Sleepless in Bangkok: Our Community's Suggestions for Restful Sleep

Who amongst us mortals hasn’t had a night where, try as we might, sleep remains elusive.

Which reminded me of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, The Princess and the Pea, where the poor princess couldn’t get a single wink of sleep despite sleeping in a palace, atop multi-layered mattresses. Simply because she was unable to ignore the single small pea the queen mother had hidden underneath; it bothered her much too much.

We too retire at night to a perfectly acclimatised bedroom, and lay our heads down on puffy pillows, on thick comfortable mattresses covered with smooth sheets, and yet, sleep doesn’t come easy.

Imagine this, the princess was getting bugged by a single pea, but we take every small, medium, and large problem to bed with us; pebbles and stones tucked in between our sheets and under our pillows. Which, but of course, will prevent the restful slumber we so badly want and are in need of.

Sadhguru offers a remedy, and as is typical of him, simple and do-able sounding but with a cautionary that it won’t be easy, but if persisted with sincerity, beauty sleep is assured, as is an awakening to a stress-free life.

He suggests sitting up in bed before going to sleep and to honestly reflect on whatever it is that we have—body, mind, relationships, possessions—and understand that everything and anything we have is an accumulation from Mother Earth.

Then, knowing ourselves to be nothing, owning nothing, consciously practice putting all that we assumed to be ours down; to lay it aside and go to bed just as me; unburdened and carefree.

• Listen to a podcast or meditation commentaries; sometimes, walking around in the apartment works better.

• Menopause has made me restless, so I watch movies till my eyes tire. Then I get into bed, shut my eyes and do Simran till I doze off.

• When I can’t sleep, I get excited like a kid. Then I read, watch series, or do some organizing—anything my mind desires. The next day I’m exhausted, but I don’t bash myself. I tell my mind: we had fun.

• Play games on my iPad.

• Apply pressure points on myself.

• Read a romance novel, a book on philosophy, or magazine articles.

• First option is heading to Baba Ji’s room for Sehej Path, reading of the Guru Granth Sahib ji, the reverential book of the Sikhs, at a personal flexible comfortable pace with no time limit. Otherwise, catch up on reading; jotting down whatever’s bothering me helps clear my head.

• Breathing exercises; works every time.

• I usually sleep with Hanuman Chalisa in the background. If it doesn’t work, I go out and sleep on the TV room sofa.

• Tossing and turning disturbs my husband, a light sleeper, so I quietly slip out and do yoga stretches.

• Sudoku or deep breathing till body and mind is relaxed.

• Read whatever comes my way, but recently I’m leaning towards fantasy fiction. I also listen to music: Hindi, 50s to 70s Indian classical (north and south), and folk as well. Currently, it’s “Soul Sacrifice”, the Tanglewood version; thirteen minutes of the greatest percussion ever.

• Listen to Giani Sant Singh Maskeen Ji’s kathas, talk on spirituality.

• Creep into the kitchen and snack on a handful of granolas in a mug of cold milk, or nibble on digestive biscuits dunked in cold milk.

• I doze off listening to Jagjit Singh’s ghazals; poetic renditions of love, spirituality.

• Play games, surf YouTube, listen to kirtan, or do paath.

• I divert and fool the mind to believe all is well. Writing down whatever pops in my mind convinces me that I’ll be able to do whatever needs to be done, when it’s the right time for it. But for now, let’s go to bed without fuss, and chup-chap go to sleep.

• Listening to paath with earbuds lulls me to sleep.

• Peek out between the gaps in the bedroom curtains and wonder what the person or family is doing or thinking about, with the lights still on at this hour in any of the tall buildings surrounding me on every side.