Trouble Sleeping? Just Breathe

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).

Alternate nostril breathing is a great way to clear obstructed nostrils, balance the yin and yang energy of the body and focusing the busy mind on the present for a deliberate and calming exercise. When our nostrils are unobstructed, we involuntarily alternate breathing through one or the other about every two hours. Breathing through your right nostril stimulates the left side of the brain (intellectual, analytical, rational thought) and prepares the body for physical action (yang energy). Breathing through your left nostril stimulates the right side of the brain (creative, emotional thought) and prepares the body for passive mental activity (yin energy). If both nostrils are not clear, breathing will become imbalanced and so will the energy in your body.

When you are feeling restless at bedtime, head outside (weather permitting obviously, but even in wintertime, you can certainly spend a couple minutes on a balcony or porch in brisk air), sit in a comfortable chair and begin the exercise. You will likely have a really hard time focusing your mind on only the breathing exercise. Establish a rule that whenever your mind wanders away from the breathing exercise to other random thoughts, you have to start over. With practice, you'll develop the esteemed ability to relax and center -- not just to calm the mind for bed but any time the stresses of life are closing in.

Alternate nostril breathing is performed as follows: Take one hand up to your face for blocking nostrils. For example, your right thumb will close off your right nostril while your right index or middle finger will close off your left nostril. Block off the right nostril and inhale fully (notice how your inhale and exhale will be slower since you are only using one nostril). Pause at the completion of your inhale and switch nostrils by using your finger to block the left nostril and releasing your thumb from the right nostril. Exhale through the right nostril, inhale through the right nostril, then pause and switch to exhale through the left nostril. Thus, you switch nostrils in the middle of the breath cycle. To complete a cycle of 10 breaths, count each inhale/exhale as one. After your complete your breathing session, you can return to bed with a calm brain and hopefully induce a good night's sleep.

For more information on How to Sleep Better, visit LIVESTRONG.COM.

Antara Kesilapan Muslim Di Bulan Ramadhan

Antara kesilapannya ialah:

1) Makan dan minum dengan bebas setelah terbatal puasa dengan sengaja(bukan kerana uzur yg boleh diterima Islam).

Keadaan seperti ini ada disebutkan dalam hadith ertinya: "Sesungguhnya sesiapa yg telah makan(batal puasa) hendaklah ia berpuasa baki harinya itu"
(riwayat Bukhari)

2) Makan sahur di waktu tengah malam kerana malas bangun di akhir malam. "Sahur" itu sendiri dari sudut bahasanya "Aslah" (waktu terakhir di hujung malam.

Imam Ibnu Hajar menegaskan "melewatkn sahur adalah lebih mampu mencapai objektif yg diletakkan oleh NABI SAW."
(Fathul-Bari, 4/138)

3) Bersahur dengan hanya makan dan minum sahaja tanpa melakukn ibadah yang lain. Ini satu kesilapan besar bagi umat Islam kini. Waktu tersebut pada hakikatnya adalah antara waktu terbaik unntuk istighfar dan menunaikan solat malam. Waktu sahur adalah salah satu waktu dimana doa mudah untuk diangkat oleh ALLAH SWT..

4) Tidak menunaikan solat ketika berpuasa. Ini adalah satu kesilapan yg amat besar. Memang benar solat bukanlah syarat sah untuk seseorang berpuasa. Tetapi ia adalah rukun Islam yg menjadi tunggak kepada keISLAMan seseorang. Sesungguhnya solat itu adalah soalan pertama yg akan ditanya oleh ALLAH kpd kita di akhirat kelak.

5) Bermalasan dan tidak produktif dalam kerja2 di siang hari dgn alasan berpuasa. Sedangkan kerja yg kiter lakukan di pejabat atau di mana2 tempat kerja pun, bila diniatkan Ibadah maka sudah pastinya akan menambahkan lagi pahala untuk kita.

