We all know the importance of sleep, as without it we don’t seem to function as well in our daily lives. Sleep is considered one of the main pillars of health along with exercise and a healthy diet.
Your circadian rhythm is your internal biological clock that interacts with a variety of bodily processes over a 24-hour period. In Chinese Medicine theory this is known as the horary clock and each of the Zang Fu organs have a 2 hour period that their energy it at its highest and or lowest, which can be used to diagnosis an imbalance in the body.
Science states that we can die from sleep deprivation, just as easily as we can without food. There are countless studies by researchers trying to understand what happens in the body and brain when one disconnects from external stimuli while sleeping and/or floating. This was of great interest to Dr. Lily, who developed the first sensory deprivation tank, also known as R.E.S.T (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique). Dr Justin Feinstein has now adopted the phrase, Sensory Enhancement, as he believes it more clearly explains the scenario.
Improving your sleep, can and does, have a cascading effect on the rest of your system, from our mood to our metabolism.
Our body needs downtime to repair itself, to remove waste from the cells throughout all your organs, and most notably the brain. Sleep re-energises all the organ systems and repairs any areas of damage such as inflammation, often felt as pain.
Although we may think of sleeping as not doing anything, there are many processes occurring. At various stages, the brain uses more oxygen and glucose than when awake. Blood pressure rises, breathing becomes rapid – most of what happens internally in the body, we take for granted.
Some of this can be seen in trials with people in float tanks. The resultant significant improvement is one of the reasons why more people are using floatation therapy to reset their body clock. This is especially beneficial to shift workers or those who do a lot of travelling through time zones.
Each of us need different amounts of sleep; a new born baby sleeps between 14-17 hrs, teenagers who are still growing and going through great hormonal changes require more sleep.
Research recommends at least 9.5 hours -the average adult needs about 8 hours.
It is sometimes difficult to make yourself fall asleep, much the same as not being able to speed up the digestion of food, but we can create good sleep habits to help.
Floatation therapy for the many people who struggle to fall sleep easily or wake between 11pm -2am, find floating in the evening before bed really helps change this poor sleep pattern, and they wake feeling clear headed as well, which is a bonus.
(Me- I’m just happy with a dream pod.) I can step away from all the science and just go for the experience. The testimonials from all the people that come through Water Temple that tell us how good they feel and how much better their quality of sleep is.
