Mindfulness Meditation Warnings & Alerts
Julie Lusk, M.Ed., NBCC, E-RYT-500
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Not Sleeping Soundly? Here’s Help
Have you ever felt like you were ‘half-awake or only half asleep’ all night? Me too. It’s so frustrating, especially knowing that you have a big day ahead and want to be feel sharp and well rested. Perhaps you don’t want to miss a moment of your vacation or there’s an important conference you’re excited about.
As it turns out, half of your brain can sleep while the other half stays awake, according to sleep scientist Masako Tamaki and her colleagues at Brown University and reported in Current Biology*. They found that this usually happens when sleeping the first night in a new place, like a hotel, friend’s house, or while camping. The second night is much better.
It’s our brain’s attempt to protect us by going into survival mode. What happens is that the right half your brain sleeps while the left half stays alert, standing guard. How strange is that?
Scientists measured the slow-wave activity of the brain, something that occurs during deep sleep. They measured brain activity during light sleep by first playing a tone and then a different tone was played. Surprisingly, the brain reacted to the variation in sound only on the left side of the brain – the right side stayed asleep.
Next, they played a sound loud enough to awaken someone. They found that when it was transmitted into the right ear, the subjects in the experiment woke up faster than if it was sent to the left ear. The right ear is associated with the left side of the brain.
It stands to reason that it would be the left side of the brain that stays on duty since it is known to be objective, analytical, and rational and would be more prone to be protective whereas the right side is best at intuition and abstract thinking. Could this phenomenon be at play when sleeping in an unsafe neighborhood or household? What about when having to keep an ear out for a child or sick person. More studies are needed.
Sleeping ‘half-way’ is involuntary and the brain’s way to keep you alert enough to save yourself if something bad happened and most likely associated with the flight-fight-freeze response to stress. Because of this, scientists think there’s not much you can do about it other than to accept it rather than letting it bother you. Some suggest going two nights ahead of your big day since it’s so hard to sleep that first night.
Here are my suggestions:
- Make the room feel familiar and safer to you, tricking the brain into sleeping better. Try using a familiar scent – lavender is calming and aids sleeping. If you’re used to sleeping with a fan whirling away, bring one with you. Using your own pillow makes sense too.
- Try yoga nidra. It’s a comprehensive practice done lying down to go far beyond deep relaxation and mindfulness to a place of natural peace and quiet that is tremendously restful. Along with being a special type of meditation to increase uplifting levels of awareness, it can also be practiced at bedtime as a sleep aid. Layers of stress are cleared out so they don’t follow you to bed and disturb sleeping. In fact, while not a substitute for actual sleep, one hour of yoga nidra practice is equivalent to 4 hours of sleep. This is due to the types of brain waves experienced along the way. Proven relaxation skills, specialized breathing techniques, guided imagery, and mindfulness are systematically used. Learn more about yoga nidra here
Use a yoga nidra recording. See below for recommendations. Download it to your listening device, put it on airplane mode, and listen by putting the ear buds or the device itself under your pillow. It will transmit right through your pillow and not disturb your sleep partner. - Use a mudra. They are yoga positions for the hands. Curl your fingers into a fist. On the same hand, touch the tips of the thumbs to the tips of the first finger to form a circle. Rest your hands with your palms pointing down. It helps bring on sleep and reduces stress by promoting a sense of safety and security. Learn more about mudras here.
- Breathe slowly and smoothly. To calm your nervous system, breathe in to the count of four or five and then breathe out for five to ten. When you get distracted, gently go back to focusing on your breathing.
- Use the Moon Breath to calm your bodymind and brain by combining a mudra with breathing. Bend your index and middle finger of your right hand to your palm, leaving your ring and little finger softly extended. Softly press your right thumb to your right nostril and inhale through your left nostril. Next, release your right thumb and press your ring finger to your left nostril while exhaling. In other words, in left / out right / in left / out right and so on. Learn more about this and other practices in Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices for Awakening (WPA, 2005)
- Follow the guidelines for good sleep hygiene. Here’s the Mayo Clinic’s 7 tips for doing so. Read How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep – The Ultimate Guide. It’s excellent.
So even if you can’t sleep as soundly as you might like due to your brain’s insistence on staying half-awake, at least you now understand the reason why. The above suggestions may lull you to sleep, and if they don’t, you will at least make use of the time in a positive, productive way.
Sweet dreams!
Sleep Well | Yoga Nidra CD Use deep relaxation, soothing flute music & ocean waves to go to sleep. "I slept like a log." Downloads available. By Julie Lusk, Yoga Nidra Meditations author.
