Ayurveda for Insomnia Relief: Can You Say Vata Dosha?

If you’ve looked high and low for natural sleep remedies without much result, you might find it useful to look into Ayurvedic insomnia treatments. Ayurveda provides some great insights into insomnia disorders, why they occur, and it offers many natural insomnia remedies and herbs.

Balancing the Three Doshas for Better Sleep and Greater Health

Like most health issues, insomnia disorders result from underlying imbalances in the body—be they from stress, hormonal imbalances, digestive disturbances, and so on. More specifically, according to Ayurveda, many people develop problems sleeping when the equilibrium the three doshas, Vata, Pitta, and Kapha, goes out of balance.

According to Ayurveda, the three doshas are the three basic biological forces that underlie the functions of the body. When the three doshas are in balance, mind and body function optimally and we enjoy great health. If one or more doshas are out of balance, we will experience some kind of health disturbance, ranging from mild to severe, based on how imbalanced the function of the doshas is. Ayurvedic healing remedies aim to restore greater balance to the specific doshas that are out of balance.

Recommendations for Vata Dosha Imbalance

The doshas are also associated with our constitutional types—most people have a predominance of one or two doshas in their body. People with a predominanatly Vata constitution, for example, tend to be thinly built, have prominent joints, and dry skin and hair. Vata people are light sleepers and more likely to have problems sleeping. Vata is known as the King dosha, because its activity tends to affect the other two doshas as well.

When imbalanced, Vata can show up as a hyperactive mind (too much movement); as worry, fear, anxiety, or loss of focus. Aggravated Vata is usually involved when a person experiences difficulty falling or staying asleep, because the mind is constantly going. A jittery, restless, frazzled, nervous, or hyperactive feeling is a sure sign of aggravated Vata.

The best way to balance Vata and cure insomnia is to follow a Vata-balancing diet and lifestyle to help restore the level of Vata in the physiology to its normal proportion. To balance Vata dosha, avoid eating dry or raw foods, and drinking ice-cold beverages. Other factors that aggravate Vata is an irregular routine, too much travel, and mental overexertion.