CHAPTER
9

The Times According to Ayurveda

In This Chapter

Time is something we are given every day but never seem to have enough of. We can use our time in countless ways, but not all are conducive to a healthier mind, body, and spirit.

In this chapter, I discuss how you can use Ayurvedic wisdom to set up your daily schedule so you can eat, sleep, digest, work, exercise, and create at your optimal potential, just by following your natural Doshic rhythms.

Categorizing Time

If you had to make a list of the times of the day, what categories would you choose? For most people, it’s (quickly eat your) breakfast time, (scarf down your) lunch time, (gorge on) dinner time, and (fall asleep in front of a screen) sleep time, with work sprinkled among the other times.

As a society, you aren’t raised to plan our day according to the energy of that particular time. In Spain siestas, or nap times, are common to allow Spaniards time to rest after lunch, but here, you work throughout the day, commonly with only a 30-minute lunch break. Dinner is often your biggest meal because it’s the only meal you get to eat at home. Few people pack their lunches, and if they do, it’s normally a cold sandwich or salad, which is against the Ayurvedic rules of nutrition because cold foods put out digestive fire agni.

You were never taught to schedule your creative tasks in the afternoon, your organized tasks in the morning, and your calming tasks at dusk, as Ayurveda recommends. You just do whatever comes your way without considering how time’s energy might affect you. You see each hour as separate from the entire circadian rhythm. You ignore the lunar and solar cycles, which deeply affect your entire beings.

Just like animals come out in the early morning and go to sleep as soon as the sun sets, you, too, are deeply connected with nature. However, your modern way of life has disconnected you, causing you to work and be awake around the clock, leading to imbalances. Ayurveda offers a solution, connecting you daily rhythm with nature’s.

Why Follow an Ayurvedic Schedule?

Following an Ayurvedic schedule makes you more effective at all your tasks because you are working with, not against, your own nature. Ayurveda has found that in order for you to function at your optimal potential, you must schedule your days with the solar and lunar cycles. That means rising when the sun rises, building your energy as the sun increases in the sky, eating your biggest meal when the sun is at its peak, and descending your energy with the sun afterward.

Let’s look at how you can schedule your day according to the Doshas for optimal health, productivity, and balance.

How the Dosha Times Work

You divide your day into 24 single hours, but Ayurveda splits the day into six 4-hour periods. Each period is related to a certain Dosha and repeats twice throughout the day:

Dosha Times

Kapha times: 6 A.M.- to 10 A.M. and 6 P.M.- to 10 P.M. are associated with Kapha time.

Pitta times: 10 A.M.- to 2 P.M. and 10 P.M.- to 2 A.M. are related to Pitta time.

Vata times: 2 A.M.- to 6 A.M. and 2 P.M.- to 6 P.M. are connected with Vata time.

The rising and falling of the sun is connected to Kapha. Kapha is a grounding earth energy, and as the earth prepares for the day and settles down for night, you are in Kapha time.

The peak of the day and peak of the night are related to Pitta. Pitta is a strong, sharp energy, and the heat of the day and darkness of the night are related to this powerful Dosha.

The transition between night and day and between dusk and dawn is related to Vata. Vata is an ethereal, dreamlike Dosha, and your most active daydreams and nightdreams are both in the Vata times of day.

Wisdom of the Ages

The beginning and end of the day, 6-10 A.M. and 6-10 P.M., are associated with Kapha.

The peaks of the day and night, 10 A.M.-2 P.M. and 10 P.M.-2 A.M., are associated with Pitta.

The late hours of the day and night, 2 P.M.-6 P.M. and 2 A.M.-6 A.M., are associated with Vata.

The activities you perform within these hours should be related to the Dosha of that time. As the sun rises and sets during Kapha time, you should focus on settling your body and avoiding all strenuous activity. When the sun is highest in the sky in the first Pitta time, you should do most of your work; in the prime of the night, you should get your highest-quality sleep. In the afternoon and early hours of the morning, you should use your natural creativity for good.

Operating with the Doshas makes you more efficient at everything you do because you finally are working with your own nature.

By aligning your days with the natural Doshic rhythms, you will experience optimal digestion, productivity, rest and spiritual awareness.

Kapha Time (6 A.M. to 10 A.M.)

You start the day in the Kapha period. Kapha is earth energy, the time when the sun rises and begins its cycle. You similarly should feel grounded, peaceful, and sometimes lethargic in the morning due to the increase of Kapha energy.

