Try holding a black stone in your right hand. Maybe it’s a placebo thing, but I’ve tried it recently and it seems to work.
Hi Yoda,
Where did you get that one from. I never heard that before, holding a rock or stone can certainly ground you, but I have never heard of holding a black stone to help you sleep
I’ve had trouble sleeping for years, whether it’s getting to sleep, staying asleep, getting tired at the right times, my body clock is very confused and now due to shift work I am up at 5.30 some days and working till 21:30 others (sometimes a long day where I go from 5-21:30). I have used a combination of things to help, recently what seems to be working quite well is:
I use an Apollo Golite -Sadlamp in the morning (+early afternoon if I’m tired), I try not to eat after 7 and if I do I keep it very small, I take melatonin about 30mins before I want to get to sleep, get in bed and read some self inquiry stuff, at the moment Gangaji, the diamond in your pocket, I always find that helps me to let go/relax, then I usually get quite sleepy quite fast, I lie down, do some soft / light self inquiry and drift asleep.
I have a question for other AYPers here, do you think there is anything wrong with taking melatonin spiritually speaking? Do you think it would have a negative affect on practice / evolution?
Love and zzzs
As some pointed out many times:
Daily nadi sodhana aka alternate nostril breathing aka anulom vilom will solve the problem and even blissfully.
The reason why sleep does not happen is: the energies in the body don’t enter the central channel –> physical senses continue and the inner can’t absorb your grossly awareness –> no sleep.
ANB slows the energyflow in the body, opens the entrance to the centralchannel and makes the transition very easy. Sure, the main reason for ANB is not to get sleepy =P But it is a healthy sideffect that sleep problems go for good.
The reason why the energies in he body don’t enter the central channel have to be observed in daytime too. Not enough physical movement and too much mental activity, stress and resistance to how daily life happens will sonner or later create imbalances and then you’re stuck on the surface.
The second working method is: watch your thoughts and remain the watcher consciously. Let happen what happens. This too will blissfully relax the energetic flow.
Over some days both methods should give a longer lasting relief than only a one-timer.
Beyond all these remedies and cures, yeah… the movie goes on the way it goes… so doing or not doing, solving or letting is part of the play too… love is waiting beyond both to be discovered. Twice daily practices ftw =)
One thing I mentioned to a few at the retreat, that helped some they said, was, when you try to fall asleep, check where your inner gaze is? If you are looking straight ahead, slightly move your eyes into sambhavi and bring your attention inward, toward the 3rd eye. This helps me fall asleep.
I don’t have any problems falling asleep, but for a while I could not fall asleep, and would do a Silva’s visualizing technique to fall asleep (talked about in part above). But this got me into the habit of pulling my inner gaze toward the 3rd eye, and now, even though I don’t do the visualizing anymore, my attention automatically go to the 3rd eye area when I go to sleep.
The following techniques have worked very well with my students with sleep problems. You should give a try too
Try Left-Nostril Breath for 5 minutes before sleeping. Breath in for 3-4 sec from left nostril and breath out from right for 6-8 sec. This is a powerful way to shift from our sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response) to our parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). The wonderful and surprising thing about our bodies is that we can trick them into a parasympathetic state. Simply by recreating some of the actions that occur during that state, our body will start to shift. Deep, slow breaths, which in turn cause our heart rate to decrease, which allow us to slow down and notice the tension in our body - and we are in a parasympathetic state of being.
Lie down in Savasana for 61 Points Relaxation
Begin to slow down your breathing – taking deeper inhales and longer exhales.
Become aware of your right thumb and mentally say ‘right thumb’ without moving. Bring your awareness to:
Right hand thumb, first finger, second finger, third finger, pinky finger, palm of the hand, back of the hand, wrist, lower arm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, armpit, waist, hip, thigh, knee, calf muscle ankle, heel, top of the foot, sole of the foot, right big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, fifth toe.
Now go to the left side. Become aware of the left hand thumb, first finger, second finger, third finger, pinky finger, palm of the hand, back of the hand, wrist, lower arm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, armpit, waist, hip, thigh, knee, calf muscle ankle, heel, top of the foot, sole of the foot, left big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, fifth toe.
