At first maintain the SHOULDERSTAND for only a few seconds but as you gradually become used to this inverted posture it can be held comfortably for several minutes. I suggest that you hold it for as long as you have the time but no more than ten to fifteen minutes. The main advantage of this valuable basic Yoga pose is that by holding the body inverted, in poised stillness, even for a few minutes, the thyroid glands are affected and so produce a powerful effect on the entire organism. Also the blood flows to the head by its own weight instead of it having to be pumped upwards by the heart so it not only gives the heart a respite from its ceaseless work but it also brings a flood of rich blood to the brain and so counteracts nervous fatigue, exhaustion, and other results of insomnia. But the benefits of the SHOULDERSTAND do not end there. Because it strengthens and tones the lower organs it is especially recommended for women after child-birth and those who suffer from menstrual pains.

Keep your body as straight as you can and hold yourself as still as possible. Resist the tendency to move your legs about in the air or to let your body sag at the waist. Close your eyes and breathe as deeply as you can. In the Shoulderstand breathing cannot be too deep but it should be as regular as your restricted lungs allow.

Having disposed of the questions of how, when, and where you sleep, what you wear and what you lie on, I will now show you some Yoga exercises which will help you if you make careful note of all I have just said. Yoga will help you if you meet it half-way. Unlike some of the chapters in this book in which I have described Yoga asanas or postures which require patient practice, all the exercises in this chapter are very simple to do, with the possible exception of THE SHOULDERSTAND or Sar-vangasana. This may be a little difficult for my older readers so let us try this one first.

Sit down on the floor with your spine straight and your

legs stretched before you, ankles together. Roll backwards until

your head touches the floor and your legs swing over your head.

Supporting your back with your two hands on either side

of your spine, raise your legs to the vertical so that your toes are

pointing towards the ceiling and your body is resting on the

back of your head, the nape of your neck, and your shoulders.

Press your chin against your chest in the chin lock. I have

demonstrated the SHOULDERSTAND in figure 6.

I find it restful to keep a book on my bedside table. No thrillers or ghost stories please. We are dealing with insomnia in this chapter and we cannot have you afraid to go to sleep being convinced that someone, or worst still SOMETHING has come to ‘get you’. There is some controversy about plants and flowers being left in bedrooms overnight. My advice is to remove them if you can, for the carbon dioxide they give off at night will not help you one bit in this battle against your insomnia. Do sleep in a well-ventilated room with at least one window open, and if possible the door as well. A stuffy, overheated bedroom causes more headaches and insomnia than can be estimated.

Finally, place your bed so that you sleep with your head to the north and your feet to the south, or if this is absolutely impossible, sleep with your head to the south and your feet to the north. What you must avoid, you see, is sleeping across, instead of parallel to, the magnetic force lines of the earth. If again you accuse me of being fanciful, I can only tell you that I have known many people who have cured their insomnia, and its resulting stress ailments, simply by altering the position of their bed so that they lie parallel to the magnetic force lines of the earth. If you are skeptical (and you are a chronic insomniac) why not try it? You may be agreeably surprised.

Next your clothing. It would seem unnecessary to mention this, but I am certain that far too many people wear too much clothing when they go to bed. Jumpers, cardigans, bed-jackets and socks are piled on over pyjamas and nighties, and heads are tied up in all kinds of scarves. But why? In winter why not one warm, cosy nighty or a pair of pyjamas, high necked and long sleeved, and in summer a wisp of nylon is all you need. Let your body b-r-e-a-t-h-e while you sleep. If you are cold add more blankets but do not, please, choke yourself to death.

It is often said that for most people the best sleep is before midnight. I do not necessarily agree with this and would gladly trade four hours of really deep natural sleep for eight hours of tossing, fitful dozing which for many people passes for sleep. You can easily work out for yourself how many hours of sleep you need in order to work at your maximum efficiency the next day. And do not make the common mistake of imagining you need more sleep than you actually do. Eight hours is what most people take to mean a good night’s sleep but many people need only five or six, others need nine or ten. So make sure that you are not one of the former, as you may be getting your five or six hours of good sleep that you need and tossing about for the other two or three thinking that you suffer from insomnia. Do watch yourself carefully before you decide whether you need a cure for insomnia at all.

Have you sometimes suspected that your mattress was too soft and often wake up in the morning in a deep hollow with your mattress making ‘water-wings’ on either side of you? It is time, I  fear, to think about replacing it with a firmer one.

Expensive? Perhaps, but after all you spend just about a third of your life in bed and if that third is plagued with insomnia due to an over-soft or worn out mattress is it not wise to consider spending a few dollars in order to improve your health, your spirits and your general well-being? Cheap at the price I would say.

And what about those mounds of bunchy pillows? Do these offenders grace your bed too? Send those packing with that soft mattress. It is essential in sleep that your spine should be held as naturally as possible. If you are lying in the hollow of a feather mattress with your head propped up on a mound of pillows, your poor spine is held in a highly unnatural position so if you do succeed in getting to sleep, which is often unlikely, you will be sure to wake up with morning backache, a stiff neck, a feeling of not having slept at all, and possibly a headache to add to the general confusion. If you suffer from any form of persistent backache one of the finest remedies I know, without doing another thing, is to buy a hard mattress. After you get used to sleeping on it you would never look a feather mattress in the face again. Sleep with as few pillows as possible, one small, firmly packed one is adequate for most people’s needs. Why make your poor neck work hard while you are sleeping? What did it do to deserve that kind of punishment?

IN the previous chapter 1 discussed emotional stress ailments. In this one we are considering the physical results of stress, worry, and constant fatigue. Perhaps the most common complaint of this modern age, together with constipation, which is discussed in the following chapter, is insomnia. It is the cause of more widespread misery than one could possibly imagine. There are many ways to combat insomnia but many people, far too many, rely on harmful and habit-forming sleeping drugs which may induce an unnatural sleep but which do not, and cannot, cure the trouble at the source. Indeed many people who have relied on them for years find that they are wholly unable to get a night’s sleep without them. Yes, insomnia is one of the scourges of our time but Yoga has a way with it, nature’s gentle and safe way.

The Yoga cure for insomnia and its dangerous resulting nervous exhaustion, is the natural one based on toning and relaxing the nerves, taking in more oxygen, and remaining immobile with the body inverted.

But first things first. What about the bed on which you sleep? Do you put up with just anything? Is it just a wooden frame, a mattress, and some pillows, sheets and blankets, or is it a supremely comfortable haven to which you can retire in blissful ease at the end of the day? No, I am not being fanciful. That bed on which you sleep may have more to do with your insomnia than you suspect. So let us consider it for a moment.