Pierre-Cécile Puvis de Chavannes: The Dream, 1883

Sleep Type: The Human Alarm Clock
You crash as soon as your head hits the pillow, but wake like clockwork at 2, 3, or 4 a.m.

What’s Going On?
“We all wake up briefly — two to three dozen times a night — without awareness or memory,” says Paul Glovinsky, Ph.D., coauthor of “The Insomnia Answer.”  If you’re all too aware of your awakenings, a number of things may be going on.  Simple conditioning, a la Pavlov’s dogs, could be to blame.  Your body can be “on the lookout for that awakening, especially if there’s a clock in the bedroom,” Glovinksy says.  Also consider stress: You may fall asleep out of pure exhaustion, but as soon as your sleep needs are slightly quenched, anxieties wake you up again.  For some people, says Rubin Naiman, Ph.D., director of Sleep Programs at Miraval Resort, the body’s inner clock, or circadian rhythms, may be malfunctioning

What to Do
Whatever’s behind your awakenings, hiding your neon time reminder is step one.  This would be the perfect time to get the Zen Alarm Clock in the Digital style (so you could close the lid) or the original style without the light.   If you can’t see the clock, you won’t panic as you calculate how many hours remain until daybreak — and how little you’ve slept. “Put it on the floor or close the cover to the Zen Clock,” says Joyce Walsleben, R.N., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine at New York University. “When the alarm chimes, you can get up, but otherwise, you’re in bed to sleep.” For many people, this simple shift alone reconditions their brain.

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.

What makes this gentle awakening experience so exquisite is the sound of the natural acoustic chime, which has been tuned to produce the same tones as the tuning forks used by musical therapists. According to the product’s inventor, Steve McIntosh, “once you experience this way of being gradually awakened with beautiful acoustic tones, no other alarm clock will ever do.”

adapted from Body + Soul, May 2008 by Sarah Schmelling

Alarm Clocks for a Progressive Awakening, Zen Clocks in Digital Styles

Now & Zen – The Most Gentle Alarm Clocks with Chimes

Visit Our Shop

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

Isoda Koryusai, Japanese (active c. 1764–1788), Courtesan Playing the Samisen

Home is a container of soul health.  The roof and walls shelter and nurture the spark of life that animates our modes of dwelling.  They define the setting where soul health is transformed from raw energy into the ­myriad experiences of living. Furniture, clothing, and other objects foster the inner work of the psyche.  The bed encourages the soul to dream and make love.  Each element of home plays its role in bringing forth the latent possibilities of soul.

The headlines of spiritual experience are often grabbed by dramatic tales of angelic light and celestial encounters, but soulfulness mainly grows within the realms of everyday life.  A cozy moment in bed that warms a deep place within us, a conversation at the kitchen table that connects parent and child, and other common experiences sustain and enrich the depths of who we are.

The needs of soul health are satisfied through the archetypal actions of human dwelling —cooking, eating, gathering with others, sleeping, dreaming, lovemaking, bathing, managing finances, and solitude. Cook­ing, for example, is a practical activity that creates edible meals; it also cares for the souls health creative urge to transform the raw stuff of life into digestible and appetizing forms. Eating satisfies the hunger in our bellies, but also satisfies the soul’s desire for fulfillment.

Bamboo Digital Chime Clock, a calming timer and alarm clock made from natural materials like bamboo, walnut, and maple

The rooms and furniture of your home are more than a mere collection of isolated objects. They are tangible nurturers of soul health.  A home for the soul sparks our imagination.  Its architecture and furnishings offer more than mechanical functions and urge us to explore the essence of who we truly are.  Colors, textures, and shapes act as bridges that lead our attention from the material world of isolated objects into the interconnected realm of he spirit.

A home for the soul offers more than one level of experience at a time.  It simultaneously addresses all levels of mind, body, and environment—our myths, ­emotions, thoughts, senses, actions, bodily functions, and the ecological processes of nature.  The bathtub of such a home might honor Venus’s desire for beauty, ease the conflict of a hectic day, warm and soothe the body, cleanse the skin’s pores, and connect us to the sprinkling of rain and the flowing of streams.

Kitagawa Utamaro, Komuraski of the Tamaya, House After a Bath, 1795

A home for the soul is not a material goal to be acquired, but a setting for inquiring into the processes of living. Within its walls we can discover how the germ of consciousness within us grows to become the events and circumstances that define our existence.  We can discern the links between our personal needs and dreams and the universal forces that shape the cosmos.  In a home for the soul health, common objects and actions become symbols that at once hide and reveal the deeper powers that animate our lives.