Reference: Current Biology Volume 26, Issue 9, p1190–1194, 9 May 2016
Resources: Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief by Julie Lusk (NHP 2015)
Yoga Nidra: Guided Meditations for Relaxation & Renewal (Health Journeys 2016)
Julie Lusk, MEd, E-RYT 500, has more than 35 years of expertise in stress relief, yoga, relaxation training, guided imagery, and meditation as an international author, recording artist, and 
workshop leader. Julie is the author of Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief, Yoga Meditations, two volumes of 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery and Inner Healing, and Desktop Yoga®. Her CDs include Wholesome Relaxation, Power of Presence, Blue Moon Rising, and many others. Learn more at WholesomeResources.com
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♥ Plan A …. 5 Yoga Nidra Relaxation – Audio Classes
- Heartfelt Yoga Nidra Meditation | Feel relaxed and balanced by gently moving your awareness throughout your body. Sohum breathing is used as a mantra. Calm your mind and emotions with inner eye gazing (chidakasha). Awaken your intuition and inner guidance with guided imagery. Enjoy ample time to dwell in the peaceful presence of Yoga Nidra. A heartfelt pledge (sankalpa) is used to support enduring change.
- Tender Time Yoga Nidra | Relieve physical tension with a light progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) exercise. Balance energy and awareness with the booster breath that adds a pause and an extra boost after inhaling and exhaling. Mindfulness and guided imagination easily leads you into feeling peaceful and spacious. Intuition and unconditional joy often result. A heartfelt pledge (sankalpa) is used.
- Yoga Nidra for Restoring & Enhancing Health & Wellbeing | Generate deep calmness and enhance immunity and cell renewal using autogenic training with a special healing breath. Experience health-enhancing intuitive guidance for insights. Enjoy guided imagination for remembering wellness to enhance health.
- Drop into Yoga Nidra Quickly | Relax completely by lifting and dropping portions of the body, a good substitute for anyone with contraindications for tensing muscles (PMR). Rinse away tension with an imaginary waterway. Intuition comes alive when an imagined animal appears to give and receive messages. Peace and joy are sprinkled down for absorption.
- Yoga Nidra Heart Connections | Experience an amazing Yoga Nidra journey through all the dimensions of the heart starting with the physical organ itself to the heartbeat of lifeforce energy. The windows of the emotional heart are acknowledged and wiped clean to reveal the clarity of ones’ knowing heart and and the spiritual heart connection to ones’ path with a capital P. Live harp music is played throughout.
Plan A
♥ Plan B… 5 Hatha Yoga Posture – Video Classes| All classes include muscle and joint warm-ups, breathwork, and mindfulness. Enjoy savory savasana time for gaining relaxed energy. 
- Tone & Strengthen | Yoga to strengthen and flatten abdominals, tone back, legs, hips, and more. The psoas sequence is featured.
- Fortify Bones, Muscles & Flexibility | Features 12 postures scientifically proven to increase bone density and improve alignment. Postures for balance and for strong muscles and bones are featured. Get a 75-minute and a 30-minute practice videos.
- Good for Core Alignment | Improve core strength, alignment, and energy.
- Moon Salute | Practice a fun yoga sequence that has it all … Flexibility. Strength. Coordination.
- Chair Yoga | Benefit from yoga sitting down. Additional info given from Julie Lusk’s book, Desktop Yoga (r)
Plan B
♥ Plan C … 3 + 3 is 3 Yoga Nidra Audio Classes + 3 Hatha Yoga Video Classes
Yoga Nidra
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- Heartfelt Yoga Nidra Meditation | Description above
- Tender Time Yoga Nidra | Description above
- Drop into Yoga Nidra Quickly | Description above
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Hatha Yoga Postures
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- Fortify bones, muscles & flexibility | Description above
- Tone & Strengthen | Description above
- Chair Yoga | Description above
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Plan C
Registration Help..
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- Contact Julie Lusk anytime
Click now to see Julie Lusk’s catalog of 6 books, dozens of audios, and more, including her book, Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation & Stress Relief.
Contact me anytime!
Links
My Favorite Links & Resources
- Yoga Links
- Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation
- Guided Imagery
- Meditation
- Holistic Health
- Wellness Resources
Yoga Links
The Yoga Alliance is an organization that registers yoga teachers. Registration can take place on at the 200 and 500 hour levels. Finding a teacher who is registered assures you that they have studied everything from philosophy, anatomy and physiology, asanas, teaching methodology, ethics, and techniques. Julie Lusk has obtained registration at the highest level possible. Julie is qualified to offer CEU’s from Yoga Alliance as a YACEP,
The Yoga Journal online is brimming with a wide range of yoga information.
Integral Yoga whose founder is Swami Satchidananda.
Himalayan Institute and the home of Yoga International Magazine
Iyengar Yoga A classic and always inspirational.
The International Association of Yoga Therapists has a wonderful collection of information.
Visit an excellent yoga pose (asana) library at beYogi
Yoga Nidra
Learn more about the history of yoga nidra here.
Yoga Nidra Network offers tons of resources on yoga nidra including free audios in multiple languages, a listing of yoga nidra teachers worldwide, info on trainings, and much more.
