Brahmcaryarate Gramyasukha Nispaha Cetasa |
Nidrasantosataptasya Swam Kalam Nativartate
Meaning: One who reads good books and attempts acquiring knowledge (and mental enlightenment), who does not indulge in sensual pleasures and accumulation of material possession, whose mind is contented, his/her sleep remains punctual in its proper timings and duration. "Padma Puran" also states that one who has disciplined his sense organs and who sleeps at the right time will enjoy good sleep and get up at the right time in the early morning with fresh energy. One should have deep sleep during the night. As far as possible, one should avoid sleeping in the daytime; the time of lying down on the bed during the day should be kept to the minimum. Ayurveda describes the sleep of night as pitta-nashak (which eliminates the dosa of pitta the problems of acidity, excess of heat or lack of specific fluids in the body, abnormality in metabolism, etc).
The sleep during the daytime is termed as kapha-sangrahak (which aggravates the kapha dosa the problems of breathing, cold and cough, drowsiness, etc). With adoption of the present day habits of sleeping late in the night and getting up late in the morning, sleeping after lunch in the afternoon etc, the cases of problems pertaining to pitta and kapha have indeed increased in the modern times.
The Ayurvedic sages of Vedic Age emphasized the importance of sleeping in the second and third phases (out of the four phases since sunset to sunrise) of night. The evening (lying in the first phase of night) time should be used for reading and contemplating on the teachings of vedic scriptures and/or devotional prayers etc. The last phase which lies at the junction of night and morning called Brahm-Muhurt (the four hours period beginning 2-3 hours before dawn) is best for spiritual practices of mantra jap a, meditation and other sadhana s. The period for sleep (approximately between 9p.m. to 3:30a.m.) is referred as mahanisa in the scriptures and is said to be the most suitable time for health ful sleep. All the body-functions of a person who sleeps only during this specified period remain in good order and energized and so do all his other faculties. Even simple food works like ideal nutritious diet for such a person and he enjoys and relishes a purposeful and vigorous life .
Dream: Along with sleep, Ayurveda mentions a great deal about dreams also. In fact, analysis of dreams used to be an important method of comprehensive diagnostics in this ancient science of health y life . What the "Charak Samhita" states at one place implies that one who does not get sound sleep sees varieties of dreams through the agile subconscious mind . Experiencing too many or too frequent dreams is a sign of unbalanced or perturbed state of the mind -body system. According to Ayurvedic theory, dreaming abruptly during sleep disturbs the sleep and prevents proper relaxation of the body and also deprives the mind of rest and relaxation. Hard working laborers or those who practice substantial physical exercise and go to the bed in a relaxed mood get good sleep; their body and mind are infused with new energy and joy when they get up in the morning.
The Ayurvedic scriptures describe seven categories of dreams of which five correspond to the dreams that are meaningless and mere reflections of disturbed sleep and non-pacified emotions, mental excitations, tensions or simply the agility of the (subconscious) mind . The dreams of diseased, agonized, stressed, insane, and sensually excited or erogenous persons fall in this category. Only two categories of dreams are said to of notable importance these include precognitive dreams and spiritually enlightening dreams. The Vedic literature contains rare and precious knowledge of the science of sleep and dream, from which Ayurveda derives several of its methods and measures of characterization of natural constitution and diagnosis/prognosis of the existing ailments as well as prediction of future (likely) diseases. We shall elucidate some of these aspects through articles on dreams from time to time. With this article we have glanced through the routine of the entire day (twenty-four hours) as per the Ayurveda -guidelines on health .
The next set of articles in this series will bring new information on Ayurvedic herbal medicines especially based on the research findings at the scientific laboratories of Brahmvarchas , Shantikunj , Hardwar.