Sleep Recovery by Lisa Sanfilippo

Author:Lisa Sanfilippo
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472956309
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

PART 2 :

REPAIR YOUR RELAXATION RESPONSE

There is a little crimson book from the 1970s that holds a simple secret. In it, Harvard Medical School researcher Herbert Benson and author Miriam Klipper describe the phenomenon they refer to in the book’s title, The Relaxation Response: a physical state of deep rest in which our heart rate slows down, the rates of inhale and exhale slow down, blood flow returns to our limbs and circulation improves. As you slip into this state, you may find yourself yawning – a sign that your body is releasing tension. You might hear your stomach gurgle, as the digestive wave called peristalsis kicks back in. Things start to change from the locked-down feelings that accompany mild to intense stress to a sense of greater fluidity and ease.

This relaxed state is anabolic, which means that in terms of our metabolism, it builds us back up. Most of us know the word anabolic from the term ‘anabolic steroids’ – the stuff weightlifters use to build muscles artificially. Being in the relaxation response doesn’t puff up our bodies in an unhealthy way, but instead builds us back up organically and naturally.

On the other end of the metabolic spectrum, stress is catabolic, which means that it breaks down molecules to get the energy out of them. When we’re stressed, our bodies get ready to burn energy quickly – to run away or fight. But since we’re stressed too often and our lives can be sedentary, our bodies are mobilising energy we don’t need and can’t use, so if we’re stressed, we can use up our reserves, end up depleted, and develop stress-related conditions such as adrenal fatigue, anxiety, chronic fatigue syndrome or depression, which can relate to overusing the stress hormone cortisol. Our growing inability to get to sleep, stay asleep or find sleep refreshing is part of the same phenomenon.

On the other hand, getting into the relaxation response, and allowing our bodies to rest and digest, helps us to counter the effects of stress immediately – and those effects build over time.

Sleep research shows that the ‘sleep debt’ we rack up, either by sleeping too little, staying up too late or through inability to get to sleep, can’t be repaid like paying back money owed. The body just does its best to even out over time, and if we learn to give in to our tiredness and put rest back into our lives we can re-resource ourselves. The deep rest we experience in the relaxation response is not exactly the same as sleep, but can actually be maintained for longer, because we can consciously decide to spend time there, throughout the day, putting energy back on the grid when we need it.

Reconnecting to the relaxation response can stop us from loading up on stimulants, and can recondition our capacity to get to sleep, stay asleep and sleep more deeply, and help us feel both calm and alert during the day. The restorative postures in this step support your body and help your nervous system to rest and enter the relaxation response.

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