Are you struggling with sleep disturbing issues? Do you want to find effective ways to have a better sleep at night? The disturbed night sleep or disrupted sleep-wake cycle indicates that you are in need of bedtime yoga. Bedtime yoga poses help you stretch your body with mindfulness that brings relaxation in your mind and body. Bedtime yoga also helps you prepare yourself for a peaceful sleep.
Yoga is basically an effective way to bring balance between your movement and breathing. This unique characteristic of yoga makes it not only an excellent exercise but also ranks it as a second to none source of getting power that can calm your mind and body. All these factors combine to make you feel relaxed when you go to bed and hit your head with your pillow.
Now come towards the bedtime yoga, this is the authentic way to get rid of everything in your mind. The bedtime poses of yoga help you sink into peaceful and relaxed night sleep. In addition, bedtime yoga practices also improve your duration of calm sleep and promote life quality. People living with insomnia or limited sleep time can benefit from this technique. So keep on reading to learn about some effective bedtime yoga poses along with their benefits, drawbacks, and tips to get more benefits.
Significance of Yoga before Bedtime
Yoga postures performed before bedtime are usually relaxing and gentle. They help you improve your pre-sleep routine incredibly. Here are some important points that can help you understand why bedtime yoga is useful for you.
Alleviates Insomnia
Symptoms of insomnia distract your sleep schedule and make it difficult for you to sleep and awake at regular timings. Bedtime yoga postures are the best technique that help you manage symptoms of insomnia. These practices promote your sleep quality and help you sleep longer at night.
According to a 2018 research, yoga postures before going to sleep are as effective as mind-body therapies used to treat insomnia and promote a strong connection between your mind and breathing pattern that lead to better sleep. Researchers also claimed that people performing tai chi or meditation experience a peaceful and improved sleep schedule as compared to those who are not involved in meditation practices. However more deep studies are needed to verify the claim.
Weight Loss
Bedtime yoga brings a great advantage to your life. Yes, weight loss is the most advantageous effect of yoga practice before bedtime. Yes, people who perform yoga postures and stretches before going to sleep, experience a positive impact on their weight. Recent research proved that yoga near bedtime not only improves your sleep quality but also has positive effects on your weight maintenance. You can notice a great weight loss after following a yoga practice before bedtime regularly. These techniques also make you more conscious and mindful about your eating habits and dietary lifestyle as well.
Improvement in Quality of life due to Better Sleep Quality
People experiencing sleep deprivation or disturbed sleep cycle often get aid from pharmaceutical drugs. But these drugs are usually used by older adults. However, studies also show that in recent era due to the tough and busy schedule and screen distractions, young people are also going to become habitual to the use of sleep inducing drugs to fulfill their needs of a sound sleep but these drugs harm their mental and physical health in different aspects.
A 2019 research on sleep quality revealed that practicing yoga at night helps such people. Researchers had claimed that yoga techniques not only have positive effects on their sleep quality but also help them to promote their concentration and cognitive abilities. All these factors help improve the overall life quality.
Promote Relaxation
Yoga practices are also commonly known as relaxation techniques. These poses help calm your mind and body. This is opposite to fight or flight response. Yoga practices with mindfulness meditation are effective in relaxing and calming your mental and physical condition.
All these factors help drop the levels of cortisol (stress hormone) in your body and also lowers your blood pressure. Regular practicing yoga postures before bedtime can help you relieve insomnia, get rid of weight gain and depression, and alleviate your stress.
Increase Your Mind-Body Awareness
People often consider yoga just a physical exercise but in reality it is a mindful practice that involves both your body and mind. Bedtime yoga practices increase the awareness in your physical and mental approach. It positively impacts the way you think and promotes physical sensations that induce relaxing thoughts in your mind.
In addition, mindfulness meditation with yoga pictures at bedtime can help manage your anxiety and affect the other areas of your life positively. In my opinion, you can pair up music techniques to enhance the impacts of yoga practices.
Syncing Yoga and Breath for Better Sleep
Mindful movements in yoga practices help you sync your breathing movements with your mind relaxation. These combined movements enhance the focus on breathing. You can also join some short meditation sessions to increase the relaxation and get regular exercise.
Drawbacks of Bedtime Yoga
As soon as you indulge in the yoga practices, you become habitual because these techniques bring many calming effects in your life. But like every other thing, bedtime yoga also has some drawbacks. Although the drawbacks aren’t many, they are. First of all you can avoid the drawbacks by doing yoga poses safely. Sometimes, some poses make your mind and body active and alert. As a result your mind awakens and stays alert. This may disturb your sleep schedule and you cannot sleep at your regular time. So it’s good to avoid such poses that make your mind alert. Instead of practicing such purses you should pay attention to tai chi, mindful meditation and breathing exercises.
In addition, your body becomes more flexible near bedtime, so try to focus on other poses that enhance your muscular strength and flexibility. So don’t do yoga practice that pushes you beyond your limits.
