We have already seen repeatedly that some verses in the ancient Ayurveda books state that our health is like a table standing on three legs, three pillars: Food, Rest and a Moral Life. Do you see how much importance is given to Rest? Do you get the meaning of “Rest” being considered as one of the three pillars of our health? Actually, it is important we notice here that the ancient scientists did not mention medicines and treatments as part of the three pillars. Indeed, for them, food, rest & a moral life are much more important than medicines and treatments. Therefore, they are the three pillars in the maintenance of a good health.
Everybody knows what the need of rest is. Working throughout the day we get tired, physically as well as mentally. There are stronger ways to get rid of the mental fatigue. The most important of them is meditation. But here we will discuss more about the physical “Rest”.
You may remember that tiredness means excess Vata. As we work we are spending our Kapha, our earth and water, so naturally Vata will increase. The more we work the higher Vata will be. And so we get tiredness as a sign of increased Vata. Surely you have noticed you are not tired when your day is just beginning, but you are tired at the end of the day. You have worked and tiredness gets installed in your body.
Of course, it may happen sometimes that you did not rest enough and you feel tired in the morning. But if you completed your rest, then you are fresh for the day. When you rest, the earth element increases in your body and the air element reduces. Remember when you are tired, just sit down and you will start feeling better, the balancing process has started. Stability is a quality of the earth. So when you give stability to your body, when you stop and rest, the earth element goes up, balancing the increased Vata. The more you balance Vata the fresher you will feel. And if you take a total, complete rest you are fully fresh.
Rest means you are just sitting, relaxing and also having a good sleep. During the day time, taking rest by sitting or just lying down may be sufficient[1], but at night you will need a good sound sleep. Actually this sleep along with the physical tiredness will also reduce your mental fatigue.
Now the next question is how much sleep one needs. And the standard answer is around six to eight hours, a very much generalised answer. Something like how much food one should eat? Or how much water one should drink? But now we know those answers are very individual. So the need will vary from person to person. Someone may need just 4 to 5 hours to complete his sleep, while someone else may need 8, 9 or even 10 hours to complete it. It will depend on so many factors.
For instance, how is your constitution? If you are a strong Kapha person, you will not get tired very quickly. In this case, the need of sleep is less. On the contrary, if you have a Vata constitution, you will be tired soon and may need a long rest.
Which kind of work do you perform? If you do a hard physical work you may need more rest than a person doing a desk job. What about the climate? Someone staying in a place with hot weather will need more rest than a person staying in a cold climate.
There are so many factors! How could everyone’s need of rest be the same? Even the need of the rest for the same person will vary. In a day a person did a lot of physical work, then he will need more rest. Another day, if he is enjoying a whole day of rest, so his need of rest will be less. Haven’t you experienced it? In a very hot day, you are tired soon, whereas on a pleasant cool day you feel much fresher; naturally your needs for rest will be different.
We are here again in front of the same old formula, listening to your own body. And let the body decide how much rest it wants. No one else can decide how much rest you need. You will decide yourself. And the criterion is that you must feel fresh in the morning. That means you have completed your quota of sleep. You have completely balanced the excess Vata. So you are fresh.
Another sign that you have fully completed your rest is that you will experience the release of gases from below. On one hand, every muscle in your body is relaxed, rested; and on the other, the earth is back to balance. This will help the Vata, the gases, to go out of the body. This usually happens early in the morning, once you have completed your rest.
Nowadays, every day is so different for all of us. Naturally the need of the rest also changes, some days it is more, some days less. Our duty is to fulfil that need. Ayurveda says your happiness or unhappiness, your strength or weakness, your longevity and your intelligence, your wisdom all depend upon rest. If you fulfil your rest you will be happy, strong, and will live longer. If you are fresh your mind works nicely, wisely.
