Rubin Naiman, Ph.D.

When I was a little boy and happened not to be feeling well, my mother would ask me three questions. Having grown up in an old world village, she clung to simpler, traditional views of health, including her folksy health assessment.

Her first question was, "What did you eat?"

Today, more than ever, we are aware of the impact our diets have upon our health. Despite this, much of the modern world remains overfed, yet simultaneously undernourished. We simply consume too many empty, high-glycemic calories that provide quick energy, but limited nutrition. Such eating habits have been strongly linked to chronic inflammation -- one of the most overlooked issues in our disturbed sleep epidemic. Read more…

I believe that dreaming is among the most critical misunderstood and overlooked factors in our health, well-being and spiritual development. In contrast to waking, which is usually about an intentional, concrete and active relationship with the world around us, dreaming is more about a receptive, expansive, ephemeral and dynamic relationship with the world within us.

Dreaming plays a critical role in learning and the formation of certain kinds of memory. Dreaming also helps us heal from emotional losses. People who don't dream well can suffer memory loss. And people who dream well heal from emotional loss more quickly.

Yoga for the Soul Read more…

Prescriptions for hypnotics, or so-called sleeping pills, exceeded 56 million in 2008, representing a record 54% increase in just four years. The term hypnotic, like hypnosis, is derived from Hypnos, the sweet-natured Greek god of sleep. Hypnosis, however, is not about sleep. It is, in fact, a heightened state of waking consciousness. Hypnosis derived its name from Hypnos simply because hypnotized people look like they are asleep. But they are not.

The same can be said of people on hypnotics. They just look like they're asleep. I think Hypnos would turn over in his grave because the drugs that are his namesake do not provide true sleep. At best, they produce a kind of faux sleep -- a chemical knock out with potentially serious health consequences. Read more…