If you wake in the morning feeling groggy and exhausted, this is due to an increase of Kapha. Kapha Prakritis are more likely to feel heavy and tired in the morning because their Kapha especially falls out of balance then, but everyone is susceptible to it. In the winter, when the mornings are gray, you are more likely to experience a Kapha imbalance, which is why you don’t feel like getting out of bed in the dark winter months. However, according to Ayurveda, how you start the day is how you’ll feel for the rest of it.

It’s crucial to nourish, awaken, and activate your body during Kapha time so you can have an energized yet peaceful rest of the day. Let’s look at some suggestions on ways to balance your energy during Kapha morning time.

Rise Right Before the Sun

Have you ever been up very early in the morning and noticed that the birds tend to chirp right before the sun rises? That’s because they’re tuned in with Earth’s energy. The best time for humans to wake up is right before the sun rises, too. Ayurveda recommends that to start the day in tranquility, you should watch the sun rise in meditation before the stress of the day begins.

Historically, people woke up with the sun for a number of reasons. They didn’t have curtains, so when the sun was up, so were they. And most people were farmers so they had to start their days before the sun rose too high in the sky and it would be too hot to work outside. Or they slept not far after it became dark. They didn’t have lights, so when the sun set, their candles could only last them so long until it was time to retire. Humans have functioned this way for thousands of years, and your bodies have adapted to this rhythm. In fact, all mammals follow the same cycle. Warm-blooded creatures were designed to rise and rest with the rhythm of the sun because it’s the most effective for your energy levels. But with black-out curtains, eye masks, smartphones, bars, and night shifts today, many people sleep in far past the rising hour of the sun and then rest hours after the sun goes down. This throws them off rhythm for the entire day.

Wisdom of the Ages

Have you ever slept in very late and felt tired for the rest of the day, even though you got more than enough sleep? That’s because your Kapha energy became imbalanced. When you oversleep, your Kapha rises and you feel heavier and more lethargic. For this reason, Ayurveda recommends rising right before the sun to ensure you aren’t sleeping during Kapha time to further increase the energy. Sleeping between 6 A.M. and 10 A.M. makes you more tired for the rest of the day.

Get to sleep early so you can wake up early naturally, not force yourself. If you are not getting to sleep until past midnight, it won’t be a good idea to become sleep-deprived just so you can wake up before the sun. Ideally, you should be asleep by 10 P.M. so you can wake up by 6 A.M. feeling refreshed, not exhausted.

Move Your Body

After waking up and meditating with the sunrise, the next thing you should do is yoga or another form of light exercise. When you sleep overnight, you don’t move your body much for hours at a time. This makes your muscles stiff, causing tightness and aching when you get up. It’s key that you awaken, open, and activate your physical body in the morning so you have an awakened, open, and activated mind for the rest of the day. Some sun salutations, other yoga poses, or even jumping jacks should do the trick.

Kapha time is the best time of day to exercise because it takes you out of your heavy Kapha slump. It revs up your metabolism and digestive fire for the rest of the day. If you are not a morning person and waking up and exercising feels like torture, you especially are in need because that is a sign your Kapha is already out of balance. Ayurveda is all about equilibrium, and wherever there is heaviness, you must counterbalance it with lightness and mobility.

Wisdom of the Ages

An activated body is an activated mind. Exercising in the morning before breakfast is the best time because it gives you more energy, alertness, metabolic function, and digestive power for the rest of the day.

Eat a Light Breakfast

What do you eat first thing in the morning? Eggs, pancakes, bacon, or pastries? That’s the exact opposite of what you need. Your digestion is like a fire that needs to be kindled lightly in the morning because it hasn’t been fed all night. Eating a heavy breakfast is like pouring bricks on that fire and putting it out.

Ayurveda recommends you consume a light, easy-to-digest breakfast to start your day on the right foot. If you consume too much in the morning, your body has to expend extra energy just to digest the food, leaving you with less energy for the rest of the day. You’ll feel groggy, heavy, and lethargic, and you’ll crave more food just to stay awake.

It’s best to consume a warming breakfast that’s catered to your unique Doshic constitution. An ideal breakfast would be cooked grains (the type depends on your Dosha) with your choice of milk, cinnamon, and seeds. Stewed apples, lentil soup, or mashed sweet potatoes with cinnamon and cardamom are other great breakfast options.

