“This article by Dr Gordon Coates was originally published at http://www.wanterfall.com as a free resource for all to use.”

Can’t go to sleep. Can’t stay asleep. Don’t sleep deeply. Don’t sleep well. Wake up early. Wake up still tired. Wake up feeling anxious. Wake up feeling depressed. The list goes on…

How often have you heard, or thought, one or more of those complaints? There are so many things that can interfere with sleep, that I sometimes wonder how we ever get any at all! Occasional sleep problems are perfectly normal, of course, but insomnia can be a terrible thing if it is frequent or severe.

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Sleep songs–can songs make you sleep? OR is it the other way around -does sleep inspire songs????? The National Sleep Foundation has posted a list of the Top 100 Sleep Songs….most of these songs deal with the needing of sleep, sleep as a waste of time and/or problems with sleep–that is the negative side of sleep. Still many use songs and music to relax and to help induce sleep (See our post and suggestions). At Sleepcompass we think sleep is inspiring!

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Zen and the Art of Sleep
This is a welcomed book for the insomniac, as well as for any one with an interest in sleep. I practiced “traditional” Sleep Medicine for 20 yrs (now retired), and recognize the need for more options to help people sleep. Inspite of knowing little about Zen, I found this book was quite readable and easy to follow.
The author, Eric Chiles, suffered with insomnia for years, and pursued the traditional modalities and approaches with little success. He then took “up Zen” and found it useful in resolving his insomnia! Although the mention in the book that thinking itself interferes with sleep is well known, most of the approach to sleep and sleeplessness discussed is not something found in the Western-tradional Sleep Medicine or psychology literature. “A Zen approach is about experiencing reality free from any distortions,” “Zen is about removing all manner of

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This article 1st appeared at LIVESTRONG.COM, on Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:27pm PDT

By Brad Kearns

If your mind is racing and you are having difficulty falling asleep, a few minutes of simple but effective breathing exercises can help calm your nervous system on a chemical level and lead to greater success in hitting the sack. The awareness and control of breath has been a central component of yoga, martial arts and Taoism for thousands of years. There are dozens of different methods and exercises you can explore through a good teacher or book. The practice of breath control in yoga is called pranayama. I’ll detail a simple pranayama exercise here that is particularly effective for falling asleep called alternate nostril breathing (that’s “nadi shodana” for the Sanskrit posse out there).

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Posted on: Not Exactly Rocket Science for EveryOne on October 26, 2008 10:00 AM, by Ed Yong

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What a singular moment is the first one, when you have hardly begun to recollect yourself, after starting from midnight slumber! By unclosing your eyes so suddenly you seem to have surprised the personages of your dream in full convocation round your bed, and catch one broad glance at them before they can flit into obscurity. Or, to vary the metaphor, you find yourself for a single instant wide awake in that realm of illusions whither sleep has been the passport, and behold its ghostly inhabitants and wondrous scenery with a perception of their strangeness such as you never attain while the dream is undisturbed. The distant sound of a church-clock is borne faintly on the wind. You question with yourself, half seriously, whether it has stolen to your waking ear from some gray tower that stood within the precincts of your dream. While yet in suspense another clock flings its heavy clang over the slumbering town with so full and distinct a sound, and such a long murmur in the neighboring air, that you are certain it must proceed from the steeple at the nearest corner; You count the strokes—one, two; and there they cease with a booming sound like the gathering of a third stroke within the bell.

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We love it when our aesthetic passions line up with a good cause. The Home Duvet from Dutch By Design, a UK-based company specializing in contemporary home goods by Dutch designers, is a product that raises money for the homeless and manages to heighten awareness for the cause in a stylish way. We could see buyers loving the cause–benefiting the less fortunate–or being turned off by what they think are offensive designs. (more…)