Again, you can experience this. If you do not complete your sleep you are not happy, you feel weak, both physically and mentally. The whole day you are not at your best. Let us understand this phenomenon. When you do not take enough rest two Doshas will increase in your body, one is Vata and other is Pitta. You already understood why Vata. But how come Pitta also increases? See this example: You used your vehicle the whole day and in the evening you came home, parked it but did not off the engine, you left the engine on. Can you sense the scene next morning? Yes, the engine will be hot, it will not cool down.
Similarly if you do not rest properly, your body will not cool down and it will remain heated up. That means Pitta will be on the high. And if this happens often all the Vata and Pitta ailments will be after you.
Story #1: A young man working in an IT company came to me with a long list of complaints such as chronic tiredness, feeling sleepy throughout the day, body ache, yawning, constipation, gases, indigestion, skin & eyes dryness, acidity and so many others. All are Vata and Pitta complaints. When asked about his sleeping habits his answer was horrifying. For the last few months he was sleeping just 3 to 4 hours per night. He used to work on the computer every night with a cup of coffee.
His situation was bad. Had I asked him to sleep on the desk in front of me he would have done it immediately. I could see so much sleep in his eyes! I wrote a prescription for him that go home, go to bed and get up only after completing required sleep. It might take 24 hours or 36 hours. I did not gave a single medicine to him. Being a sincere patient he followed the instructions. He slept almost 24 hours and then called me saying that there was no complaint left. He was feeling totally fresh! He has pacified his Vata and Pitta.
Today we see so many patients playing with their sleep and suffering from so many ailments. If you are tired it means every system, every cell of your body is tired. How can you digest your food? How can you think rationally? How can your heart work efficiently? So let us have a good rest and enjoy the health benefits.
Story #2: A lady came to me with a list of Vata and Pitta complaints. When asked about her routine she explained that she wakes up early at 5 am and starts for her office at 6.30. She used to come back home at 5 pm. I thought she had such a nice routine, getting up early and retiring early. Now she will probably have an early dinner and will go to bed early. But I was wrong. After freshening herself she used to go for entertainment to the club almost every day. And she used to come back home at around midnight. So she was sleeping just for five hours. And this was her routine for many years!
While talking with her, I judged she was around 46-47 years old. But when asked her age it came out that she was 35-36 years old. Do you get me? She was looking almost 10 years older. Remember what we learnt about Vata. Excess of Vata causes wear and tear, oxidation. Recall the example of the mountain rocks. How the wind erodes them. In a same way Vata was making her older and older. In fact, her skin was coming up with the wrinkles at such an early age. And how is Vata getting imbalanced? How is Vata increasing so much? By so many years of incomplete rest!
Just check with people having long and healthy life. They must be fulfilling this pillar of health, Rest. I have seen some of my patients who do not compromise on exercise. Whenever they sleep they get up early in the morning and catch up their ground. Many would say such a very good habit. But some of them come to me with Vata and/or Pitta complaints. Sometimes they even have followed so many treatments. But all were unable to pacify them. How could it be possible? They are not fulfilling their need of rest. So be wise. On a day when your body is demanding rest, may be due to extra exertion the day before, or any other reason, just fulfil it. Rather than going for exercise, rest well. And experience the freshness of health, the freshness of balance.
An author has written a book with the title meaning, ‘Be lazy and be healthy’. He must have experienced people who are working, working and working, totally neglecting their rest and then suffering with all the above mentioned problems. In today’s ever highly demanding world, I have come across with many who actually want to rest; their tired body and mind are requesting for it to them, but they feel guilty to rest. They feel they are lazy. Some might feel that the world will stop working if they rest!
The best time to rest is at night. Going up early to bed and getting up early is ideal. Experience the freshness. You are going along with the rhythm of the nature. Compare this experience with that one when you go to sleep quite late at night and get up late, after completing your rest. Even though you have completed your sleep you won’t feel as fresh as in the previous situation.
If due to some unavoidable situation or due to your duty hours you cannot sleep at the proper time, complete your sleep before the next day’s lunch. The reason is if you have your food and go for a long sleep thereafter, you are inviting Kapha imbalances, excess of Kapha. And this may eventually lead to Kapha issues such as heaviness, obesity, cold, nausea, swellings, low hunger and others you already know.
