This spiritual practice focuses on the therapeutic power and spiritual energetics of a good night’s sleep. Although we’re eternal spiritual beings, in our human form we need sleep in order to keep functioning. Sleep helps us feel better and think more clearly, but its importance goes considerably beyond boosting our energy and banishing under-eye circles. It is a spiritual catalyst as well, if we honor it.
Physiologists report that sleep heals the body and clears the mind. While we differ in the amount of sleep we need to replenish our energy and revitalize our over-all being, most people should get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep each day.
Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep
A good night’s sleep improves the quality of life, rejuvenates us, curbs inflammation, contributes to improved memory and mental sharpness, fosters better decision-making and problem-solving, and releases healing energies to repair cell and tissue damage which naturally occurs during a normal day in skin school.
Problems from a Lack of Sleep
Physiologists tell us that chronic sleep insufficiency and sleep deprivation can lead to serious physical conditions. These include over-all lethargy and tiredness, heart disease, atherosclerosis, insulin resistance, muscle atrophy, diabetes, chronic inattention and irritability, anxiety, depression, a short-temper, constant stressfulness, and suppression of the immune system. As we’ve indicated above going without the proper amount of sleep can ruin our day.
The Dream World as a Spiritual Enrichment Tool
In addition to meeting our physiological, mental and emotional needs, sleep also contributes synergistically to our spiritual needs. For example, we can enter a dream state and receive guidance from the dream world and then ‘re-set’ our conscious awareness to accommodate the goodness of the dream content.
We can also use the content of both the hypnagogic (our state of consciousness during the onset of sleep) and the hypnopompic (our state of conscious during the onset of wakefulness) insperiences (You guessed it — we made that word up! It means what we experience during all our internal states of consciousness) as catalysts for our continuing soul unfoldment.
We’ve posted this blogcast as an invitation for you to become more attentive to the benefits of your sleeptime insperiences, especially as they relate to your continuing enlightenment.
Preparing for Sleep as a Spiritual Practice
In order to prepare yourself to sleep better – and thus dream better – you need to become more night-minded. That means when the evening hours set in you shift from your ‘day self’ to your ‘night self.’
For example, slip out of your day clothes into less constrictive clothing so you can feel the freedom that the more comfortable clothing offers. Honor nighttime by softening the light levels in your home as you get closer to sleeptime.
Physiologists have found that one of the problems with too much light is that it reduces the melatonin levels in your body. If darkness or subdued lighting never arrives or comes too late, your body’s natural sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin, doesn’t arrive either. And if it doesn’t arrive in a timely fashion you’ll find it more difficult to get a good night’s sleep.
So, in addition to reducing overhead and lamp lighting, we invite you to consider turning off your TV, iPads, Kindles and Nooks, smartphones and computers 45 minutes to an hour before bedtime.
Overconsumption of light and overconsumption of information fill your body with immense amounts of energetic clutter to process. When you add the cumulative effects of the day’s events into your cluttered electronic environment, your ‘insomnia quotient’ skyrockets.
We wish we could say that all it takes is a good mattress, the right pillow and a glass of wine to get a good night’s sleep. But just like there’s no short cut to enlightenment, there’s no quick fix to get the sleep you need. Lifestyle changes are a must to reap the rewards of a deep, spiritually synergistic sleep.
So, reduce the amount of light and information, polluted indoor air, processed foods, and highly dramatic TV shows and movies. Make sleep a priority. Cool the room temperature to 65 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Create an optimal sleeping environment. Purchase pillows with the right firmness.
Play soft music and enjoy a soothing warm shower before going to bed. Both are conducive to returning your body to a slower rhythm that invites sleep. Use a night clock that has soft-lighting as opposed to a bright digital light. Your bedroom should be made as dark as possible.
Once you’ve engineered the ‘perfect’ sleeptime environment, it’s time to maximize your synergistic spiritual sleep. Before you go to sleep take a few moments for some meditational breathing to relax. You may even want to say a few life-affirming affirmations out loud and use them as catalysts for setting your sleeptime intentions.
Use your restfulness as a preparation for easing yourself into peaceful intentions. Enter the Silence with gratitude and fill your consciousness with thoughts of oneness, unity, wholeness and harmony. Remind yourself that you are a spiritual being having a human experience. Re-affirm that you are the Eternal Presence expressing Itself in human form as you.
Recognize that you are consciously aligning your human self with your Divine Nature. Know that you are connected with ascended masters and spiritual teachers who have come before you. Confidently declare that you will receive the spiritual guidance you need as you sleep.
See sleep as a powerful mind, body and soul spiritual practice that connects you with the Field of Infinite Potential. Be aware that thoughtful, synergistic sleep turns the heuristics of external experiences into growing-edge insperiences that are transformational and soul deepening.
The cosmic dimensions of sleep lead to your ultimate awakening and illumination because sleeptime slows your outer physical senses down enough to allow you to connect with the inner you, your True Nature. The ‘cellular you’ and the ‘ethereal you’ have the opportunity to connect, unimpeded by the externally-oriented ego.
Always enter into your sleep state joyfully, peacefully and expectantly. As you sleep, you bypass the limitations of your sleepy egocentric nature and enter the realm of your ever-aware and constantly expanding Cosmic Nature. Essentially, your ‘sleeping’ becomes your awakening … as you walk the spiritual path on practical feet!
© 2016 Bil and Cher Holton, YourSpiritualPractice.com
Photo credits (used with permission):
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Global Center for Spiritual Practices 