My mother doesn’t sleep. She successfully attends to a full-time job, a handful of kids, and a bigger handful of grandkids on a shockingly limited amount of rest. It’s not that she doesn’t try. She gets into her pajamas and slips into bed every night, but each morning shuffles out of the bedroom with the same puffy eyes she had when she said goodnight.

Both the traditional and alternative medicine communities have lots to say about sleep disorders. One side usually advises a heavy regimen of pharmaceutical sleep aids, while the other often skims the surface with excessively gentle treatment suggestions — sipping cups of warm tea, adding plants to the bedroom — but there is one area of complementary and alternative medicine that seems to have the most realistic take on beating insomnia.

As with other health issues, Ayurveda treats insomnia from a dosha perspective. In Restful Sleep Deepak Chopra [see LIME Videos for more Chopra] utilizes his Ayurvedic expertise to help the sleepless slumber. He advises readers to figure out which dosha group they belong to and then to treat their sleep issues accordingly. He also redefines the concept of a achieving restful sleep by suggesting that sleep cycles be synced with the cycles of nature and the state of the mind and body.

Insomniacs can become desperate for a few hours of unbroken sleep and will often try anything to experience R.E.M. My mother has been known to watch the Home Shopping Network for hours, read books cover to cover, and she has even given up on sleep completely by showering, dressing, and attempting to start her day at three a.m. When sleep just won't come, Chopra takes the opposite approach of many sleep experts and recommends staying in bed with closed eyes.

As of this weekend, Chopra's book was off my mother's night table and back on the bookshelf. It could be me, but I'm sure her dark circles were one shade lighter than they used to be.

Image: odn.ne.jp