Here we should also discuss about insomnia, those who want to sleep but they are not able to get it. Remember the actions of excess Vata and Pitta. If Vata increases you will not fall asleep, you will need longer time to fall asleep. Excess Vata means instability, so how will you get a peaceful sleep. It is like a piece of paper moving due to the wind, it has no stability. So what would you do? Place a paper-weight on it. So if you stabilize your Vata you will get a sound sleep.
One of the most common reason I have come across for insomnia is not pacifying the evening hunger. People eat very little at dinner, may be just some fruits and they are done. It is true that one should not have a heavy meal at dinner, as we are eating it in one of the Kapha periods of the day. So our digestion is not at its best. Nonetheless, that does not mean you should not fulfil your hunger. Remember that if we eat less than the hunger both Vata as well as Pitta will increase in the body. And both Vata and Pitta will disturb your sleep. Such persons get hungry in the middle of the night and then they are in trouble. So for such patients the answer is eating at dinner up to their hunger. Eat well and experience a good sleep.
We have already seen that another reason of increased Vata is too much exertion or exercise. When this happens the excess Vata will cause restlessness, aches in the body and you will not get a sound sleep. Perhaps you have experienced it, when you are dead tired you don’t get a good sleep.
As Vata creates difficulty in falling asleep, Pitta breaks your sleep in between. You may get a sleep but you will wake up often. This is due to the heat of Pitta. In a hot climate your sleep breaks. The heat will not allow a sound sleep. In the same way excess Pitta in your body will not allow you to have a sound sleep. And, besides many other reasons, not eating well and too much exertion will also increase Pitta.
Some of the remedies to get a good sleep are also good to pacify Vata and Pitta. Eating little heavy, fulfilling food like sweets, buffalo milk, having body or head oil massage, taking a bath, putting oil in the ears will be all the kind of balancing acts helping in this situation. Now it depends on which Dosha is more, Vata or Pitta? If the body is telling you Vata is the higher Dosha, do everything warm: drink warm milk, use sesame oil for the massages, and warm water for the bath. On the contrary, if Pitta is the higher Dosha, give priority to cold things: take cold milk, use coconut oil for massage and just lukewarm water for the bath. Use your wisdom, check your likings.
Of course, if you are resting the whole day, having a good long sleep in the afternoon, how are you going to get a good sleep at night? In this case, the answer will be some work or exercise.
Another very important reason for having insomnia, facing difficulties to sleep, is this mad monkey mind. If any worry, anger, fear, excitement are going on in the mind, you may not get a good sleep. The answer for this learn to meditate, learn to quieten down this mad mind.
So for a good healthy and long life complete your need of rest. Sometimes a patient is admitted in the hospital and gets better. Or has to be at home due to any illness and gets better. I think in these cases a very important role is played by a good rest.
Story #3: Just few days back I was treating a patient with long list of Vata and Pitta complaints. I tried everything under the sun to treat him. He was little better but was not totally satisfied. He was telling me again and again that his main complaint was burning all over his body, everywhere, and he also was not satisfied with his motions. I changed his food, gave him cooling medicines and laxatives, but he was not responding up to the mark. I started thinking perhaps he is going through any psychological issue.
One day morning he called me saying that he was feeling very good, the heat within the body had reduced and the body was feeling cool and he has good well-formed stools on that day. I was very happy, but the puzzle was not solved yet. What happened suddenly? He had learned Ayurveda with me. He explained me that he had a very good rest on that day. He got up at ten in the morning, while his normal timing was 7 am. He himself connected the cause and effect relationship. He was very happy to know the cause and the answer. He was not completing his required rest for years and he was suffering.
Though, I had explained him about the importance of rest during the counselling sessions, it was not enough. I would have rather instructed him that one day he had to try and sleep longer. Fortunately he got the answer. Sometimes, it is such a simple solution!