Stay away from croissants, muffins, and any other baked goods, which are too heavy for your body to digest in the early morning hours. Similarly, granola bars, smoothies, and yogurt are marketed as healthy options but will put out your digestive fire because they’re cold. Oatmeal, buckwheat, amaranth, millet, or quinoa porridge are much better options.

Pitta Time (10 A.M. to 2 P.M.)

You awaken in Kapha with your chai lattes and then the fire kicks in—it’s Pitta time. As the sun rises in the sky, your energy builds. You are able to accomplish the most difficult tasks of the day by harnessing this solar energy. By noon, the sun is highest in the sky and your digestive fire is similarly most active, making it the best time to digest meals.

Pitta time is a period of mental and digestive power, and you should make the most of this by scheduling your hardest tasks and biggest meal now.

At the same time, you have to be careful not to burn yourself out when your energy is high so you can maintain enough for the rest of your day.

Stay Present

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the tasks of the day first thing when you enter the office. Maybe you immediately throw yourself into a task before really scheduling your day. Pitta is an organized energy and works best when you have a plan.

Instead of stressing out about the million things you have to get done in a day, maintain the presence you cultivated in the morning. As the day goes by and you’re ticking tasks off your to-do list, you’ll be able to get more done by focusing on one task at a time and staying present with that job. When the day gets too hard, just come back to your breath. Don’t just start your day in meditation; maintain your day in meditation.

Tackle Your Hardest Task

When your Pitta energy is up and you’re in the flow of things, it’s the best time to get your hardest tasks out of the way. If you have any organizational or logistical work to do, Pitta is the perfect time for it.

During the Pitta period, you take on the fiery Dosha’s qualities, making you more methodical, structured, and logical. Use that in your favor by accomplishing those tasks that require you to use more of your analytical left brain. Pitta time is not great for creative work because your mind hasn’t been awake long enough to get into the creative space and is ruled by fire still. Instead, get things done now. Achieve your toughest tasks in this fiery block so you don’t have to worry about them for the rest of the day.

Make Lunch Your Biggest Meal

Many of you cram in a quick wrap or salad between meetings during your short lunch break or even eat at your desks while still working. This is a big no-no in Ayurveda.

Rather than eating whatever you can find to hold you over until dinner, you should make lunch the main meal of your day. I know this is difficult because you’re probably not home during lunch, but just packing a meal from home to reheat at the office makes a huge difference in your day and your digestion.

Lunch is prime time for eating because your digestive fire is the most active when the sun is highest in the sky. This makes your body most efficient at breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, and eliminating waste.

Wisdom of the Ages

Test it out for yourself. One day, make lunch your biggest meal and another day, make dinner your large meal. Notice how much more energy you have, and how much better you sleep, on the days you had a big lunch and small dinner versus the other way around.

Ayurveda recommends eating grains every day, and the best time to do that is midday, when your body is active and can burn off the carbs as energy rather than store them as fat. Additionally, if you eat meat, which is very heavy and difficult to digest, give your body at least 6 hours to digest it. Sleeping on a full stomach is a huge digestive no-no and leads to weight gain, toxicity, bad bacteria overgrowth, and a host of other imbalances.

Use the power of the sun and your digestive fire in your favor, and make lunch the main event of your day. You won’t be very hungry for dinner, and a simple soup will suffice, lulling you (and your smaller waistline) right to sleep.

Vata Time (2 P.M. to 6 P.M.)

Between 2 P.M. and 6 P.M., we enter visionary Vata time. This is a time of creativity, lightness, and movement. Your nervous system is the most active then, and it’s the best time of day to get your creative tasks done to harness this airy energy.

At the same time, it’s often when you feel exhausted and reach for an afternoon pick-me-up cup of coffee or sweet snack. For that reason, you must maintain your energy without reaching for an external source that will actually leave you feeling more depleted in the long run.

Tap into Your Creativity

Vata makes you highly innovative, so this is the best time to focus on your creative tasks. The afternoon Vata period is a great opportunity for writing, producing, designing, and planning future endeavors. By the afternoon, you have boosted your mental energy from building Kapha and stimulating Pitta periods, and now you’re ready to think outside the box in imaginative Vata time.

This is also when you may start daydreaming, especially if you’re at a job you do not enjoy. It is essential that you work on a project you enjoy that’s fulfilling your dharma, or life path, so you utilize your daydreams for a positive purpose. Daydreaming can allow you to come up with great insights when you are aligned with your path.

