DailyOM: You're a yoga teacher and seem very Zen. Have you ever had any trouble sleeping?
Sadie Nardini: Oh yes. I was the anti-Zen when it came to my sleep quality — for years and years. Here's why: Even though I was practicing yoga six days a week, I was a total insomniac. It was really difficult for me to fall asleep. If and when I did conk out, I'd never sleep through the night and would regularly toss and turn until the sun came up. I'd resigned myself to just being a "bad sleeper" by nature. So I tried to endure it the best I knew how. As you can imagine, especially as someone who practiced — and taught — power yoga in hectic New York City and was always on the go, it was extremely frustrating to wake up feeling more exhausted than when I went to bed. I was slogging around my daily work and life in a heavy mental and physical fog, felt like I was constantly underwater, and became desperate for a solution.
DailyOM: So what happened to turn things around?
SN: When I was at the end of my rope, I began to study sleep and brain sciences, and wellness techniques that are proven to work, along with my regular yoga training. I realized that the type of yoga I was doing was not adequately preparing me to sleep. The way I was living and moving was blocking my ability to rest and digest, and how I was sleeping and waking up was disrupting my sleep-wake circadian rhythm cycle. For example, I was doing the power yoga practice too often and, on many days, too late at night, likely causing the release of destructive, sleep-blocking cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone, and a little goes a long way. It's easy to dump too much into your system, and when this happens, it wreaks all sorts of havoc, from weight gain to fatigue during the day, and then popping wide-awake at bedtime!
I also saw that I was working out too long, too hard, and not ever counterbalancing it with specific practices meant to reset my central nervous system back to a calm, peaceful state. I didn't have an effective stress-reduction practice either, so my fast-paced lifestyle and racing mind continued into the evening and ruined my sleep. I had a consistent workout routine but no sleep routine. So I decided to go on a 10-year-long learning journey about what actually works to help us sleep better consistently. Once I put my newfound sleep plan into place, I immediately saw a huge improvement. These days, I know how to get myself quality sleep any night, and if I don't sleep well, I know exactly why and can avoid it the next time. That's empowerment!
DailyOM: Why did you decide to create a course like this for everyone else?
SN: I've felt the pain and anguish of sleeping terribly and know how quickly a bad night can wreck a whole day, and eventually, feel like it's wrecking your whole life! I also know firsthand how much power we have to change the situation, but very few people are collecting that information together, then offering a program full of all the simple, profound techniques that are out there to help. I felt — both as someone who was a certified insomniac and now sleeps great, and as a science-educated wellness instructor — that I shouldn't keep this wealth of knowledge all to myself. I needed to step up and share what I know.
DailyOM: It can be really elusive to sleep well. How confident are you that this course can help people?
SN: Very. I'm entirely confident that this program will help people, from the very first session they try. I hear all the time from people that they are shocked by how well and quickly these easy sessions work! That's because they are based on proven actions that move the body and mind out of anxiety/overdrive and into balance and deep rest. Instead of focusing on one aspect of our bodies, every session in this program is layered with multiple actions that work on all of the relaxation systems to provide the best results. This means you're multitasking on a lot of levels — brain, muscles, central nervous system, hormones, and heart rate — to ensure that you're holistically shifting into sleep, instead of just working on one area and letting the rest remain too active.
And with the addition of binaural beats, you've got an incredible ally in your quest to sleep well.
Binaural beats are mellow, soothing soundscapes that are shown to lower brainwave frequencies from the hyper, fight-or-flight mode that many of us end our busy days at, into a state of deep relaxation and even deep sleep. So you no longer have to try to think yourself into relaxing — the binaural beats are doing it for you!
DailyOM: What can people expect from this program?
SN: They'll get 10 Binaural Beat Better-Sleep Sessions, which are all 20 minutes and range from meditations to breathing to insomnia-rescue stretches and gentle evening yoga classes. Every session is set to a different binaural soundscape: alpha, delta, or theta waves — the ones that relax and calm your body and mind the most effectively. When people do even one of these sessions, they'll likely feel stress and tension melt out of their whole being. Their racing mind will slow down, restless muscles will quiet, and often, people fall asleep in the middle of the experience. They may notice that as they sleep well, their days get happier, more focused, and less stressful, and they start to become tired at the right time of night.
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