Certainly, we should also talk about the other side of the coin, the excess of rest. Naturally the outcome of this will be Kapha issues. Just remember when you get up after sleeping too much, you feel heaviness, heavy head, heavy body and heavy mind. No freshness at all. So be wise and take the appropriate amount of rest, your own rest. Keep in mind rest is the best medicine!
Dr.Nikhil Mehta,
Pune
Everybody knows what the need of rest is. Working throughout the day we get tired, physically as well as mentally. There are stronger ways to get rid of the mental fatigue. The most important of them is meditation. But here we will discuss more about the physical “Rest”.
You may remember that tiredness means excess Vata. As we work we are spending our Kapha, our earth and water, so naturally Vata will increase. The more we work the higher Vata will be. And so we get tiredness as a sign of increased Vata. Surely you have noticed you are not tired when your day is just beginning, but you are tired at the end of the day. You have worked and tiredness gets installed in your body.
Of course, it may happen sometimes that you did not rest enough and you feel tired in the morning. But if you completed your rest, then you are fresh for the day. When you rest, the earth element increases in your body and the air element reduces. Remember when you are tired, just sit down and you will start feeling better, the balancing process has started. Stability is a quality of the earth. So when you give stability to your body, when you stop and rest, the earth element goes up, balancing the increased Vata. The more you balance Vata the fresher you will feel. And if you take a total, complete rest you are fully fresh.
Rest means you are just sitting, relaxing and also having a good sleep. During the day time, taking rest by sitting or just lying down may be sufficient[1], but at night you will need a good sound sleep. Actually this sleep along with the physical tiredness will also reduce your mental fatigue.
Now the next question is how much sleep one needs. And the standard answer is around six to eight hours, a very much generalised answer. Something like how much food one should eat? Or how much water one should drink? But now we know those answers are very individual. So the need will vary from person to person. Someone may need just 4 to 5 hours to complete his sleep, while someone else may need 8, 9 or even 10 hours to complete it. It will depend on so many factors.
For instance, how is your constitution? If you are a strong Kapha person, you will not get tired very quickly. In this case, the need of sleep is less. On the contrary, if you have a Vata constitution, you will be tired soon and may need a long rest.
Which kind of work do you perform? If you do a hard physical work you may need more rest than a person doing a desk job. What about the climate? Someone staying in a place with hot weather will need more rest than a person staying in a cold climate.
There are so many factors! How could everyone’s need of rest be the same? Even the need of the rest for the same person will vary. In a day a person did a lot of physical work, then he will need more rest. Another day, if he is enjoying a whole day of rest, so his need of rest will be less. Haven’t you experienced it? In a very hot day, you are tired soon, whereas on a pleasant cool day you feel much fresher; naturally your needs for rest will be different.
We are here again in front of the same old formula, listening to your own body. And let the body decide how much rest it wants. No one else can decide how much rest you need. You will decide yourself. And the criterion is that you must feel fresh in the morning. That means you have completed your quota of sleep. You have completely balanced the excess Vata. So you are fresh.
Another sign that you have fully completed your rest is that you will experience the release of gases from below. On one hand, every muscle in your body is relaxed, rested; and on the other, the earth is back to balance. This will help the Vata, the gases, to go out of the body. This usually happens early in the morning, once you have completed your rest.
Nowadays, every day is so different for all of us. Naturally the need of the rest also changes, some days it is more, some days less. Our duty is to fulfil that need. Ayurveda says your happiness or unhappiness, your strength or weakness, your longevity and your intelligence, your wisdom all depend upon rest. If you fulfil your rest you will be happy, strong, and will live longer. If you are fresh your mind works nicely, wisely.
Again, you can experience this. If you do not complete your sleep you are not happy, you feel weak, both physically and mentally. The whole day you are not at your best. Let us understand this phenomenon. When you do not take enough rest two Doshas will increase in your body, one is Vata and other is Pitta. You already understood why Vata. But how come Pitta also increases? See this example: You used your vehicle the whole day and in the evening you came home, parked it but did not off the engine, you left the engine on. Can you sense the scene next morning? Yes, the engine will be hot, it will not cool down.
