by Sheela Rani Chunkath
Vaghbhata in his Ashtanga Hrdyam and Ashtanga Sangraha has brilliantly set out what one needs to do to have a healthy life. People are busy looking for profound answers for the causes of cancer, autoimmune diseases and the like. The answers are simple and could be quite easy to follow. Or perhaps not so easy!
Let us look at what Vaghbhata has to say about sleep. In one pithy sloka he says that untimely sleep, excessive sleep or too little sleep will destroy ones happiness and destroy longevity of life. He is quite categoric about the ill effects that come about when natural sleeping habits are compromised. If one remains awake at night one’s system gets dehydrated. It is said to be ruksha or drying. All sorts of aches and pains can come because of too little sleep.
I am hearing horror stories about residential schools in Tamilnadu, where students appearing for 12th standard examinations are permitted only 2 hours sleep in their attempt to get marks as close to 100% as possible and making their (or their parents) dreams of getting a medical seat a reality. The girls are suffering from many health problems including dysmenorrhea (absence of periods) irregular periods and polycystic ovarian syndrome. I am often hearing stories from people working in BPOs where infertility issues are becoming common. I know of one ayurvedic doctor who advised an editor of newspaper to change his job as he had a myriad health issues. Many of them triggered by untimely sleep and irregular food practices.
So instead of spending millions of dollars researching as to what causes cancer or how to treat cancer, one should see how can lead a more natural lifestyle in keeping with the circadian rhythms and the season around us. Acharya Vaghbhata is generally against sleeping during day time especially for people who are obese and have excess kapha as sleep during daytime increases kapha and obesity. Some exception have been permitted for indulging in sleep during the day as in hot summers and for those who have to talk a lot, walk a lot, and for those who are engaged in hard physical labour like carrying heavy weights. People suffering from anger grief and fright, the old, the very young, the weak are some of the people who are permitted to sleep during the day. Kapha which increases because of sleep during the day helps nourish the body of such people.
The exact time of going to bed has not been specified although the waking up time has been indicated as being during Brahma Muhurtam. This would mean that one should get up about one and a half hours before sunrise. It is not as difficult as it sounds and you get a wonderful quite time filled with the new energy of the universe to study, to practice your music, your yoga or just be. It is a time to contemplate and be with yourself. And at night there is no more insomnia. Eyelids practically close themselves at 9 O'clock.
So don’t look too far for causes of ill health of cancer, they are staring us in our face. Acharya says the various aspects of happiness and sorrow, of well nourished and emaciated bodies, of strength and weakness, of virility and sterility, of knowledge and ignorance, of life and death are all dependent on sleep. So make a new year resolve this Tamil New Year’s day in April or your birthday, perhaps, that you will approach the matter of sleep from the angle of health and wealth.
--- The writer is retired Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu. She can be reached at Sheelarani.arogyamantra@gmail. com. Earlier articles can be accessed at http://arogyamantra.blogspot.com/