“If you do fight against your country’s foes, cares keep you awake.” Shakespeare, King Richard lll.
Shakespeare was right, cares do keep you awake. Many insomniacs and troubled sleepers list red meat issues like health, relationships, jobs, taxes and finances as the cause behind not falling asleep, not staying asleep, waking up frequently throughout the night and generally tossing, turning, teeth grinding and greeting the morning tired and unrefreshed.
After Shakespeare, many scientists and researchers in our industrialised world have provided copious quantities of research proving that sleep deprivation affects our health ranging from poor quality concentration to fertility problems and heart disease. And if you are tired during the day, cannot concentrate on your job and your relationships are suffering, guess what? The cycle of poor sleep continues.
There comes a time in the life of any insomniac or poor sleeper when he or she becomes tired of trying and failing with all the established advice from well meaning Gurus. We have all stood waiting at the supermarket checkout and browsed those popular magazines that every week seem to have yet another article on how to sleep, all of which contain words such as no caffeine, aromatherapy baths, no electronic stimulation, eat turkey and the rest. You could just take the easy route and go to the Doctor and become addicted to pills and live with mental and physical side effects.
I am a long term meditator and characteristically have a laid back personality that needs to be kick started, yet I had sleeping problems after a long stay in hospital. No one could give me an explanation that made sense to me. While living in New York, I was drawn to a sign for a Sleep retreat conducted by Michael Krugman who was the founder of THE SOUNDER SLEEP SYSTEM®. I had found his name through the Feldenkrais world in which I am a Practitioner and Michael Krugman was a Trainer who had insomnia and then developed this system through his own research and experience.
This retreat was my last resort. It was a three day workshop and Michael is brilliant with his intelligence, research and knowledge behind the science of sleep and sleep disorders and for me, it was the first time someone had offered a proven explanation as to why some of us just cannot sleep. We learnt about the brain and the central nervous system and how the Sounder Sleep System® exploits the two fundamental, opposing principles of the human nervous system, excitation and inhibition to produce its sleep inducing effects. The Sounder Sleep System® uses small, slow, gentle bodily movements to initiate and amplify the inhibitory process resulting in natural restful sleep whenever we need it.
My introduction to this Method gave me the most relaxing weekend that I have ever experienced and as I practiced the Methods over the following weeks my sleep returned to perfection. I could fall asleep and stay asleep without waking up at three in the morning and staying awake. I became a devoted fan and trained to be a Teacher of the Sounder Sleep System®.
“The best cure for Insomnia is to get a lot of Sleep.” W. C. Fields
Over a course of five sessions, with homework in between, anyone can learn the easy practices that make up the menu of the Sounder Sleep System®.
- Guided Natural Breathing – sounds an obvious thing to do , but one of the first biological rhythms that becomes disturbed by stress, anxiety or illness is the breath. Take time to notice how your breath changes if you have to make a difficult telephone call, receive an annoying email or you are having an argument or any number of things in your overworked, over-scheduled, over stimulated and overwhelmed world.
- Daytamers™ are small gentle movements practiced during the day to effectively combat stress and tension and anxiety to make your daily life more peaceful. When your life is more peaceful, your sleep is more peaceful.
- Night Tamers™ are tiny sleep inducing movements that you do right in your own bed. These hasten the onset of slumber and allow quick recovery from unwanted awakenings during the night.
The day time and night time techniques work together to reduce the stress of life and allow you to get all the natural, restful sleep you require. The movements are so gentle even your partner will not know you are doing them. You will enjoy making these easy, pleasurable exercises part of your daily life.
The Sounder Sleep System® can work alongside medical advice as it will be a powerful ally in your healing process. In addition to enhancing sleep is it a great self help, self nurturing practice for anyone who suffers from worry, tension and anxiety from living in the modern world. It has been taught in universities, clinics, hospitals, primary and secondary schools and business organisations. There is a 100% success rate in this Method providing the client practices the homework.
Oh… and mine is a double expresso