Similarly if you do not rest properly, your body will not cool down and it will remain heated up. That means Pitta will be on the high. And if this happens often all the Vata and Pitta ailments will be after you.
Story #1: A young man working in an IT company came to me with a long list of complaints such as chronic tiredness, feeling sleepy throughout the day, body ache, yawning, constipation, gases, indigestion, skin & eyes dryness, acidity and so many others. All are Vata and Pitta complaints. When asked about his sleeping habits his answer was horrifying. For the last few months he was sleeping just 3 to 4 hours per night. He used to work on the computer every night with a cup of coffee.
His situation was bad. Had I asked him to sleep on the desk in front of me he would have done it immediately. I could see so much sleep in his eyes! I wrote a prescription for him that go home, go to bed and get up only after completing required sleep. It might take 24 hours or 36 hours. I did not gave a single medicine to him. Being a sincere patient he followed the instructions. He slept almost 24 hours and then called me saying that there was no complaint left. He was feeling totally fresh! He has pacified his Vata and Pitta.
Today we see so many patients playing with their sleep and suffering from so many ailments. If you are tired it means every system, every cell of your body is tired. How can you digest your food? How can you think rationally? How can your heart work efficiently? So let us have a good rest and enjoy the health benefits.
Story #2: A lady came to me with a list of Vata and Pitta complaints. When asked about her routine she explained that she wakes up early at 5 am and starts for her office at 6.30. She used to come back home at 5 pm. I thought she had such a nice routine, getting up early and retiring early. Now she will probably have an early dinner and will go to bed early. But I was wrong. After freshening herself she used to go for entertainment to the club almost every day. And she used to come back home at around midnight. So she was sleeping just for five hours. And this was her routine for many years!
While talking with her, I judged she was around 46-47 years old. But when asked her age it came out that she was 35-36 years old. Do you get me? She was looking almost 10 years older. Remember what we learnt about Vata. Excess of Vata causes wear and tear, oxidation. Recall the example of the mountain rocks. How the wind erodes them. In a same way Vata was making her older and older. In fact, her skin was coming up with the wrinkles at such an early age. And how is Vata getting imbalanced? How is Vata increasing so much? By so many years of incomplete rest!
Just check with people having long and healthy life. They must be fulfilling this pillar of health, Rest. I have seen some of my patients who do not compromise on exercise. Whenever they sleep they get up early in the morning and catch up their ground. Many would say such a very good habit. But some of them come to me with Vata and/or Pitta complaints. Sometimes they even have followed so many treatments. But all were unable to pacify them. How could it be possible? They are not fulfilling their need of rest. So be wise. On a day when your body is demanding rest, may be due to extra exertion the day before, or any other reason, just fulfil it. Rather than going for exercise, rest well. And experience the freshness of health, the freshness of balance.
An author has written a book with the title meaning, ‘Be lazy and be healthy’. He must have experienced people who are working, working and working, totally neglecting their rest and then suffering with all the above mentioned problems. In today’s ever highly demanding world, I have come across with many who actually want to rest; their tired body and mind are requesting for it to them, but they feel guilty to rest. They feel they are lazy. Some might feel that the world will stop working if they rest!
The best time to rest is at night. Going up early to bed and getting up early is ideal. Experience the freshness. You are going along with the rhythm of the nature. Compare this experience with that one when you go to sleep quite late at night and get up late, after completing your rest. Even though you have completed your sleep you won’t feel as fresh as in the previous situation.
If due to some unavoidable situation or due to your duty hours you cannot sleep at the proper time, complete your sleep before the next day’s lunch. The reason is if you have your food and go for a long sleep thereafter, you are inviting Kapha imbalances, excess of Kapha. And this may eventually lead to Kapha issues such as heaviness, obesity, cold, nausea, swellings, low hunger and others you already know.
Here we should also discuss about insomnia, those who want to sleep but they are not able to get it. Remember the actions of excess Vata and Pitta. If Vata increases you will not fall asleep, you will need longer time to fall asleep. Excess Vata means instability, so how will you get a peaceful sleep. It is like a piece of paper moving due to the wind, it has no stability. So what would you do? Place a paper-weight on it. So if you stabilize your Vata you will get a sound sleep.
