Each morning, check off the recommendations you followed the night before to prepare your mind and body for sleep. (Do not use powdered ginger, however, as it is too hot and stimulating to take before bed.) Fresh ginger makes the milk more digestible. NOTE: You can add two pinches of grated or finely chopped fresh ginger to the milk before you boil it. Use the same recipe as above, except add two to three threads of saffron instead of nutmeg. Cardamom-Saffron Milk.
It's best to use unrefined sugar (such as Sucanat), available at health food stores. Sweeten to taste with sugar. Add two pinches of ground cardamom and two pinches of ground nutmeg. In contrast, Ayurveda considers balance in an extremely comprehensive way, taking into account mind/body behavior as well as the environmental context. Even though sleep, in a purely technical sense, can be attained through the use of tranquilizers or other medications, we've seen that loss of consciousness by artificial means will not achieve balance in the body. According to Ayurveda, sleep is one of the pillars of health - so when sleep is disturbed, it represents a basic disruption of physiological stability. It is an expression of an overall imbalance in the physiology. Because insomnia, after all, is more than just a sleep disturbance. All this will not only improve your sleep but foster success in every area of your life.
In this chapter you'll learn how to restore balance to your mind/body system through meditation, diet, exercise, and herbal food supplements. Insomnia can't be cured without treating the underlying imbalance that causes it.
