Would you like to sleep like a baby without taking drugs? Americans spend upwards of 3 billion dollars a year on sleep medications, but to avoid the side effects, there are a number of natural remedies you can try first. Read on to learn some of the ways to get a good quality night’s sleep.

1. Relaxing Rituals to Rest Easy
In Chinese Medicine, nighttime is yin time—or, simply, when the body takes care of itself instead of your desires. Proper sleep is required for your body to repair itself and regenerate. To reach deep, restful sleep, your spirit and heart must be calm. Excessive worry, anxiety, and depression can all disturb the spirit and activate the mind—making it near impossible to fall asleep and stay asleep. Rituals to sooth your spirit and induce a sleep response before bed include soaking your feet in Epson salts for 15 minutes, writing all of your thoughts in a journal to get them out of your head, and practicing relaxation before bed, like the Stress Release meditation below.

2. When Food Disturbs Sleep
When you eat late, you wake up tired. Your body will be busy digesting your dinner while you are trying to sleep, so you won’t feel rested in the morning. Do not eat anything for at least three hours before bedtime. Also, cut back on eating bacon, cheese, chocolate, ham, potatoes, tomatoes, and sausage, especially before bed. These foods contain tyramine, which inhibits neurochemicals like norepinephrine and can cause insomnia. And, of course if you have sleep problems, caffeine should be cut out.

Eat for sleep! Try eating more grains at dinner; carbohydrates tend to make people sleepy. Another snooze snack is a warm cup of milk; because milk is rich in the amino acid tryptophan, it can sometimes aid in deep sleep. Mix in natural vanilla flavoring for a soothing snack. Or if you prefer, eat 1 cup of natural yogurt an hour before bedtime.

3. A Peaceful Place for Sleep
Your sleeping environment makes a huge difference to the quality of your sleep. Do everything you can to create a quiet and cozy atmosphere. Ideally, your bedroom should be located in the quietest area of your home. Keep the décor minimal. Lighting should be dim and any music that is played should be soothing. Research has found that lavender, vanilla, and green apple are among the best scents to help lower anxiety and induce sleep, making these smells a good choice for a scented candle or heated essential oil. Try to limit your pets to outside of the bedroom because their movements will keep with your body from fully relaxing into deep R. E. M. sleep. As much as possible, your bedroom should be only for sleep.

4. Exercise Enables Sleep
People with regular exercise routines often sleep better and have fewer incidents of insomnia than those don’t get regular physical activity. Exercise promotes sleep and improves sleep quality by altering brain chemistry. Exercising moderately for 20 to 30 minutes three times a day, combined with meditation or tai chi in the evening, will not only help you fall and stay asleep, but will also increase the amount of time you spend in R.E.M. sleep. In fact, for some people, exercise alone is enough to overcome sleep problems. Exercise in the morning or afternoon, but do not exercise for at least two hours before bed.

5. Herbs to Sleep Tight
A calming tea before bedtime can ensure a good night’s sleep. Drink valerian or passionflower (or passiflora) tea before bedtime every night for one month. Simply steep 1 to 2 tablespoons of the dried herbs in one cup of hot water and drink just before bed. Or look for one with the traditional Chinese herbs zizyphus or jujube seed, bamboo shavings, and oyster shell, which soothe the mind and spirit.

You might also try Calm-Fort/Sleep formula with useful herbs like lily bulbs, polygala and turmeric that help manage stress and calm the spirit while relieving restlessness and insomnia.

6. A Sleep-Friendly Meditation
I had one patient with insomnia who also felt anxious and even a little depressed. In addition to acupuncture and herbal therapies, I decided to teach her a stress release meditation that she could do before bedtime to help with her anxiety. I am happy to report that she is now sleeping like a baby.

Try this Stress Release meditation, which works for the majority of my patients who have sleeping problems:

Sit comfortably or lie down on your back. Slow your respiration to deep, abdominal breathing. Utter the word “calm” in your mind with every exhalation. Focus on relaxing each area of your body in sequence, from the top of your head to your toes. Starting with the top of your head, inhale and then exhale while visualizing your scalp muscles relaxing. Say “calm” in your mind. Repeat this with each body part as you move down through all body parts, front, back, and sides, in succession: your face, throat, chest, arms, stomach, abdomen, thighs, knees, legs, ankles, until finally you reach your feet.  When you’ve relaxed your feet, visualize all the tension in your body leaving through your toes as dark smoke. Practice this for at least 15 minutes before bedtime.

It will have you sleeping in no time. If you do better with meditative visualizations that are narrated, try my Stress Release CD.

I hope you find the ways to resting easy and waking up refreshed!

May you stay healthy, live long, and live happy!