A home for the soul has character and personality.  It contains rich textures and colors that invite the hand and delight the eye.  It reflects subtle gradations of light that range from murky shadows to shimmering points of illumination.  Forms are imaginative and reveal how they support activity.  There is care and attention to detail. Natural materials such as wood, stone, wool, silk, and cotton are used to create an environment that opens to the vitality of sunlight and fresh air.  A home for the souls health is a sensuous dwelling place that urges us to savor the mingling of spirit and matter.

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.  Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime.  When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong.  Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later.  The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper.  This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.

Zen Chime Clock with Japanese Maple Leaves in Honey Finish, an alarm clock for your body, mind and spirit

Now & Zen – The Gentle, Soothing Alarm Clock Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

adapted from Natural Home, July/August 1999

Reprinted from Home for the Soul by Anthony Lawlor. Copyright © 1997, Anthony Lawlor. Reprinted with permission of Clarkson N. Potter, a division of Crown Publishers.

yoga practice in bamboo

As Robert Svoboda attempts to summarize the three major paths of the Vedic knowledge, he writes:

Because every embodied individual is composed of a body, a mind and a spirit, the ancient Rishis of India who developed the Science of Life organized their wisdom into three bodies of knowledge:  Ayurveda, which deals mainly with the physical body; Yoga, which deals mainly with spirit; and Tantra, which is mainly concerned with the mind.

The philosophy of all three is identical; their manifestations differ because of their differing emphases.  Ayurveda is most concerned woth the physical basis of life, concentrating on its harmony of mind and spirit.  Yoga controls body and mind to enable them to harmonize with spirit, and Tantra seeks to use the mind to balance the demands of body and spirit.

Use our unique “Zen Clock” which functions as a Yoga Timer.  It features a long-resonating acoustic chime that brings your meditation or yoga session to a gradual close, preserving the environment of stillness while also acting as an effective time signal. Our Yoga Timer & Clock can be programmed to chime at the end of the meditation or yoga session or periodically throughout the session as a kind of sonic yantra. The beauty and functionality of the Zen Clock/Timer makes it a meditation tool that can actually help you “make time” for meditation in your life. Bring yourself back to balance.

adapted from wikipedia.org

Meditation & Yoga Timers and Clocks

Now & Zen’s Yoga Timer Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

Utamaro Kitagawa, The Courtesan Hanaogi of Ogiya, Ukiyo-e Woodblock Print

As far back as 300 B.C., the philosopher Chuang Tzu observed that when an archer was practicing, he shot with calming relaxation and skill.  When a moderate financial award was placed in front of the archer, he got a little tense, his aim faltered and he often missed the target.  When a large award was offered for his accuracy, he became nervous and worried, with obvious results. This led Chuang Tzu to wryly observe that, “He who looks too hard on the outside gets clumsy on the inside.”

In modern times people who play golf find their swing is near perfect when there is no ball to hit. But once a ball is placed on the tee and someone is keeping score, the inexperienced golfer’s swing inevitably fails and the ball goes off its intended path.  When a golfer has a drink, he often becomes more relaxed and his game improves.  So even though a specific feat can be improved by artificial means, it is at the expense of our being fully present and reduces our ability to respond to other circumstances.  Imagine how our performance in everyday life would improve if we could learn to find rest and calming relaxation from within ourselves.

The question is, “How could we relax in the process of living?” or, “How can we have rest in our daily lives? How do we live for the rest of our lives?”

Ohara Koson (Shoson) 1877-1945, Ukiyo-e

Here are six resting points or techniques that can assist us in finding rest and calming relaxation, peace, tranquility, and restoration within ourselves and within the great self that embraces and holds us all.  Try one and you’re on your way to the rest of your life.

1. The Breath:  Following the rise and fall of your breath can bring you to a peaceful and calm place and restore your energy.  It brings you present. Allow your breath all the way into your belly to reduce stress.  The key to natural and full breathing is in the exhalation – the letting go.  However, don’t force anything.

2. The Nap:  It is very underutilized in our culture.  Twenty minutes is ideal but even a five-minute nap can be very restorative.  Don’t go more than 20 minutes or you may feel groggy.  If you only have a minute, try this.  Hold some keys in your hands and bend forward in your chair with your lower arms resting on your thighs.  As you nod off, the keys will drop and wake you up. Even in that minute, you will feel a little more refreshed.  The point here is that taking a little time for yourself for rest, prayer, meditation, or spiritual exercises can profoundly affect the quality of your day. Remember to set your Zen Chime Timer to awaken you gently.

3. The Pause:  Learning to pause is a great tool to have up your sleeve.  Its value is in bringing you consciously present.  You can pause a moment in your daily routine and say,  “I am present.  I am here, now.” Then allow yourself to be with whatever is revealed.  A further refinement is to bring your attention to the pause between exhaling and inhaling.  Even doing this once will give you a moment of rest and restoration.