Stay Grounded

Blood sugar levels can crash in the afternoon, and sometimes you might think you need an extra cup of caffeine to stay alert. This is actually the worst thing you can do from an Ayurvedic perspective. When Vata energy is up, it’s important you ground down. Coffee will make you more anxious, jittery, and in-your-head, which is the opposite of what you need at this time.

Snack Smart, Not Sweet

The afternoon is when you might reach for a something sweet to keep your energy levels up. If you didn’t consume a filling lunch, you might indulge in a sugar-laden vending-machine granola bar or cookie (which both often have just about the same amount of sugar) just to stay alert.

Consuming cold and raw foods like salads makes you more likely to crave something sweet and grounding afterward because your body naturally wants to contrast the cool and dry energy. That’s why you should add something naturally sweet, like grains, squash, or sweet potatoes to your meals to prevent sugar cravings.

Rather than brownies and banana bread, snack on something high in protein and low in sugar. Smart options include nuts, seeds, soup, avocados, roasted vegetables, and hummus. Keep a healthy snack handy so you don’t reach for whatever is available in the closest vending machine when hunger hits. Ayurveda does not recommend snacking, so try to eat substantial meals that hold you over until the next one.

Wisdom of the Ages

Only snack if you are truly hungry. Ayurveda does not encourage snacking because it interferes with your body’s detoxification process. It’s only between the digestion of meals that your body can detoxify, and it takes about 4 hours. If you are continually eating during the day without waiting at least 4 hours between meals, you don’t give your body time to detox. Make your lunch filling so you don’t need a snack in the afternoon. If you do need something to tide you over, wait at least 4 hours after your last meal. Vatas need snacks the most, followed by Pittas, and lastly Kaphas, who ideally won’t snack at all.

Kapha Time (6 P.M. to 10 P.M.)

The second Kapha time of day is when the sun sets and you prepare your body for sleep. It is a peaceful, relaxing span with sunsets and a long-awaited homecoming. This Kapha period is when you should eat dinner, settle your body, practice self-care, and head to bed. By making use of this peaceful energy, you’ll have a long, sound night of restorative sleep.

Settle Down

After a tough day at work, you need some practices to help you settle down into the night. Many people take the stress of their days home with them, where it does not belong. You must actively practice mindfulness so you leave the stress of the office at the office. In the evening, you come home not only to your physical home but also back into yourself.

Kapha evenings are best spent in self-care. Whether it is taking a bath, stretching your body, meditating, spending time with your family, cooking dinner, or taking a walk, find a way of calming your mind and body to prepare for rest. The evening is also a great time to make facial masks and massage your body with oil in a practice called abhyanga (more on self-oil massage in Chapter 11).

Wisdom of the Ages

The brain and body prepare to sleep hours before your actual bedtime. Soothe the body with self-care practices and relax your mind with a 1 or 2 hour technology detox where all screens are put away.

Anything can be performed in a meditative state, from chopping vegetables to helping your kids with homework. All it takes is absolute presence. Listening to disturbing news stories or sitting in front of the television is neither self-care nor mindful. Avoid activities that are overly stimulating or negative, and instead bring the focus back to yourself and your surroundings. If you do not make a purposeful point to practice presence and take care of your body, you’ll lose sight of who you truly are.

Eat a Light Dinner

Most people make dinner their biggest meal of the day, and understandably so—it may be the only meal they get to eat at home. However, this is no excuse to gorge on dinner that will end up leaving you feeling stuffed until the next day.

Ayurveda recommends consuming a light, easily digestible supper such as a roasted vegetable soup, spiced lentils, or grains so your body can quickly digest the meal before you go to sleep. If you eat something overly heavy, such as fried foods, meat, pasta, cheese, or bread, you don’t give your body enough time to break down the meal, and instead, it’s stuck in your gastrointestinal tract overnight.

Ayurvedic Alert

When you eat a heavy dinner, your body does not have time to digest the meal before you go to sleep, meaning the food sits in your gastrointestinal tract and putrefies. This fermentation often leaks into your blood stream and spreads toxicity throughout your entire body. Toxicity symptoms look different for each Dosha, but they can be anything from bloating and gas to acne and anxiety, depending on your Doshic constitution. Avoid these symptoms by having a light dinner.

During Kapha time, your digestive fire is not as strong because your body is preparing for sleep. Therefore, the foods you eat aren’t broken down in time, and they’re more likely to be stored as fat. This also can cause excess bad bacteria in your stomach, leading to candida, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and other related digestive disorders. Keep dinner light and simple so you can wake up feeling refreshed, not food-hungover.