-Dr. Mao

What is Off-Gassing?

Chemicals used in synthetic foams (mostly petroleum based) and some fire retarding agents emit fumes. Mattresses made using these chemicals can potentially cause reactions in people with chemical sensitivities. Some of these chemicals have not been tested on young children or in the proximity that is present in a mattress slept on for 8 hours a day. People with concerns about off-gassing would be well served knowing what is in the mattress they have or wish to purchase.

Here is how mattresses are made:

1. A memory foam mattress is not all memory foam. It is likely to be 5-6” of standard polyurethane foam topped with a visco-elastic layer, an open celled, slow recovery, poly foam . Both types of foam in these beds will off-gas . The odor coming off of these foams is from chemicals used in the process of making it. The chemicals emitted are potentially harmful to small children (www.gemtesting.com/naturepedic/P1.php) and people sensitive to such emissions may wish to select a different type of mattress.

2. A coil (innerspring) mattress can be made of several different components, and even different types of coils. Whether it be a pocketed coil, a continuous coil system, or any other type of coil, there will be an insulator pad between the coils and the comfort layers above. This insulator pad may be made from a high density polyurethane foam or recycled fabric layers (think carpet pad). On top of the insulator will be comfort layers used to give plushness. These comfort layers are mostly what differentiate mattresses. In most major brand mattresses these layers are polyurethane foams and therefore can off-gas. Many manufacturers, in an effort to be more “green”, are using some soy (can also be non-soy vegetable base) foams. Because soy foams only use about 20% soy oil and the rest is petroleum based, it does not eliminate the off-gassing, but it is a step in the right direction for people wishing to be “greener” and not chemically sensitive.

Wrapped around the mattress (all around in the case of two-sided, flip-able mattresses) is the quilting layer that gives the mattresses the finished look you expect. The puff in the quilt is usually polyurethane foam even in mattresses represented as natural.

An innerspring mattress can be made natural and non off-gassing with the use of a natural insulator, latex, wool and/or cotton comfort layers, and a quilt layer containing one of the same fillers.

3. A latex mattress should start with a solid latex core (sometimes manufacturers will mix layers of latex with other, less expensive layers). Latex comes in several varieties. There are different processes for creating latex. By definition latex is sap from a rubber tree, however there is also synthetic latex created in a lab with building blocks. Although synthesized latex may use polymers, there is little off-gassing and is likely to be a better choice than polyurethane.

Pure natural rubber latex comes from rubber trees grown near the equator. The process of extracting the liquid latex is much like tapping maple trees for syrup. Managed rubber tree forests make for a sustainable product. The molding of the latex cores can be accomplished with no added chemicals. Potentially allergenic proteins are at this point washed out in the cleansing process. With no chemicals to off-gas, pure latex mattresses are the best choice for healthy sleep. It is durable, comfortable and can be processed in different densities.

This is not the whole story however; just as memory foam mattresses are not all memory foam, latex mattresses are not always just latex. Comfort layers added will often be the same as used on innerspring mattresses and all the same cautions apply.

4. Air beds use vinyl or polyurethane bladders in place of innersprings or foam cores. The air chambers are protected by polyurethane foam, and are often topped with it as a comfort layer. It would be possible to make an airbed with comfort layers of wool, latex or cotton that would eliminate much of the off-gassing potential, however, we are unaware of any company producing such a mattress.

5. Futon mattresses are also an option. Most of them are going to have synthetic foams these days, and a synthetic fire barrier, but a non-off-gassing mattress can be done. You would want one with no polyurethane foam layers, and wool as the fire barrier. It is also possible to get latex layered with the other batting materials to make it more durable. As a rule, futon mattresses tend to matt and get pretty hard. Cotton is a cheap nontoxic batting material, but it is not ideal for a sleep surface.

Good choices of non off-gassing mattresses:

There are some good choices for non off-gassing mattresses, however, the information available from some retailers and salespeople is likely to be confusing and sometimes misleading. Prices are comparable to other better quality mattresses and you have the peace of mind knowing you are not being exposed daily to potentially unhealthy fumes.

Englander makes a limited line of natural beds and gives you the most bed dollar for dollar. Six Englander mattresses are particularly of note as having the least potential for off-gassing.

Natura makes some of the most popular and comfortably plush mattresses, many of them natural and non-off-gassing. Several also happen to be organic.

For overall purity, and commitment to non-toxic products, Organic Mattresses Incorporated (OMI) is a leader in non-off-gassing bedding. The purity of materials used and their handling is second to none. All of their products are listed as organic.

A little time spent researching construction materials can pay dividends when searching for the lowest chemical emission mattresses.

Questions? Call (206) 633-4494 or Toll Free (888) 297-8844