Power of meditation

Koreans are workaholics. They work 43 hours a week. Americans work lesser, 34 hours a week. Europeans stack up even lower; French and Germans put in less than 30 hours at work. However, these high-income nations have less to worry, unlike India. From pulling people out of poverty, generating jobs for all, fixing rickety infrastructure, our to-do-list runs long. It’s no wonder, then, that an average Indian already puts in 40 hours a week at work. And our Prime Minister Narendra Modi even more, according to reports.

While a developing nation like India needs to burn the midnight oil, it should also sleep tight. On the eve of the third year of international yoga day celebrations, hard-working Indians should take cognisance of ‘meditation’, one of the eight ‘limbs’ of yoga. It will not only ensure a sound sleep today, but also a good day tomorrow.

While ‘sound’ sleep is a relative concept, modern science as well as the ancient Upanishads have an explanation for it. Upanishads classify three states of consciousness of an individual. The Jagrat (wakeful) state, the Svapna (dream) and the Sushupti (deep-sleep or dreamless sleep). From a Vedic perspective, a sound sleep is about slipping into the ‘deep sleep’ stage, when there are no dreams.

A Harvard study done some time back using electroencephalogram (EEG) had an interesting finding. It found that people who meditate are able to quickly move into the ‘deep sleep’ stage than those who don’t. In other words, an average meditator moves from the ‘wakeful’ stage to that of ‘deep sleep’ much quicker than the rest. Let’s say, if it is three hours for a non-meditator, it is one hour for meditators. The takeaway being that by meditating, you can sleep for lesser hours, and yet get a ‘sound’ sleep to start the next day afresh.

The study used the EEG to record the brain’s electrical activity. It classified the brain waves into five types — Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta and Gamma. Beta is indicative of the ‘wakeful’ state, mentioned in the Upanishads, where there is increased activity of the brain. Heightened state of alertness, logical reasoning as well as stress during this stage keep the EEG graph highly volatile.

And when you close your eyes, you usually slip into the Alpha. Here the brain activity is relatively less volatile than Beta. And you may encounter dreams and instances of feeling relaxed. When the sleep become subtler, you slip into the ‘Theta’ stage, where the sleep is even finer as you momentarily slip into the REM dream state. Alpha and Beta resembles the ‘dream’ state, elucidated by the Upanishads.

And when sleep becomes even finer, you slip into Theta’, where the brain is in deep freeze. There are no dreams and the sleep is of very high quality. It is equivalent of deep sleep or dreamless sleep as mentioned in the Upanishads. ‘Theta’ is very important from a healing and regenerative perspective and all those aspiring for a sound sleep should try to slip into that stage at the earliest.

So, it is not the hours of sleep that matters. It is all about getting to the ‘theta’ stage at the earliest. While one might have occasional instances of dreamless sleep, the trick is to get into it at all times. Moreover, get to that stage as soon as possible. Modi once said, he usually falls asleep within 30 seconds of hitting the bed. Probably, the yoga effect is already working for him. Indians just need to ‘catch up’.

Today is International Yoga Day