Walk After Your Meal

Ayurveda recommends taking a short walk for about 15 minutes after your meal to aid your digestion and help regulate your elimination. Too often you might sit down after a big meal and not really move again until the next day. Simply walking around your house, up and down your hallway, or ideally around your block is all you need. It does not have to be strenuous. Ask a family member along for company.

Getting into the habit of walking after your meal enhances longevity, improves digestion, and increases your metabolism. If you’ve eaten so much you can’t get off the couch, then chances are you’ve overeaten. After a well-digested meal you should feel light and energized, not heavy and lethargic.

Pitta Time (10 P.M. to 2 A.M.)

If you’re a night owl like me, you may have noticed you get a second burst of energy around 10 P.M. This is when you enter Pitta time. Pitta is a time of activity (and appetite), which is why if you aren’t in bed before 10, you’ll suddenly get another rush of alertness and perhaps appetite as well. Parents know to get their kids in bed before this second wind kicks in because otherwise the little ones will be up all night.

Wisdom of the Ages

Ever noticed that you get a second wind around 10 P.M.? That’s because it’s Pitta time. Get in bed before 10 P.M. to avoid a midnight frenzy.

Many young adults use this Pitta surge of energy to engage in social activities or hit the library and study. Bars and nightclubs operate specifically at this time, opening at 10 P.M. and shutting down at 2 A.M. Coincidence? I think not. All people are affected by the Doshic time shifts, even if they have no idea what they are.

If you don’t plan on hitting the club or library and have somewhere to be in the morning, avoid this second wind by turning off your lights by 10 P.M. This might seem like an impossible task, but it actually can be easy if you’ve used the Kapha period beforehand to wind down your body.

Many of us get frustrated when we can’t fall asleep. Spending time on your computer and actively engaging in work at night fires up your brain. The moment you turn off your laptop, you expect your mind to power down, too, but it doesn’t work that way. Your body requires gradual shifts to prepare for the next task. The following suggestions help you make the most of your Pitta time through deeply relaxing sleep.

Turn Off Electronics

How attached are you to your electronics? Do you wake up and immediately grab them to reconnect to the world? Do you go to sleep cuddled up with your smartphone? If so, you’re not alone. However, by doing so, you are exposing yourself to blue light, the backlight color of these screens. According to Scientific American, the light from our devices is “short-wavelength-enriched,” meaning it has a higher concentration of blue light than natural light. This blue-tinted light shifts your body’s natural clock and can reduce your natural levels of melatonin, the sleep-inducing hormone.

Your body is naturally affected by the light around you. When the sun is up, your energy is up and your melatonin levels are down. As the sun goes down, your energy depletes and your melatonin levels rise to prepare you for bed. However, if you are constantly staring into a screen, you are exposing yourself to light at all times. Your body doesn’t know when it’s time to sleep, and it doesn’t produce the right hormones. Effectively, you scramble your body’s circadian rhythm, and you’re left feeling wired and awake in the middle of the night.

Wisdom of the Ages

Schedule a technology-free period for at least 1 hour before bed. Instead of reading articles on your screen, read them in a book, magazine, or newspaper. If you absolutely must be on an electronic device, switch it to night mode, which has an orange-tinted background instead of blue. Dim the lights, and light some relaxing candles so you can help nudge your body toward sleep. You have to give your body clues that it’s time to rest because sleep doesn’t come with a push of a button. It’s an interrelated process that comes after a full cycle of the Dosha times.

Turn Off Your Mind

Unfortunately, your brain doesn’t come with an off switch so you must have some sort of presleep meditation practice to prepare yourself for a night of rest. Head to bed, light some candles, turn on your essential oil diffuser, read a book—whatever you need to do to put your body in a relaxed state so it can drift off to sleep. Even if you aren’t tired, head to bed and perform your nightly ritual so you can train yourself to go to sleep before you get your second wind.

Be sure you’re tucked in bed before your fire reignites at 10 P.M. and you start organizing your house or cleaning your closets in your second Pitta rush. I can’t count the number of times my clock strikes 10 o’clock and I decide to take on the remainder of the day’s tasks I didn’t finish instead of going to bed and waking up the next morning to do them during productive Pitta time (10 A.M. to 2 P.M.).

Whatever comes up at night, write it down and forget about it for the night. Tomorrow, you can get to it when the sun is up and on your side. Night is meant for sleeping. There is more than enough time for everything to be done, as long as you stick to your routine.

