If you want to, you can watch sound healer Jim Donovan deliver a 12-minute TEDx Talk (or read the transcript) on how he finally figured out how to get a great night’s sleep — and it was super-simple.
Or here’s the quick summary:
Donovan used to be the drummer for Rusted Root, and that lifestyle led him to getting maybe 4 hours of sleep a night, eventually causing a massive anxiety attack and waking him up to the fact that his health was at great risk because of his poor sleep.
He tried everything to get a good night’s sleep, without much improvement. Then he finally realized that the answer was in the drum exercise he taught at the beginning of his workshops, the one that his students told him made them feel so relaxed.
The exercise, which he calls brain tapping, is based on a brain phenomenon called “frequency-following response.” Donovan explains, “This is a very fancy way of saying that your brain loves to follow rhythmic repeating patterns.”
To do the exercise, sit on the edge of the bed, close your eyes, put your hands in your lap, and then start drumming lightly on the tops of your thighs. Tap alternately right leg, left leg, right leg, left leg — about 4 taps per second.
Once you’ve got that going, add breathing: Breathe in as you count to 4, and then breathe out as you count to 4.
Do this for 3 minutes, then tap / breathe more and more slowly for another 30 seconds.
That’s it. You’re getting very sleepy….