6) Memperbanyakkan tidur di siang hari dengan alasan ia adalah satu ibadah. Sedangkan Imam As-Suyuti menegasakan bahawa hadith yg menyebut berkenaan tidur orang berpuasa itu ibadah adalah amat lemah.
(Al-Jami' as-Soghir ; Faidhul Qadir, Al-Munawi,6/ 291)

7) Tidak mengutamakan solat subuh berjemaah sebagaimana tarawih. Ramai yang lupa & tidak mengetahui kelebihan besar semua solat Fardhu berbanding solat sunat, terutama sekali solat Subuh Berjemaah yang disebut oleh NABI SAW: "Bagi orang yg mendirikan solat Subuh secara berjemaah, maka beroleh pahala menghidupkan seluruh malam.

8) Menunaikan solat Tarawih di masjid dengan niat sekadar inginkn meriah. Malangnya mereka kerana setiap amalan adalah dikira berdasarkan niat, jika niat utama seseorang itu(lelaki mahupun wanita) hadir ke masjid adalah untuk meriah, dan bukannya atas dasar keimanan dan mengharapkan ganjaran redha ALLAH SWT sebagaimana yg ditetapkan oleh NABI SAW di dalam hadith:

ertinya: "sesungguhnya amalan itu adalah dikira dengan niat".
(Riwayat Bukhari)

9) Memasuki Ramadhan dengan keadaan harta masih lagi dipenuhi dengan harta haram, sama ada terlibat dengan pinjaman rumah, kad kredit, insurans, pelaburan dan kereta secara riba'.
Ini sudah tentu akan memberi kesan yg amat nyata kepada kualiti ibadah di bulan Ramadhan. Kerana status orang yang terlibat dengan riba' adalah berperang dengan ALLAH & RasulNYA.. wal'iyazubillahi min zaalik..

Wallahu'alam. ..

Scientists find rare gene behind short sleepers

WASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered a gene that helps a mother and daughter stay alert on about six hours sleep a night, two hours less than the rest of their family needs.

It's believed to be a very rare mutation, not an excuse for the rest of us who stay up too late. But the finding, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, offers a new lead to study how sleep affects health.

The National Institutes of Health says adults need seven hours to nine hours of sleep for good health. Regularly getting too little increases the risk of health problems, including memory impairment and a weakened immune system. A major 2006 study estimated that as many as 30 million Americans suffer chronic insomnia, and millions more have other sleep disorders, including sleep apnea.

University of California, San Francisco, researchers have long hunted genes related to how and when people sleep. In 2001, they discovered a mutation that puts its carriers' sleep patterns out of whack: These people regularly go to bed around 7:30 p.m. and wake around 3:30 a.m.

Now the same team has found a gene involved in regulating length of sleep. In one family, the 69-year-old mother and her 44-year-old daughter typically go to bed around 10 p.m., and Mom rises around 4 and her daughter around 4:30, with no apparent ill effects. The rest of the family has typical sleep patterns.

Blood tests showed the women harbored a mutation in a gene named DEC2 that's involved in regulation of circadian rhythms, the body's clock. A check of more than 250 stored DNA samples didn't find another carrier.

Then lead researcher Ying-Hui Fu, a neurology professor, and colleagues bred mice and fruit flies that carried the mutation. Sure enough, the flies' activity and brain-wave measurements on the mice showed those with the mutation slept less — and the mice needed less time to recover from sleep deprivation.

The result: A model that "provides a unique opportunity" to study the effects of different amounts of sleep, Fu concluded.

Rujukan:

http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/us_med_sleep_gene.html

Katak Pelik

Kodok jenis ini ditemukan di India tahun 2003. Jenis makhluk ini tidak pernah ditemukan dibenua manapun sebelum 2003. Kodok ini hidup di radius 14 km bahagian selatan India.
Para ahli mengatakan bahwa makhluk jenis ini adalah mutant, ada juga yang percaya bahwa kodok ini hidup pada zaman Dinosaurus

Spoiler for unusual frog:

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