Extract taken from Learn to Sleep Well by Chris Idzikowski. Available October RRP $19.99. Published by Duncan Baird.
The ancient Chinese art of Feng Shui (pronounced "fung shway") draws upon the philosophical belief that our health, wellbeing and prosperity can be enhanced by harmonizing the invisible but powerful universal energy (qi) that flows throughout our environment.
Literally meaning "wind-water" (the elements that the Chinese believed first carved out the land), Feng Shui has been practised in the East for several millennia and has now become highly popular in the West.
Originally, Feng Shui was used to find the most auspicious burial sites for the dead (this specialist Feng Shui practice is termed Yin Zhai). However, the modern practice of Feng Shui draws upon the general ancient principle that by balancing two complementary yet opposing elemental forces, known as yin and yang, we can harmonize qi in our environment (a practice specifically termed Yang Zhai).
While yin is regarded as the passive, dark, feminine force, yang is the dynamic, light, masculine energy. It is particularly important to balance yin and yang in the bedroom as our sleep surroundings need to be both relaxing (yin) to encourage sleep and energizing (yang) to invigorate us upon waking.
According to the principles of Feng Shui, your bedroom should be a regular shape (ideally a square or a rectangle), simply decorated and free from clutter. Try sitting on your bed and examining the room. Can you see any items that have no business in a sleeping environment — a computer, for example, or outdoor coats hanging on the back of the door? Remove anything that you think does not belong there. Clothes and toiletries should be stored in cupboards and kept out of sight as much as possible to reduce visual over-stimulation.
You should avoid having mirrors on the walls (try putting them on the inside of your wardrobe doors instead), unless your bedroom is not square or rectangular, in which case a mirror should be placed to reflect an angle into the space where a corner is missing. If you need a mirror in your bedroom, try not to place it opposite the bed as it will reflect energy back at you while you sleep.
The bed itself should be raised off the floor on legs, rather than being flat on the floor like a futon mattress, to encourage a balanced flow of qi around the sleeping area. Try to position the bed so that as you lie in it you are able to see people entering the room.
Feng Shui also has guidelines on placing your bed in certain energy fields. Vital energy is said to flow directly between windows and doors, and also in the area between two doors — try not to place your bed in either of these spaces as the energy there will disrupt your sleep.
Although we may enjoy the luxury of an en suite bathroom, in Feng Shui this is considered disruptive. If you do have an en suite, avoid positioning your bed between the door to the en suite and the bedroom door — otherwise your bed will be in the path of another field of conflicting energy, one cleansing, one restful. Ideally, use a moveable screen to block the energy between the two entrances — although this may impracticably reduce the space available in the room.
If direct sunlight falls across the bed during the day, try to move the bed to a more shaded position — the energy of the sun is inappropriate for a sleeping surface.
It is inadvisable to have anything, such as a picture or bookshelf, hanging on the wall above the head of your bed. To encourage good sleep, the area around where your head will lie should be kept completely uncluttered. If you live in a studio apartment, where sleeping and living space are combined, make the area immediately surrounding the bed a special space, free from objects that serve the other uses of the room.
The final factor thought to have considerable impact on both the quality and duration of our sleep is the direction in which your head points as you lie in bed.
The power of the Earth's energy
When we try to improve our sleep by changing the position of our bed it is important to take into account the energy that emanates from the land below our building. Some Feng Shui practitioners believe that this energy, known as geopathic stress, can have a considerable effect on both our sleep and our wellbeing.
If our bed is positioned over places where the earth's energy lines cross (and as a consequence electromagnetic fields build up), we might suffer from sleep disturbances, such as sleepwalking or nightmares. But people who are especially sensitive to geopathic stress often experience minor sleep disruptions. For example, they may find that they habitually wake up in one particular corner of the bed, as they instinctively move away from an energy field.
Often such problems can be solved simply by moving the bed, but if sleep is severely disrupted, it may be advisable to call in a professional dowser to pinpoint the problematic areas.
Extract taken from Learn to Sleep Well by Chris Idzikowski. Available October RRP $19.99. Published by Duncan Baird.
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