4. Silence:  The word “listen” contains the same letters as the word “silent.”  Choose to be present and alert and to listen past the inner conversations of the mind.  Listen past the sounds of the world and just listen to the silence. Listen attentively to whatever comes forward out of the silence.  If things start to distract and disrupt you, bring your focus back to the silence. When you practice bringing your presence into the silence, you will experience a knowing and a wisdom that will start flowing within you.  It will usually bring you to a state of peace, calm and clarity.

5. Doing nothing:  A great way to interrupt the pattern of habitual doing.  It is akin to entering a state of observation, where you perceive things clearly just for what they are.  An analogy is watching boats going out to sea.  You observe them as they pass you.  Then you observe the next one.  If you gawk or think about how you would like to be in a boat, you have moved out of observation.  Observation is only about what is, not what you know or don’t know about a situation.  The power that comes from that, internally, is tremendous.  It’s an active place of neutrality.  The process of observing what is, is the process that releases and restores us.

6. Meditation – Resting in Yourself: “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.” Lao-Tzu.  When you haven’t developed an intimate relationship with life or with yourself, you’ll tend to look toward having sex or acquiring more money, or to any attractive distraction to fill the emptiness inside.  To fill yourself, you have to be prepared to spend time alone – quality time with yourself, not with a good book, not watching television, art or with music.  Although those have their place, learn to be quiet with your own inner self.  Any time you can bring your focus onto one thing, a flower, a sacred word, a scene in nature, you are meditating.  The simplest way to meditate is to observe the rising and falling of your breath.

Zen Alarm Clock, Ukiyo-e Hokusai Wave Dial Face, mediation timer and clock

Adapted from Men’s Health, June 2003 by Paul Kaye, DSS, President of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA)

Now & Zen’s – The Zen Alarm Clock Store

Meditation Time Shop

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

Peonies at Hyakken, #18 from the series 'Tōkyō Meisho Sanjurokkasen, Utagawa Shigenobu (1826 - 1869)

The bee emerging

from deep within the peony

departs reluctantly.

-Basho-

maple meditation timer and chime alarm clock called The Zen Alarm Clock, digital style in maple

Now & Zen’s Chime

Alarm Clock &

Meditation Timer Store

1638 Pearl St.

Boulder, CO  80302

B.P. Lathrop, title and date unknown, woodblock print

Sleep patterns around the world have undergone a revolution over the past two centuries as the spread of artificial lighting profoundly changed the shape of human lives, first in cities and now even in many remote villages. Throughout most of history sundown brought an end to the activities in most homes, with people crawling into bed soon afterwards.

A. Roger Ekirch—author of a magisterial history of nighttime, At Day’s Close (Norton)— argues that the very nature of a night’s rest has changed since the Industrial Revolution. Sleep for our ancestors were often divided into two shifts of roughly four hours, with a period of wakefulness lasting an hour or longer in between.

A study conducted by the U.S. government’s National Institute of Mental Health appears to confirm Ekrich’s thesis. When people in an experiment were deprived of artificial light throughout the evening and night, they began to exhibit “a pattern of broken slumber—one practically identical to that of pre-industrial households,” Ekirch writes. Researchers in the study, noted hormonal changes in test subjects and “likened this period of wakefulness to something approaching an altered state of consciousness not unlike meditation.”

We still call midnight “the bewitching hour” because pagans in Europe practicing their old religion in defiance of Christian bans secretly performed rituals in this interval between rounds sleep. But Ekrich believes this period of nocturnal time-out-of-time played an important role in the psychic lives of almost everyone as an opportunity to reflect, pray, make love, think about your dreams— contemplative activities which were impossible to pursue during days of long, hard work. Night was the time for inner explorations of spirit and soul. “By turning night into day,” he writes, “modern technology has helped to obstruct our oldest path to the human psyche.”

While it may not be practical for many of us to reclaim the sleep patterns of pre-industrial peoples, we can easily incorporate some elements of this midnight reflection into our lives. Try turning off the lights early, and spending some time alone with our thoughts before going to sleep, or doing that in the morning rather than jumping right out of bed. And if you do experience trouble sleeping, think of the time awake as a gift of contemplation rather than the burden of insomnia.

Wake up refreshed, love your alarm clock, transform your mornings with The Zen Alarm Clock's progressive awakening with gentle chimes.

