Do you wake up with aches and pains, even though you slept deeply? Maybe you were too relaxed!
Can you be “too relaxed”?
Consider being extremely relaxed — all your muscles are completely relaxed, in your arms, hands, shoulders, chest, abdomen, thigh, calf, even your feet. What can you don – nothing! Even to breathe you must have some tonus for your diaphragm to contract and relax, and for your eyes to be open and to focus.
By “tonus” I mean the degree of tightness of the musculature. You can sense a localized tonus by flexing a finger. Or, if you flex the whole hand, the tonus is a little more general. Interestingly, by flexing both hands, there is a generalized tonus that begins and by releasing, a sense of relaxation (which is used by various relaxation techniques). Awareness Through Movement® lessons invite you to move in particular ways, hence requiring increased tonus, and then releasing the movement, hence reducing the tonus, producing a sense of relaxation. Thus, many people find that their general tonus is significantly decreased. And they then go to sleep.
But another aspect, that is not as well known, is that the intention of ATM® is for a person to be ready to act – as opposed to the vigilant state they might have been in, and in contrast to being so deeply relaxed so as to inhibit action. But to be ready to act implies an optimum level of tonus, not loss of tonus. This touches the surface of a whole body of understanding of the needs of the human systems sufficiently to get a glimmering of the implications for some sleep problems.
People who sleep so deeply that they lose almost complete tonus, often are awakened by aches and pains. Other people may experience acid reflux due to their digestive system slowing down. These people find that standing up, moving around alleviate these difficulties, but then they are wide awake… and maybe feel anxious about the problem returning if they fall asleep (you can see the pattern). Thus, doing ATM before sleep with the additional intention of being ready to act can help you not only fall asleep easier, but your body will learn to sleep in positions that are less likely to produce stiffness or acid reflux.
When you sleep, your mind and your body sleep, yet we often separate these two. The Feldenkrais Method brings together a congruence of the mind and body so that, as you ponder your sleep challenges, you also begin to bring together awareness of your psychological needs and the needs of your body. Through applying the principles of the Feldenkrais Method, you can begin the process of learning new ways to improve your sleep – through increasing your understanding of your sleep cycle, and doing Awareness Through Movement lessons through which you learn to reduce any anxiety and also modulate your overall muscular tonus.
