Zoom class on Sleep Recovery with Julie Berrie February 12th 2022
Julie fully engaged the attention of 19 attendees on the topic of Sleep Recovery. She has a lovely voice and a great deal of knowledge to convey from her recent study of the subject. Today’s event was an introduction to the topic which she will be offering as a 5-week course to those interested, probably in May. (Contact Sue Hargreaves for more information)
Some statistics:
- 1/3 adults UK experience problems with their sleep
- Tendency for more women than men to be affected
- Mythical 8 hours a night – depends on age, personality traits etc
- Consider changing habits. Self sabotaging e.g. caffeine from 4pm coffee still around 12pm
- Vagus nerve important in controlling “rest and digest mode” needed for sleep
Julie provided a toolkit to practice regularly in the day (“take a pause of two”) and/or at bedtime:
“Interesting/helpful use of pranayama techniques in pose, just short of yin yoga, along with multiple short meditation sessions. “ Thanks for this feedback from a newly qualified teacher.
After a short stillness/sense awareness practice Julie introduced the pre-sleep sequence. The number of postures can be reduced /increased according to need. Julie taught us the drop breath to combine with these gentle postures. This technique lowers the nervous system and releases the emotions. Inhalation through the nose is followed by long smooth exhalation, like a big sigh out, dropping breath down the body, with the jaw, face and forehead fully relaxed and the mouth open. Feedback from an attendee suggests it could be applied to those mindfulness moments in the day and great to theme a class around. All postures and movements between were slow and smooth to relax the muscles and bring down the nervous system e.g. gentle cat without raised head.
A mindfulness exercise was simple but effective in moving the thinking mind into present moment focus. After briefly closing eyes and settling the breath we opened eyes to focus on 3 objects in the room, noticing colour, shapes, texture. Then closed eyes and listened to 3 sounds. Recent research has shown focussing fully on a simple image for just 17 seconds can slow brain waves.
“Really liked the message about widening our present moment. Julie held her hands together, then moved them apart to emphasise. “ Thanks again to one of our recently qualified teachers.
Best Teaching Practice
“Technique and message constantly reinforced, which in turn released mental and physical tension in stages over 90 minutes. Really beneficial.” Newly qualified teacher
Explanation and Introduction of the drop breath was well handled. It was introduced to us slowly. We practised an initial seated breath observation then lengthened the exhalation, possibly using ujjayi. From there Julie demonstrated drop breath, explaining how to practise it and its benefits. She supported us to practise it; first seated and then with lying postures, when we felt comfortable.
Thank you to Julie for leading this informative, unusual and useful workshop. Also thanks to CYTA for arranging the event and to all attendees for their interest and contributions.
Article by Judith Lynch