T H E A RT O F S L E E P I N G AT W I L L

T H R O U G H M I N D F U L N E S S

By

Pawan Mishra

Topics

Why can’t we sleep when we want to?

Enemies of your sleep

1-2-3-4-SLEEP Techniques

WE N EED TO TAL K ABO UT S L EEP• 33% American adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis.• 83.6 million sleepy people are driving on roads, walking on streets and generally yawning

through their days.• 4.7% reported falling asleep while driving at least once in the preceding month.• 27% people have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep most nights.• Americans spent an estimated $41 billion on sleep aids and remedies in 2015.• Humans sleep 20% less than they did 100 years ago.• The economic cost of insufficient sleep is close to 2% of GDP ($ 400+ billion for America)

S L E E P R O U T I N E O F S U C C E S S F U L P E O P L E

W H Y I S S L E E P I N G I N C R E D I B LY I M P O R T A N T ?T H E W A S H I N G M A C H I N E A N A L O G Y

• Let’s imagine a running washing machine. • Let’s imagine the dirty clothes in the machine and how the liquid detergent is getting the

dirt out of clothes and draining it to the waste outlet. • Now imagine brain surrounded by a large pool of cleaning fluid called CSF (cerebrospinal

fluid). • Imagine CSF pulling the wastes from inside the brain and draining it into the blood, which

routes it to the waste outlets.• Our brain uses about 25% of body’s nutrients and oxygen to fuel the brain cells that in

turn produce waste as a byproduct. One of the main elements in this waste is Amyloid-beta—it’s a protein that’s produced by brain cells at all times.

OU R BRA IN & SL EEP• Amyloid-Beta is one of the most harmful elements in the waste brain cells create.• The sleeping brain clears Amyloid-Beta much faster than waking brain.• Thus sleeping enough is foundational to brain’s overall waste clearing solution. • Inadequate sleep causes this harmful waste to remain in the brain for a longer period of

time.• Fact: Amyloid-beta not clearing from the brain is considered to be a key contributor to

Alzheimer’s disease.

EN EMIES OF YOU R SL EEPYour own brain

Anxiety of the unknown

Anxiety of the known

T H E T RA D I T I O N A L TA C T I C S M AY N O T B E A S E F F E C T I V E

• Avoiding working till late• Making your bedroom darker• Not thinking about work• Not doing screen time before bed• Avoiding caffeine too late• Avoiding consuming alcohol• Avoiding eating junk• Avoid sleeping during afternoon• Doing regular physical exercise

SLE E P HA S EVOLV E D OV E R YE A RS .

THE T EC HN IQ UES TO M A KE US SLE E P NE E D TO M ATCH UP TO TH AT

E VO LUT I ON

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - SL EEP F I RS T TE C H N I QU E - F OC U S ON YOU R BR EAT H IN G

Mindfulness: Brain’s natural state is “doing”. When you hit the bed, you need to bring your brain to “being” mode.• Step 1: As you try to sleep, recognize that the thoughts swimming through your mind neither

represent the truth nor they predict the future. Imagine your thoughts to be interfering signals to your true state of being.

• Step 2: Turn your mind into an observer of these thoughts so that you’re not attaching an emotional value to any of these thoughts—you are just looking at them and letting them pass.

• Step 3: Focus on your breathing—feel it coming in and going out. If your mind wanders, don’t bother and go to the step 2 again—that is, become and observer again.

• Step 4: Put 1-2-3 in a loop until you can’t any longer - because you are asleep.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - SL EEP S EC ON D T EC H N I QU E - BODY S C A N R EL A XAT I ON

Mindfulness: Brain’s natural state is “doing”. When you hit the bed, you need to bring your brain to “being” mode.• Step 1: Give your mind a task to scan your body—to travel from its current position to every part of

your body.• Step 2: Observe and notice how it feels as it stops at each part of your body. Take note of any areas

of tensions in your body.• Step 3: Try to see which part of your body the most tense? Focus intently on this one area of tension

and imagine that the muscles here are trying to let go of their hold, thus becoming loose, and becoming more relaxed. Your limbs would start to feel heavy and ready to sink comfortably into your mattress.

• Step 4: Put 1-2-3 in a loop until you can’t any longer—because you are asleep.

ABO U T T HE AU T H OR

Pawan Mishra is an award-winning author, leader in the technology and finance industries.

He completed his education at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He spent the first eighteen years of his life in the small town of Aligarh in India and discovered his love of storytelling, reading, and writing during this time.

In his award-winning novel, Coinman, Pawan Mishra plays to those who have ever felt stymied by the bureaucratic process of office life, successfully and mercilessly capturing the inertia and ennui that is inherit in most corporate cultures.

Pawan lives in Morrisville, North Carolina, with his wife, Ritu, and two daughters, Mitali and Myra.

Pawan can be contacted at:

www.pawanmishra.com

pawanmishrablogs.wordpress.com

TH E H EA LT H D I SCL A I M ER & REF ERENCES• Disclaimer: Mindfulness Exercises enable you to develop awareness of stress in your body-mind. These mindfulness practices are

intended for leisure and education purposes. These practices are not intended to diagnose or treat disease. As with any health issues, consult your physician prior to practicing Mindfulness Exercises. The information contained here is for general information purposes only. It is not affiliated with any health agencies or intended to offer medical or health related advice and must never be used as such. The content is not a substitute for qualified medical advice. The author accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any injury, loss or damage in any shape or form incurred in part or in whole as a direct or indirect result of any use or reliance upon the information and material provided here. Do not use any of our material while driving or in any situation where it is not safe to relax and fall asleep.

• References: All the numbers quoted in the article above and all the images used are from publicly available on the websites below.  Even though the numbers are from reputed research agencies mentioned in below links, and are only used to support the article, the author is not responsible of their full accuracy. No copyrighted material is used in this article and if you are reading it and think otherwise, please reach out to the author through a comment and the author would be very happy to remove the part in question.

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