle Coach and author, Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine, and Dr. Jay Thimmapuram, Internal Medicine Physician, WellSpan York Hospital, New York. The webinar was moderated by Dr. Snehal Deshpande, Life coach, Entrepreneur and Developmental Therapist.

Luke Coutinho stressed the importance of sleep as a medicine and how it affects a person’s wellbeing. “Sleep is everything People may say nutrition is the most important, but it isn’t as important as sleep. If you wake up sleep-deprived, you wake up craving carbs, sugar, or caffeine. So, you cannot ignore nutrition. We need to make sure that the food we eat has the essential nutrients. To sleep well we have to eat well. I want to encourage people to be more mindful because our bodies tend to tell us what exactly they want to have. And that’s how we build on our self-care plans and what works for us, by reflecting on it.”

Dr. Thimmapuram concurred, adding that good sleep acts as a foundation for our wellness and well-being. “Poor sleep increases our susceptibility to stress and anxiety and emotional states such as anger or frustration. Our ability to cope up with the environment goes down,” he said.

Referring to a study of behavior and sleep using Heartfulness Meditation, Dr. Thimmapuram said: “Both are very well connected. We conducted a study using Heartfulness Meditation for four weeks and found out that when the sleep improved the loneliness also improved. The practice of heartfulness meditation leads to many benefits. The brain starts to slow down and gets cleaned up. This is the reason why after a long meditative session we feel absolutely refreshed and relaxed.

“Meditation produces a deeper and more relaxed state of sleep and when you wake up in the morning you’re refreshed and better equipped to go through the ups and downs of your life,” he added.

Heartfulness Institute is uniting the leading traditional yoga schools and bringing their practices onto a single platform for the benefit of humanity. The entire series is free-of-cost for participants. 75+ Yoga practice sessions from different lineages, 30+ weekly lectures by Yoga experts, and weekend masterclasses with Daaji will be conducted, starting from 15th March for the next 100 days on the Heartfulness YouTube channel and social media platforms. Participants can register on https://heartfulness.org/en/yoga4unity/ for free access to all the sessions.

The event is supported by The Ministry of Ayush, the UN Information Center- UNIC – India & Bhutan, Yoga for Harmony and Peace, and the Association of Indian Universities.