The Importance of Sleep

All this prepares you for your most important function of the day—sleep. Sleep is the most restorative, healing part of your day. You might stress about diet and exercise but maybe don’t think twice about your sleep quality. Sleep is when you restore your muscles, detoxify your body, balance your hormones, relax your mind, and prepare your body and your mind to take on the next day.

However, most people don’t get enough sleep. The National Sleep Foundation reports that 60 percent of Americans have sleep problems a few nights a week or more. Not sleeping well can make you feel lethargic the next day and be more likely to overeat due to an increase of ghrelin, the appetite-increasing hormone.

You may have noticed that you’re hungrier the day after a sleepless night. That’s not just your imagination; you really do get hungrier due to hormonal shifts in your body. A lack of sleep is associated with increased appetite, leading to weight gain. A 2004 study published in PLOS Medicine found that short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. That means that even if you’re eating healthy and exercising regularly, if you’re not getting enough sleep, you’ll still gain weight.

Ayurvedic Alert

If you are trying to lose weight, make sure you’re sleeping enough. When you are lacking in sleep, you are more likely to overeat and gain weight.

Lack of sleep is only one part of the equation; quality of sleep is the other, which I explain next. Now, get to bed before your second Pitta wind to ensure you’re getting your 8 hours.

Get Quality Sleep Before Midnight

You might think sleep is sleep, but not all sleep is equal. The rest you get from a nap is not as healing as what you get from a full night’s sleep. Waking up throughout the night won’t give you the same slumber as sleeping soundly for a full 8 hours, either.

The reason is because you go through REM cycles in your sleep. These are stages in your sleep, around 90 to 120 minutes each, that reoccur throughout the night. REM stands for “rapid eye movement,” and during these sleep cycles, you have sudden eye movements related to your dreams. The longer you’ve been asleep, the deeper the REM cycle, and the more healing and restorative your sleep.

Wisdom of the Ages

According to Ayurveda, the sleep you get before midnight is the most healing of the night. When the sun sets, the earth’s atmosphere retains solar energy until around midnight. Your sleep during this residual solar energy is highly nourishing and healing. If you get to sleep right before Pitta time begins at 10 P.M., you can sleep soundly throughout this high-quality resting period before midnight and reap its benefits.

Vata Time (2 A.M. to 6 A.M.)

The final, or really primary, period of the day is Vata time between 2 A.M. and 6 A.M. This is a time of deep dreaming, believed to be when the veils between the universe and Earth are lifted. You can gain deep insights during this auspicious hour, which is why Kundalini yoga meditation practices advocate waking up at 2 A.M. to practice kriyas, or chanting.

The early morning is a quiet time when the world is asleep and you can get deeper into your psyche without distraction. You also become in tune with your creative Vata energy during these hours, which is why many artists stay up all night to create or wake very early in the morning to work.

The Veil Between Earth and Universe Is Lifted

The early hours of the morning are especially auspicious because it is believed the veil between the earth and the universe is lifted during this time. This allows for tremendous insights because you are more connected with your higher self. Your mind becomes clearer, and you can tap into your universal brain, which connects you with the spirit and the entire cosmos. For this reason, many meditation practices are done in the early Vata hours to receive the deep insights attained during this time.

Sacred Time for Meditation

The best time of day for a meditation practice is in the early morning before the sun rises. You have yet to begin the tasks of your day and are more centered and in the moment.

Ayurveda recommends rising right before the sun so you can spend some time in silence, observing the stillness of the earth. When the sun rises, you enter Kapha time again, and the cycle repeats.

The Least You Need to Know

  • Ayurveda categorizes time into six 4-hour periods, each led by a Dosha that repeats itself in the morning and night.
  • The hours between 6 A.M. and 10 A.M. and again between 6 P.M. and 10 P.M. during dusk and dawn are grounding Kapha hours. You’ll feel calm and peaceful, preparing to begin and end your day.
  • The hours between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M. and again between 10 P.M. and 2 A.M. are high-functioning, achievement-oriented Pitta hours. Tackle your hardest tasks and eat your biggest meal during the midday Pitta hours, and get high-quality sleep during the late-night hours.
  • The hours between 2 A.M. and 6 A.M. and again between 2 P.M. and 6 P.M. are creative, auspicious Vata hours when you are more connected with your imaginative and spiritual sides. Take advantage of the afternoon Vata shift for artistic and inventive tasks, and use the early morning period for dreaming and meditation.