Sleep

As simple as it sounds, sleep is actually one of the more difficult subjects. Failure to get a good night's sleep can affect your health. While you are sleeping, your body uses that time to conduct important preventive maintenance at the cellular level. Deprive the body of this restful period and you increase the potential for severe physical and/or psychological maladies. The quality of sleep is more important than the quantity, that is why it is possible for us to sleep less without feeling sleepless. In order to sleep less and stay energized try these helpful techniques:

1. Spend more time outdoors. Sunlight and fresh air have remarkable abilities to heal our spirit. Often something just as simple as taking a short walk around the block can help reset our priorities. Even yard work can be relaxing if approached from the right frame of mind. Just try to get out into the open air more whenever you can.
2. Try "thought bouncing". While you are having an audio training session, try not to hold any one thought for more than 3 seconds. Bounce from thought to thought until your mind starts fading out. Then let it go. If you start focusing on one thought the conscious becomes acutely fixated and the process of letting go takes longer.
3. Naps are good, but do not take long naps because that will mess up your nightly sleep pattern. To avoid napping for too long use the clattering key or spoon technique. To do this, lie down or sit comfortably holding a spoon or a bunch of keys in your hand. When you lose consciousness, you'll automatically drop the keys or the spoon. The clattering sound will wake you up.
4. Try Passionflower. Passionflower has been reported to have sedative, hypnotic, antispasmodic, and anodyne properties. Passionflower has been reported to be effective when used in combination with other sedative and anti-anxiety herbs such as valerian.
5. If you can, experiment with the room temperature. Most people sleep best in a slightly cooler room with adequate ventilation. Check your windows and doors to make sure that drafts are not interfering with sleep.
6. Use stairway visualization. It works like this:

Make sure you are cozy and comfortable before you begin.

If distracting thoughts enter your mind during the visualization, just let them gently drift back out.

Visualize a staircase, inviting you down into a state of complete relaxation.

Imagine taking the first steps down, on step 10 feel yourself relaxing and letting go, feeling beautifully at ease and at peace.

On step 8, you are becoming more relaxed� on step 7, you are drifting deeper�.and deeper down still.

By step 6, you are calmer�. And calmer� halfway down, you are letting go and feeling good.

On step 4, you are relaxing even more. By step 3 you are sinking deeper.

On step 2, you are enjoying pleasant, peaceful feelings, half-awake, half-asleep.

On step 1, you are feeling beautifully relaxed.

On reaching the bottom, you are so pleasantly relaxed you can allow your mind to drift into sleep. Imagine yourself sitting down on the last step, closing your eyes and falling off to sleep.