Yoga Moves to Help You Unwind Before Bed

Five yoga postures to help you sleep.

By: Lori Kirwan, PhD | Photography by: Anya Chibis

Sleep is as essential for your well being as food or water. Depriving yourself not only accelerates the ageing process, it can have dire consequences for your mind and body. But as anyone who has battled insomnia knows, even with the best will in the world there’s no shortage of ways to not get enough.

Psychological stressors, physical ailments, hormonal disturbances or environmental factors can all have an impact. It might be one factor or many interacting together that disturbs your sleep. These factors and the way they interact can be different for everyone.

The good news is that while research is just beginning to shed light on the mysterious mechanisms that guide our sleep patterns, there are ways to improve your chances of getting a good night’s sleep that don’t involve taking drugs or seeking therapy. It will come as little surprise to yoga fans that its benefits on self-reported sleep quality and the reduction of stress hormones and overall hormonal balance have been broadly cited in numerous studies.

Still, countless thoughts can be bouncing around in our heads before bedtime. Physically our muscles may feel tight and unable to release. These five yoga postures can help relax your muscles and body, to quiet your mind and calm you for a good night’s sleep. And just so you won’t have far to go, this routine is designed to be done in your bed before bedtime to help clear your mind and guide your body to reach a relaxed state and fall asleep more easily.

But first, a little deep breathing. Every yoga routine starts with simple deep breathing. Sit comfortably on the side of your bed. Close your eyes. Notice your breathing. Begin to breathe at a slower pace in and out through the nose. Let any distracting thoughts go. If your mind wanders, concentrate on sensing and feeling the air as you breathe. Say to yourself: “Slowly breathe in… softly breathe out… slowly breathe in… softly breathe out.” Repeat this for about 3-5 minutes.

While focusing on breathing, still sitting on the side of your bed, begin to relax your eyes, temples and forehead. Allow this relaxation to travel down into your neck and shoulders. Lift your arms and place one elbow above the other in front of you (so that the two elbows are resting one on top of the other) and see if you can get the palms of your hands to touch. Begin to lift the elbows up gently and press the hands away from the head. Many of us hold tension in the neck and shoulders; this posture helps relax and stretch these potentially tight muscles at the end of the day. While doing eagle arms, keep the eyes closed and relax the jaw – try not to clench the teeth. Let the top and bottom teeth part from one another and the tongue relax in your mouth. Soon this relaxation will spread to your torso and travel down from there. Repeat by reversing the arms so that the other elbow is on bottom. While in the posture on each arm take five deep, slow breaths.

Transition yourself from sitting on the edge of your bed to a sitting position on the bed. Have your feet together in front of you, holding them with your hands with your knees open wide like butterfly wings. Allow the relaxation you found in eagle arms to travel down your spine and into the groin area. Take a deep breath in and as you exhale fold your upper body forward towards your feet allowing the spine to stay long and relaxed. Feel where your body is holding tension or tightness and try to exhale some tightness out with each slow breath out. Take five deep, slow breaths. When done, slowly sit up and lie back on your back comfortably and bring your “butterfly knees” together to prepare for the next posture.

Bring your knees together and gently rock and roll side to side on your bed. The movement is like the rocking movement of a cradle, slow and relaxed. As you gently rock, feel the soft bed massaging your back. Begin to breath into your spine, buttocks and legs, allowing the slow exhalations to carry out tightness with each breath out. Take 5-10 deep, slow breaths while softly rocking side to side in your bed.

From rock and roll allow both your knees to soothingly fall to one side. From there slowly reach the opposite arm away and turn the head away from the knees. Breathe into your neck and spine and feel the twist allow tension to leave the body. Take five deep breaths and then repeat the other side. Repeat as desired.

Bring your knees into your chest and then allow yourself to lay in bed on your back, with arms resting beside you with palms facing up, legs long and relaxed. Close your eyes. Practice simple guided relaxation by beginning at your forehead, eyes and face all the way to your toes. Focus on inhaling into each body part and releasing as you exhale out each part one by one as you go from head to toes. Stay focused on breathing and relaxing your muscles. Once you reach the toes if you are not asleep already go back to the eyes and allow the eyes and muscles around the eyes to relax and release. Stay with this until you gently fall asleep and if necessary repeat the process again from head to toes. Sleep tight!