Next move to the back of the body. Back of the head, back of the neck, right shoulder blade, left shoulder blade, right buttock, left buttock, right heel, left heel.
Now the front of the body. Top of the head, forehead, right temple, left temple, right ear, left ear, right eyebrow, left eyebrow, middle of the eyebrows, right eye, left eye, right nostril, left nostril, whole nose, right cheek, left cheek, upper lip, lower lip, both lips together, chin, neck ,right collarbone, left collarbone, right side of the chest ,left side of the chest, middle of the chest, navel, upper abdomen, lower abdomen, right leg, left leg, right arm, left arm, the whole of the head. The whole body, the whole body, the whole body.
Become aware of the body lying on the floor. Bring your awareness to the points of contact between your body and the floor. Both heels are on the floor and there is a point where they touch the floor. Now, from the top of the body. The head and the floor, the back and floor, the right hand and the floor, the left hand and the floor, the right elbow and the floor, the left elbow and the floor, the buttocks and the floor, the hamstrings and the floor, the heels and the floor. Imagine the meeting points of the body and the floor, the whole body and the floor. The body is on the floor. Become aware of the whole body, the whole body, the whole body.
By the time you might be already sleeping.
Sweet Dreams!
Purity
Hi Alvin & all,
I made a related post in another thread:
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8463#73111
Sweet dreams, everybody 
I have had some very bad insomnia, so I really do understand.
I was used to sleeping in until around 11am, considering…
But I got somebody to pull me out of bed every morning at 7am sharp, and no naps!
Not a nice feeling! 
But eventually your body clock moves ‘backwards’ so to speak.
Eating well and eating healthy really does help also.
I have already posted on this thread but thought I would add. I have reoccurring insomnia, at the moment pretty bad, can’t sleep till sunrise most nights, unless I take medication. But the medication causes drowsiness next day and I feel a slight dulling affect on my meditation.
I just did a search to re-investigate sleep hygiene etc and came across this http://www.meditationsuk.com/ . Meditation Machines!!! Crazy! Obviously I am not looking at using it for replacing AYP practice, which has improved my life/being in general in multiple ways, but thought if it can help with sleep it would be a nice alternative to medication, which I am not keen on. Additionally, some of them have interesting additions e.g. helping psychic abilities, OBEs etc (I think that’s pretty cool)!!! (Also most of them purport to help reduce anxiety, help learning etc)
From what I can tell they use binaural beats, or binaural beats and other similar frequency stuff, and light patterns. I am familiar with binaural beats, but apart from Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs’s dream machine, I have never heard of lights being used for altering mood etc???
Has anyone used one of these, anyone got any advice about getting one? I am going to do some more research myself VIA scientific journals and RCTs but just wondering if there is any trustworthy advice here, as, as I said, one of these would be a nice alternative to meds, as I have tried pretty much all of the methods mentioned here/to me thus far, with no success.
Love and Gratitude. x
I am generally a good sleeper but have problems when I am faced with an issue in my life that I can’t stop thinking about. I prefer the way of non-drugs, like physical exercise during the day, taking a hot bath, and reading a book in bed to help me relax. But when that doesn’t work and I find myself really obsessing, the drug Seroquel (prescription necessary) in very small doses (ie., 12 mg) does the trick for me. Regular meditation has over time helped me to obsess less though and to keep the things I used to obsess about more in perspective.
Hi 11jono11,
There is a set of CDs called 'HEMI-SYNC", that you can buy. It has 5 CDs that can be used for relaxing you deeply and promoting sleep. These also help you get into altered states of consciousness and trance states, as a prelude to Out-of-body-exits (Astral Travel), and they really work !
Krish
11jono11 and anita
as you said regular meditation helps…
also try Yoga Nidra (yoga of sleep)…this particular kind of yoga works deeply on the subconscious mind…please note that during the yoga nidra pracitice itself one should NOT fall asleep,one should remain aware and awake…later on (like meditation) the benefits will appear…
Swami Satyananda Sarswati has a very good book on YN…check it on amazon