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Yoga therapy for insomnia

It is quite possible that the Indian teaching of locking out all unwanted thoughts contains important hints for all those people who suffer from insomnia. There are as many methods to overcome sleeplessness as there are causes for it. Among older people and those confined to bed who suffer from it, one reason is very often a lack of activity. While their mind longs for rest, their body is not tired enough and wants to be active, perhaps only to relieve a disturbance of circulation. In such cases a quarter of an hour of deep abdominal breathing will often bring about the necessary degree of tiredness and thus the much desired sleep.

Another frequent cause of insomnia is the heavy demand made on the digestive system through overeating. According to Indian texts this causes pressure on the solar plexus. While we in the West seek relief mainly through bought remedies, the Eastern people rely on abdominal breathing. Hence the advice of Yoga experts to decrease the pressure on the solar plexus by at least 15 minutes of energetic abdominal breathing. The strong massage of the abdomen lessens and shifts the pressure. As breathing relieves the pressure, sleep becomes possible.

Breathing in relaxation has yet another beneficial effect, namely the detoxication of the body. Easterners are convinced that not only exhaustion but also excitement leads to an accumulation of toxic substances in the body. Indeed the tiredness of the exhausted has much in common with the symptoms of poisoning. The Japanese think that rage, for instance, is caused by a toxic substance in the body which they call ‘rage substance’. They believe that it is responsible for a person’s outburst of anger and that it can only be eliminated by breathing. Too much of this ‘rage substance’ can decide the result of a fight in a duel with sword or bow, and it is a very ancient tactic in the East to insult one’s opponent before the fight in order to make him lose his self-control. For if he gets excited his hand will shake.

The Indian view goes even beyond that. They maintain that every emotional excitement such as fear, jealousy or shame produces an accumulation of toxic matter in the body which has the purpose of deepening the breath and of preparing the body for the fight. Western medical opinion will probably agree that Adrenalin, produced by the Adrenal glands (the Adrenal glands are attached to the top of both kidneys), is a crisis hormone. It is ejected into the blood stream at moments of danger and causes a constriction of the vessels and an immediate alarm situation in the whole body. Hence the pale look of a shocked person and his short, jerky breathing. A fair dosage of this crisis hormone will also prevent sleep, as do coffee and other stimulants.