Why You Should Be Asleep by 10 PM (Or Risk Pitta's Wrath

Our circadian rhythm really wants to help us, but we need to help it.

Photo by Tristan Colangelo on Unsplash

Namaste!

This post is late because I’ve been learning to sleep—not just the “put your head on the pillow, close your eyes, and drift off” kind of sleep. I’m talking about switching off the mental gymnastics: the self-talk, the cajoling, the deal-making, and the rationalizations that we all go through in our minds.

In the last few months, two highly qualified Ayurvedic health professionals have prescribed something surprising: Sleep, with a capital S. I spoke to them separately, describing the issues I needed help with. Without going into too much detail, the issues have to do with persistent issues with improper digestion. Or Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS_D) The Ayurvedic professionals didn’t consult with each other, yet both emphasized the same thing:

IT IS CRUCIAL THAT I AM ASLEEP BEFORE 10 PM on most nights.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Not at all. Being prescribed a pill, which I have been in the past, is the easy part. It takes about three seconds to pop the pill in my mouth and swallow it with a couple of sips of water. Done. But creating the environment and habits that allow me to follow this new sleep schedule? That’s the hard part.

Photo by pina messina

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I decided to give the Sleep with a big S a try …

On a Monday, I turned off the lights at 9:30 PM. I felt silly. How can adults sleep so early? Well, this adult was told by two other very smart adults to do just that.

I turned on the Do Not Disturb feature on my phone. I was also advised not to listen to audiobooks as a way to fall asleep (which has been my way for more than a decade) but instead to listen to Yoga Nidra, a form of guided meditation that is used for a variety of purposes like reducing stress, improving sleep, enhancing creativity and more. It's a practice that can be done by anyone, regardless of experience with yoga or meditation, and it requires nothing more than a quiet space and a comfortable place to lie down. It's a powerful tool for self-care, offering benefits that go beyond simple relaxation, helping to bring balance to the mind and body.  

This exercise requires a device, but that’s the world we live in. Sigh.

I listened to Yoga Nidra on Spotify with earnestness.

In the beginning, the guide kept talking about adjusting my position to get relaxed and comfortable. I had a vision of what that should be (corpse pose), but that wasn’t comfortable, so I decided to make it my own version of comfortable. Since it was the first time I was listening to this, I followed the instructions while also assessing whether I would want to listen to it every night until I learned to fall asleep on my own. In a couple of minutes, I began to relax—or at least I thought I was relaxing. I followed more instructions telling me to focus on various parts of my head and face. Then my mind started a condescending monologue:

Remember when you could fall asleep anywhere? Remember when the question of whether you’ll have a good night’s sleep wasn’t even in your vocabulary?

Back to Yoga Nidra — I was being asked to focus on the upper part of my neck while breathing and letting go of any of the day’s tensions.

Monologue continues: Remember when…

I had some angry thoughts towards this voice in my mind asking me to remember when… but I pushed through and, in time, was focusing on my toes, as guided by the voice of the Yoga Nidra lady. Not sure when I fell asleep, but I did. Yay me. That was day one.

I didn’t set an alarm to wake up the next morning. I wanted to see when I would naturally wake up after having slept at or close to 10 PM. Believe it or not, I was up at 5:45 AM. This doesn’t mean that I was really up.

I was simply impressed that my eyes opened. I went to the loo, and then came back to bed. I told myself to have a more concrete plan about what I should or wanted to do when I sleep early and wake up early.

The next day, I had class until 10:30 PM, which made the prescribed timing of sleeping between 9 and 10 moot. I finished class, and instead of being up until after midnight as I normally would, I went to sleep within an hour after class ended. I also fell off the wagon and listened to an audiobook to help me fall asleep. I was proud that I had the intent to sleep early though.

Most challenging was making adjustments in my day that would allow me to sleep early. I didn’t always succeed, but I did notice that I was waking up earlier and feeling less groggy.

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What’s all this fuss about sleeping early? You may or may not be thinking right now.

Let me introduce you to the concept of Pitta time, the window from 10 PM to 2 AM when Pitta dosha takes the stage. Pitta is made up of fire and water elements, and it’s responsible for digestion, metabolism, and transformation—basically, it’s the overachiever of doshas. When we’re awake during Pitta time, this dosha kicks into high gear, but not in a way that helps you burn calories or accomplish your late-night to-do list. Instead, it revs up your internal engine, making it harder to unwind, relax, and, most importantly, sleep.

Now, let’s talk about Kapha. This is the dosha that governs structure, stability, and calm. It’s like the cozy blanket that makes you want to snuggle up and drift off. Kapha time is from 6 PM to 10 PM, and this is the golden window where your body naturally starts to wind down. If you’re still awake at 10 PM, you miss out on Kapha’s mellow vibes, and Pitta comes barging in, bringing with it a second wind that’s more like a wildfire.

I talked in more detail about the Ayurveda clock in a previous post. Click here to read it: https://allthingsfood.substack.com/i/145068268/lets-take-sleep-for-instance

Photo by Ochir-Erdene Oyunmedeg on Unsplash

If you’re like most people, the thought of going to bed by 10 PM feels like a Herculean task. There’s always that one last episode to watch, a few more emails/texts to send, or, let’s be honest, an entire Instagram reels rabbit hole to fall down. Your rabbit hole could include things I haven’t mentioned here - we all have that rabbit hole — don’t we? But according to Ayurveda, your nightly Netflix binge might be wreaking more havoc on your body than you think.

So, here’s my challenge to you: give the 10 PM bedtime a shot for a week. See how you feel. If you’re anything like me, you might just find that a little Kapha-induced sleep is the secret sauce you’ve been missing. And if you do, let me know—maybe we can start a 10 PM bedtime club. Pajamas optional, but highly recommended.

Note: A key principle in Ayurveda is that it requires the patient to participate in their own care. That’s both the challenge and the beauty of it. Ayurveda puts a lot of responsibility on the individual. One can either complain about it or see it as something empowering. The patient has a lot of control over their well-being, rather than following the advice of a medical professional blindly.