In Motion: Seeking Sleep

All around me, people can’t sleep.

A good friend suffers from chronic insomnia, spending the wee hours of the night on Facebook and then battling exhaustion at work the next day.

My 58-year-old mother wakes up at 3 a.m. She often can’t quiet the churning in her mind, and sometimes simply begins her day at the crack of dawn.

My sister struggles with a newborn who cries to be fed every few hours. She’d nap during the day, if it weren’t for her 6-year-old, 4-year-old, and 1.5-year-old children.

And myself? I sleep through the night, but I always struggle to get enough hours. I’m a competitive rower with 5 a.m. practice, and regular alarms in the 4s suggest an evening bedtime that can be downright impossible in the adult world.

So when a fellow crew team member told me of a friend who teaches people how to fall asleep, I immediately became intrigued. I slated an appointment with Rebecca Parsons, owner of MotionSense Movement Education, and prepared myself to experience the Sounder Sleep System techniques.

Parsons began teaching Sounder Sleep System workshops only in the past year, but has been helping clients relax and feel better for far longer. She conducts classes and works with clients through the Feldenkrais Method, which uses gentle exercises to improve someone’s ease and range of motion. Parsons calls Feldenkrais an alternative to physical therapy.

Feldenkrais led Parsons to the Sounder Sleep System. She became acquainted with a fellow Feldenkrais teacher, Michael Krugman, who suffered from insomnia. Krugman told her that he couldn’t accept the idea of being dependent on sleeping pills. He began experimenting with various ways to make himself fall asleep.

Through trial and error, Krugman created the Sounder Sleep System. The techniques he developed are similar to meditation, with focused breathing and very small movements. As Parsons explained to me, Sounder Sleep teaches amped up individuals how to allow themselves to fully relax.

“We are hyper all day and have lost the capacity to rest,” Parsons said. “How can you expect to be in an adrenalized state, come home, hit the pillow, and immediately sleep?”

Sound Sleep involves several different techniques. One is simple guided natural breathing. The second, called “day tamers,” are exercises meant to be completed three times a day for 10 minutes a session. These exercises help train the brain to relax. The third type of exercises, “night tamers,” are meant to be put into practice when lying in bed and trying to fall asleep, or after waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to get back to sleep.

When Parsons heard about Krugman’s methods, she decided to sign up for a workshop. She frequently found herself awake in the middle of the night. Watching the minutes tick by on her bedside clock, Parsons grew frustrated that she couldn’t sleep. She’d stew, turn on the light to read, or toss and turn. Parsons wanted to find a new solution.

Though unsure if Krugman’s system would really work for her, Parsons decided to give it a shot. She religiously completed her day tamers three times a day, and called upon the night tamers when awake in bed. And, as Krugman suggested, Parsons rediscovered her ability to sleep.

“I’d never been so relaxed,” Parsons said.

Parsons was so impressed by the techniques, in fact, that she became a certified Sounder Sleep instructor, and began offering her own workshops and private sessions.

When I met Parsons for the first time in a local coffee shop, she described Sounder Sleep to me in words. I decided I needed to try out the methods firsthand to really grasp what she was talking about.

On a Friday afternoon at 2 p.m., I visited Parsons at her Phinney Ridge office. I figured it wouldn’t be hard for me to reach a drowsy state. After a full week of 5 a.m. crew practices, I’m usually ready to nod off by mid-day Friday.

Parsons began with guided natural breathing. Lying on her padded table, I placed my hands palm down on my belly. At her instruction, I touched my thumbs and index fingers together, forming a triangle with my hands. Listening to Parsons’ gentle voice, I focused on the rhythm of my breathing, which gradually grew more and more relaxed. By the time she led me to the next exercise, I was almost asleep.

Next, we sampled a “day tamer.” Sitting in a chair, I held my left hand with my right. On every exhaled breath, I gently pushed my right thumb into the center of my left palm. Parsons softly coached me to let my mind go, listen to my breath, and forget about the long list of tasks that lay ahead. This simple exercise, she told me, could be done three times each day.

At the end of our session, we moved into the “night tamer.” For this, I returned to the table. Again lying down, I rested my hands on my upper chest, with elbows relaxed to my sides. On every exhale, I gently pushed my thumbs against my upper torso.

Simple? Most definitely. Relaxing? Yes. I drifted into a peaceful state with each of the exercises. Of course, I was exhausted from the week, and could have easily napped without any coached breathing exercises.

The real test, I believe, will come on one of those nights when I wake up at 2 a.m. and my mind begins whirling with all the “to dos” I need to accomplish the next day. When that moment arises, I plan to put my Sounder Sleep session to a full test.

If interested in learning more about the Sounder Sleep System, Rebecca Parsons can be found at http://www.feldenkraisteachersinseattle.com/Index.html.