(...contd. From last week)
A British medical journal had recently published a report about experiments that have shown that sympathy can work well in cases of sleep disorders. It further said that in one trial, the doctors, instead of giving tranquilisers as they would have normally given, spent some time with the patients and talked with them in an open atmosphere. They just had a brief chat with them, with sympathy and also gave them a few words of advice and explained them why they had those conditions.
There was no attempt at psychotherapy as such, but simply an attempt at being sympathetic. The results of these informal chats were astounding and the follow-up assessment showed that, with this replacement of allopathy by sympathy, depression in those patients dropped from a level of 80 per cent to 40 per cent and the additional benefits were that the patients suffered no side-effects and were more satisfied and they recovered much faster.
The other fact being realised is that the mental depression, anxiety, etc. are mainly due to certain lifestyles, behavioural patterns and personality traits. It was also felt that the pattern of behaviour, designated as type ‘A’ which is characterised by competitiveness, impatience, etc., predisposes a person to coronary diseases, hypertension, etc. As a result of these new findings, the doctors all over the world are now increasingly advising such patients to practise meditation and to have proper dietary patterns.
It’s a medically proven fact that mental ill-health adversely affects one’s eating habits, which in turn, drastically influences our sleep and health. For instance, those who have several cups of tea, coffee, and colas intake lots of caffeine within which contributes to their inability to sleep. Under such a medical condition, proper meditation techniques can be of great help if practiced regularly.
In the hustle and bustle of living a modern life, we tend to forget that it is the quality of life that matters the most and not the quantity. Hence if we jeopardize our sleep for silly reasons, we are knowingly undermining our health. So, it is better to be wise for our own health benefit and make a habit to meditate daily before going to bed to disengage the mind from thoughts to give it sleep-inducing relaxation.
(The writer is a spiritual educator and popular columnist for publications across India, Nepal and UK. You can write to him at nikunjji@gmail.com)