One of the most common reason I have come across for insomnia is not pacifying the evening hunger. People eat very little at dinner, may be just some fruits and they are done. It is true that one should not have a heavy meal at dinner, as we are eating it in one of the Kapha periods of the day. So our digestion is not at its best. Nonetheless, that does not mean you should not fulfil your hunger. Remember that if we eat less than the hunger both Vata as well as Pitta will increase in the body. And both Vata and Pitta will disturb your sleep. Such persons get hungry in the middle of the night and then they are in trouble. So for such patients the answer is eating at dinner up to their hunger. Eat well and experience a good sleep.
We have already seen that another reason of increased Vata is too much exertion or exercise. When this happens the excess Vata will cause restlessness, aches in the body and you will not get a sound sleep. Perhaps you have experienced it, when you are dead tired you don’t get a good sleep.
As Vata creates difficulty in falling asleep, Pitta breaks your sleep in between. You may get a sleep but you will wake up often. This is due to the heat of Pitta. In a hot climate your sleep breaks. The heat will not allow a sound sleep. In the same way excess Pitta in your body will not allow you to have a sound sleep. And, besides many other reasons, not eating well and too much exertion will also increase Pitta.
Some of the remedies to get a good sleep are also good to pacify Vata and Pitta. Eating little heavy, fulfilling food like sweets, buffalo milk, having body or head oil massage, taking a bath, putting oil in the ears will be all the kind of balancing acts helping in this situation. Now it depends on which Dosha is more, Vata or Pitta? If the body is telling you Vata is the higher Dosha, do everything warm: drink warm milk, use sesame oil for the massages, and warm water for the bath. On the contrary, if Pitta is the higher Dosha, give priority to cold things: take cold milk, use coconut oil for massage and just lukewarm water for the bath. Use your wisdom, check your likings.
Of course, if you are resting the whole day, having a good long sleep in the afternoon, how are you going to get a good sleep at night? In this case, the answer will be some work or exercise.
Another very important reason for having insomnia, facing difficulties to sleep, is this mad monkey mind. If any worry, anger, fear, excitement are going on in the mind, you may not get a good sleep. The answer for this learn to meditate, learn to quieten down this mad mind.
So for a good healthy and long life complete your need of rest. Sometimes a patient is admitted in the hospital and gets better. Or has to be at home due to any illness and gets better. I think in these cases a very important role is played by a good rest.
Story #3: Just few days back I was treating a patient with long list of Vata and Pitta complaints. I tried everything under the sun to treat him. He was little better but was not totally satisfied. He was telling me again and again that his main complaint was burning all over his body, everywhere, and he also was not satisfied with his motions. I changed his food, gave him cooling medicines and laxatives, but he was not responding up to the mark. I started thinking perhaps he is going through any psychological issue.
One day morning he called me saying that he was feeling very good, the heat within the body had reduced and the body was feeling cool and he has good well-formed stools on that day. I was very happy, but the puzzle was not solved yet. What happened suddenly? He had learned Ayurveda with me. He explained me that he had a very good rest on that day. He got up at ten in the morning, while his normal timing was 7 am. He himself connected the cause and effect relationship. He was very happy to know the cause and the answer. He was not completing his required rest for years and he was suffering.
Though, I had explained him about the importance of rest during the counselling sessions, it was not enough. I would have rather instructed him that one day he had to try and sleep longer. Fortunately he got the answer. Sometimes, it is such a simple solution!
Certainly, we should also talk about the other side of the coin, the excess of rest. Naturally the outcome of this will be Kapha issues. Just remember when you get up after sleeping too much, you feel heaviness, heavy head, heavy body and heavy mind. No freshness at all. So be wise and take the appropriate amount of rest, your own rest. Keep in mind rest is the best medicine!
Dr.Nikhil Mehta,
Pune
