The reality is we live in a 24/7 society …
If you don’t take measures to recover from this daily onslaught of information overload and “go! go! go!” pace we have these days, it catches up and spanks you ...
For some people, it’s a stress-related chronic health condition, but for most of us, it shows up as fatigue during the day … low energy and waking up feeling tired.
As someone who used to struggle with this a LOT, I can’t think of a worse way to start your day.
That’s why I often focus on things that help you recover because we simply don’t get enough recovery time these days … and the best recovery time, of course, is sleep …
I will do dang near anything to support a great night’s sleep.
As I’ve said before many times, it’s the quality of sleep you get, not the quantity of sleep that matters ...
1. Stress
2. Irritability
3. Weight gain
4. Chronic health problems
4. Reduced cognitive ability.
At minimum, you should avoid any blue light exposure two hours before bed, take magnesium in the evenings, and unplug your Wi-Fi – these are foundational steps nearly everyone can take.
NOW … if you want to have even more restful sleep - with no effort required on your part - welcome back to our conversation …
Recently, we’ve been discussing passive ways to reduce stress and achieve restful, deep-healing sleep using sound.
So if you haven’t already, check out pts. 1-3 of our “Healthy Sounds Good” series to get up to speed …
In this segment, I want to explore the background and science behind some of the best ways to experience music for relaxation and better sleep ...
In particular, an ancient form of music that instantly puts you into a state of deep relaxation …
Essentially, you just sit around and listen to this music, and it soothes your nervous system into a state of tranquility that sets you up for a great night of sleep.
It’s an all-natural, extremely low-effort way to wind down at the end of the day, and I’ve been really digging it …
You just hit “play” and do whatever it is you’re going to do – cook, read, hang out, whatever - and in 30-40 minutes, you’ll have problems keeping your eyes open!
It’s crazy how well it works …
So … what is it exactly?
To that end, let’s start at the beginning …
You see, in ancient times, there was a 6-tone scale used in sacred music …
It was used in Gregorian Chants, later popularized by the Roman Catholic Church, and many of Mozart’s greatest works used it.
Archaic Egyptian and Greek instruments have been unearthed in good enough condition to see how they were tuned …
It was to this “Lost Scale.”
However, for reasons unknown, the entire world started switching from the pure tones of this scale in the late 1800’s to the “detuned” one we use today …
By WW2, the transition was complete, which is highly unfortunate because music tuned to this “Lost Scale” is more harmonic and pleasant to listen to …
Music tuned the ancient way is softer and brighter so easier on the ears; therefore, many people experience more meditative and relaxing states of body and mind when listening to such music.
The reason why is this old, 6-tone scale uses “Solfeggio” or “Solfeggio Frequencies” that have uniquely beneficial properties on the human nervous system.
So … what does it actually do?
Music using Solfeggio Tones is more harmonic and pleasant to listen to (actually requiring less volume to hear clearly) because each one of the 6 tones on the scale has a balancing effect on your body.
I know, when I run into that word online it kind of drives me nuts, too ... What does “balancing” even mean? Basically ...
If you’re in a sympathetic, or stressed state - which in our society today means most of the time - these tones will take you out of that state and place you into a parasympathetic or healing state.
In short, this balances you out through a principle known as “Entrainment.”
“Entrainment” is simply the alignment of your internal rhythms - in this case, your brainwaves - to the rhythms, or frequencies, in your environment.
There’s all kinds of ways to access this like Grounding, for example, which normalizes your circadian clock …
Or using a PEMF (Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field) unit to broadcast various helpful frequencies that your brain then entrains to ...
But Sound is probably the most powerful and fastest-acting way to experience beneficial entrainment effects for yourself.
Music using the Solfeggio scale has a powerful entrainment effect, particularly for reducing stress and promoting relaxation and sleep.
This is pretty incredible for what I call “Transition Time” – you know, that bridge of time between your active day and winding down for bed we talked about?
You just sit around and listen to this music and it soothes your nervous system into a state of tranquility that sets you up for a great night of sleep, as I said before …
Next time, we’ll talk about how to actually do this, what to look for in Solfeggio Tones, and a few other neat things …
Including one vitamin you might not know about but should be taking every day … Vitamin “S” …
So be sure to “tune” in next time for pt. 5 of our “Healthy Sounds Good” series to find out what it is …
‘Til Then … To Your Better Health,
Theo