Research on yoga nidra, under the direction of Kamakhya Kumar, PhD
Jennifer Reis’s yoga nidra CDs, Mp3’s, trainings and workshops
The Integrative Restoration Institute (IRI), under the direction of Richard Miller, PhD, provides materials, programs and teacher trainings based on yoga nidra. See current, upcoming and planned IRest yoga nidra research
Guided Imagery
Health Journeys, by Belleruth Naparstek is the very best place to go for information and products, especially for medically-related guided imagery. Click here for a collection of research on guided imagery and similar mind-body techniques.
CardPlusCD produces Julie Lusk’s guided imagery CDs. Relaxation music by Tom Laskey is also offered.
Meditation
Loose Leaf Hollow is a wonderful retreat center in Bardstown, KY under the capable leadership of Joe Zarantonello. Joe is an exceptional teacher, poet and the creator of the Integral Journal. Check it out – it is truly a ‘space for grace’.
The Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford is in the greater Cincinnati area. It provides programs, facilities and an environment which helps people find God in all things and live a life of compassionate service. Julie Lusk teaches classes and offers retreats there and is on their Board of Trustees.
Click here for Meditations to listen to on-line from Thich Nhat Hanh, Sharon Salsburg and others.
Holistic Health
SelfHelpMagazine is a wonderful resource. Please check it out.
The Continuum Center for Health and Healing is located at Beth Israel in NY. Their site has a great resource library on complementary therapies as well as on health conditions.
Wellness Resources
Whole Person Associates makes available the finest books, materials, audio and video tapes on stress management and wellness. They publish and sell Julie Lusk’s Yoga Meditations: Timeless Mind-Body Practices, 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery and Inner Healing, Volumes One and Two and Wholesome Relaxation CD, Wholesome Energizers CD, and Refreshing Journeys audio tape and CD.
New Harbinger Publications is publishing my next new book, Yoga Nidra for Stress Relief. They offer self-help resources that are concise, practical, and factual. Topics include anxiety, depression, anger, relationships, and health and feature the newest research available.
7 Arts Studio is the brainchild of Noreen Wessling. She will inspire you to drum, draw, dream and let your spirit soar. Mostly, you will have fun discovering hidden talents you never knew you had. Cincinnati based.
Jakk’s Magic Beans Workshop: Julie Keefe (a/k/a Jakk) offers Reiki and Feng Shui services, as well as one-of-a-kind creations to encourage, support and enhance your connection to well-being. Visit her website to learn more and to feast your eyes on her wire-wrapped pendants! Cincinnati based.
Mandala Monday is a new feature being offered by Julie Keefe (more about her above). A mandala is a symbolic circle for healing. It feels peaceful to look at and helps you focus too. Even better, she posts a new mandala each Monday for you to color and submit for prizes.
Sleep Well ~ Yoga Nidra
Why struggle to get to sleep or stay asleep at night when you can sleep well with yoga nidra? Sleep is vital to our health and sleep experts tell us we need an average of eight hours at a shot. Even if there’s time for sleep, many of us have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep, interfering with good health and causing frustration.
Find the help you’ve been waiting for in these articles:
- Sleep Solutions: Yoga-Style talks about the best yoga postures and breathing techniques for a good night’s sleep.
- Yoga Nidra and Sleep explains what yoga nidra is and why it’s more restful than regular sleep.
- Not Sleeping Soundly? Here’s help for those nights when you feel you’re half awake and half asleep.
Listen to this specialized yoga nidra practice especially made for going to sleep (CD or digital download). It’s from Julie’s new book, Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation
Clear the deck for a good nights sleep by releasing physical, mental and emotional tension. You’ll love waking up in the morning feeling refreshed.
Enjoy using relaxation skills, specialized breathing techniques, mindfulness, and more. You’ll enjoy the soothing Native American style flute music followed by the calming sound of ocean waves, Mother Nature’s delightful lullaby.
- “I never slept better.”
- “I love the whole thing.”
- “I fall asleep so easily, I haven’t made it through to the end yet.”
Get copies of Sleep Well ~ Yoga Nidra for yourself and your friends and family here.
Digital Download
- Amazon
- Apple iTunes
- Google Play Music & other online outlets
Sleep Well | Yoga Nidra CD Use deep relaxation, soothing flute music & ocean waves to go to sleep. "I slept like a log." Downloads available. By Julie Lusk, Yoga Nidra Meditations author.
Sweet dreams!
Julie Lusk, MEd, E-RYT 500, has over 35 years of expertise in stress relief, yoga, relaxation training, 
guided imagery, and meditation as an international author, recording artist, and workshop leader.
Julie is the author of
- Yoga Nidra Meditations: 24 Scripts for True Relaxation
- Yoga Nidra for Complete Relaxation and Stress Relief
- Yoga Meditations,
- Two volumes of 30 Scripts for Relaxation, Imagery and Inner Healing
- Desktop Yoga®.
- Audio recordings include
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