Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Do you know? Most times these pithy sayings are really true. It was indeed a great act by our ancestors. They analyzed and understood the life and recorded these observations in the form of proverbs. If we understand and use them properly, they can be like nectar for our life.
Ayurveda refers to three pillars for healthy life - they are food, sleep and non - celibacy (celibacy according to some acharyas). These three pillars are essential in maintaining the state of health.
We know that waking up early give us a lot of benefits as discussed before. In order to wake up early, one must have proper and timely sleep. Sleep is very essential for the life. It is indeed part of normal physiology to provide rest and relaxation to our body, mind and senses. They get tired and exhausted due to the course of daily activities. Unless we have proper sleep, we can do nothing for the next day as it helps in restoring our energy level.
Charaka says
When the mind – including sensory and motor organs is exhausted and they dissociate themselves from there respective objects – then the individual goes to sleep’ (ch.sa.su.21/34)
Sleep is both boon and bane for life. It gives happiness and depression, nourishment and mal nutrition, strength and weakness, fertility and sterility, intelligence and ignorance, long life and death. Therefore, one must follow proper and timely sleep. (a.hr.su.7)
According to Ayurveda, sleep is classified into four types. They are untimed sleep, excess sleep, sleeplessness and normal sleep. First three are said to be bane for the life. Now days, we all are habituated for staying awake in late nights. This generates heat in the body and leads to dryness. Pitham and vatham gets disturbed. This leads to musculoskeletal disorders, skin problems, and digestive problems like hyperacidity, hypertension and finally sleeplessness. On the other hand sleeping for more than the required time and day sleep will increase the kapham in our body. This leads to obesity, indigestion, headache, skin problems etc. For every rule, remember there is an exception- sleeping during the daytime is advised during the grishma ritu (summer season) inorder to balance the kapha , it is also allowed for kids, aged people and emaciated patients. Staying awake at the night as a rule is usually discouraged, but in case of treating snake bite and other poisons the patient must stay awake according to ayurveda. Also when the ingested food is not digested one must not go for sleep.
There is a biological clock within our selves, listen to the ticking and respond to it, undoubtedly we can lead a healthy life.
-Dr.Manasa Suneel krishnan