Boulder, Colorado—an innovative company has taken one of life’s most unpleasant experiences (being startled awake by your alarm clock early Monday morning), and transformed it into something to actually look forward to. “The Zen Alarm Clock,” uses soothing acoustic chimes that awaken users gently and gradually, making waking up a real pleasure.  Rather than an artificial recorded sound played through a speaker, the Zen Clock features an alloy chime bar similar to a wind chime.  When the clock’s alarm is triggered, its chime produces a long-resonating, beautiful acoustic tone reminiscent of a temple gong.  Then, as the ring tone gradually fades away, the clock remains silent until it automatically strikes again three minutes later.  The frequency of the chime strikes gradually increase over ten-minutes, eventually striking every five seconds, so they are guaranteed to wake up even the heaviest sleeper.  This gentle, ten-minute “progressive awakening” leaves users feeling less groggy, and even helps with dream recall.

adapted from Ode, November 2005 by Jay Walljasper

Zen Chime Clock with Japanese Maple Leaves in Honey Finish, a nighttime tool for insomniacs

Now & Zen’s Alarm Clock Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Before the electric lightbulb, people generally went to bed after dark and rose with the sun.  If they stayed up after sundown, it was by the light of the fire, candle, or oil lamp—a low, warm light that eased their transition to sleep. But with the advent of electricity, light in our homes no longer matches what’s best for our bodies.

Most Americans now sleep an hour and a half less each night than they did a century ago, at great cost to health and safety, writes William Dement, M.D., Ph.D., of the Stanford University Sleep Research Center in The Promise of Sleep (Delacorte Press, 1999).

For the sake of productivity, people now treat sleep as a disposable commodity; fewer than 35 percent of American adults regularly get the seven to eight hours per night that researchers consider necessary.  The irony is that burning the midnight oil actually lowers productivity by causing memory lapse, increased error rates, slower reflexes, lack of motivation, and short tempers.

When we sleep, our brains consolidate the day’s experiences into memory while our bodies re-energize our muscles and organs and regenerate cells.  Researchers have identified several phases of brain-wave activity needed to experience the full benefits of slumber, yet it’s increasingly common for people to miss out on some of these stages.

Bamboo Digital Chime Clock, a calming timer and alarm clock

Researchers say we should pay attention to four primary factors in the sleeping environment:

• light
• noise
• temperature
• bed

Other factors can support your sleep haven.  Soothing colors may relax your body and mind, putting you in the right mood for sleep; many people find lavender, blue, or light green appropriate.  Minimizing electromagnetic fields near the bed is a good idea, too.  The original Zen Alarm Clock in the triangle size only runs on batteries just for this reason.  Finally, consider removing clutter, visual distractions, stimulating colors, bright lights, and television from the bedroom because their effects can stay with you even after the lights are out.  Above all, pay attention to what works for you.

On the morning side of the equation, awakening gradually with the sun or the Zen Alarm Clocks gentle chime sequece is the healthiest way to go.  In fact, one researcher points out that if your alarm clock should not startle you awake but waken you progressively and naturally.  And think about what surrounds you when you first awaken.  Feeling sensuous textures and seeing pleasant colors and objects in the morning light help start your day on a good note.  Let yourself linger in bed for a while to ease the transition.  One might consider purchasing a Zen Alarm Clock, the perfect alarm clock to awaken you gently and gradually with chimes instead of an electronic noise.

adapted from Natural Home, November 2003 by Carol Venolia

Zen Alarm Clock with Progressive Chime, set your clock as part of a relaxing bedtime routine

Now & Zen’s Chime Alarm Clock Store

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

cherry blossoms, Now & Zen Inc. makers of Zen Timers

Meditation has been defined as:

“self regulation of attention, in the service of self-inquiry, in the here and now.”

-Maison, Werheimer, & Kabat-Zinn (1999)

The various techniques of meditation can be classified according to their focus. Some focus on the field or background perception and experience, often referred to as “mindfulness”; others focus on a preselected specific object, and are called “concentrative” meditation.

In mindfulness meditation, the meditator sits comfortably and silently, centering attention by focusing awareness on an object or process (such as the breath; a sound, such as a mantra, koan or riddle-like question; a visualization; or an exercise).

wikipedia.org

maple zen timer for meditation and yoga

Now & Zen’s Meditation Timer Shop

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383

Gentle Chime Alarm Clocks with Gradual Chime Sequence

Feature:  Wakes you gradually and gently over 10 minutes with a Tibetan bell-like chime.

Benefit: A beautiful way to wake up at home or traveling.

Feature: A countdown timer perfect for meditation, yoga, or to end meetings on time.

Benefit: Makes yoga, mediation and meetings more relaxing and fun.

Feature: Chimes on the hour, lighted dial, AC or battery powered, beautiful yet portable.

Benefit: A timepiece for a progressive lifestyle.

Feature: Hardwood case, acoustic chime.

Benefit: Aesthetic pleasure.

Feature: An interval timer that will chime repeatedly at any set sequence.

Benefit: Sets the pace of practice with a beautiful sounding chime.

Chime Alarm Clock Store - Boulder, CO (800) 779-6383

Now & Zen’s Chime Alarm Clock Shop

1638 Pearl Street

Boulder, CO  80302

(800) 779-6383