Moreover, people with medical injury or physical and mental trauma should talk to their healthcare provider before starting a bedtime yoga practice.
7 Effective Bedtime Yoga Postures for Better Sleep
Gentle and mild bedtime yoga poses are effective techniques to wind down and improve your sleep quality. The most important thing is to perform gentle poses because strong or strenuous poses can impact your sleep awake cycle badly. Keep on reading and find out the best yoga pose for yourself before bedtime. Although all of these are effective, authentic and help you ease your stress and release the tension from your mind and body. You can try all of them one by one and then identify the most effective one for you. So let’s start!
Supine Spinal Twist
Famous yoga instructor has introduced this most effective bedtime yoga pose. This pose consists best to promote relaxation, release spine tension and help quick digestion before your sleep time. To do this pose, you would have to lie on your back and roll onto one side. Roll onto your knees and tuck them towards your abdomen. Avoid turning round back. Now hold your knees down to allow your shoulders to roll back. Your shoulders will epoch the floor or mat on which you’re lying on.
Reclining Bound Angle Pose
A famous fitness advisor and physical trainer has proposed this pose as the best one to open your chest, hip and groin muscles. This pose helps in the relaxation throughout your body but especially in the lower parts and hind-limbs. Through this pose you can stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system that not only slows your heart rate but also promotes rest and relaxation.
To perform this pose you will lay down straight on your back. Now join your feet soles. Allow your knees to fall on their sides. Take deep breaths for at least ten minutes while staying in this pose.
Reclined Butterfly Pose
This is similar to the reclined bound angle pose. This pose also supports your nervous system, restores your mental calmness and alleviates stress. You can use blocks,pillows or cushions to have extra support while doing this pose.
To do this pose, lie down on your back or sit on a comfortable sofa. Press the feet soles and open your knees as wide as you can.
Stay in this posture for at least six to seven minutes and breathe mindfully. Your partner can also help you in stretching your knees for this pose.
Child Pose
As the name shows this is the part of relaxing posture. This yoga posture helps you enhance the core flexibility. This yoga pose affects your spine’s flexibility and lengthens it. You can place a pillow or cushion under your forehead and chest to increase the support.
For practicing this pose, set yourself in a table top position then roll your hips backward towards your heels. It’s time to relax your chest muscles by bringing your knees close together. Now clear the tension of your spine and relax. Sustain this pose for ten minutes.
Yoga Nidra
This is a type of meditation yoga pose. According to popular meditation experts, this may help encourage a state of relaxation while reducing stress and improving sleep quality. To perform this posture, you have to lay down while breathing deeply and slowly. Now repeat some verbal cues that can calm your mind and alleviate your stress.
Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose
This is the best bedtime yoga pose because you lay down on the floor at the end of your day and this pose starts with you lying down. But you have to lay down with your legs up on the wall. Yes, thinking interesting? According to experts this pose decreases your anxiety, reduces lower back pain, calms your nerves, and promotes blood circulation to the brain. All these factors have a positive impact on your night sleep and ultimately you fall a sound and peaceful sleep.
To practice this pose, lie on your back but place our kegs on the adjoining wall and extend them. You will be in “L shape”. It’s time to release tension from your back muscles and relax your legs.
Standing Forward Fold
If you have a stressed mind and tension in your back body or hamstrings, the physical trainers and yoga experts will suggest you to practice standing forward pose as bedtime yoga posture because this pose helps to relax your mind and release your body’s tension.
To practice this pose, stand before a wall. Make a distance of a few inches between you and the wall. Keep on moving forward with hips. But the bending must be comfortable. Now release tension from your body and let yourself move freely in two directions like a pendulum. Continue slow and mindful breathing during this pose.
How Long Should You Do Bedtime Yoga before Sleeping?
No doubt yoga before bedtime is an excellent technique to improve your sleep quality but it is most important to focus on the timing. Timely stretches can help you promote peaceful sleep but if you practice yoga poses before dinner and too close to your bedtime , it will be harmful for your physical and mental health. The ideal time for bedtime yoga is one to two hours after a night meal because this is the best technique that supports digestion. Similarly, practicing yoga poses two to three hours before your bedtime is more effective.
Tips for Getting Better Results of Bedtime Yoga
To achieve the desired goals from yoga practices before bedtime for better sleep, you should:
- Choose slow and gentle types of yoga postures, like restorative or hatha.
- Don’t practice hot postures.
- Follow a routine practice according to a set timetable.
- Avoid energetic or strenuous poses like back-bends because such poses make your mind alert and spill your sleepy sensations.
- Maintain a moderate temperature of your bedroom.
- Avoid using mobile, TV, or laptops near bedtime.
- You may add a calming pleasant music to induce calmness in your nerves.
Conclusion
Bedtime yoga is the most effective technique that can resolve your sleep problems. Disturbed sleep and disrupted circadian rhythm can be amended by practicing some gentle yoga poses before bedtime. If you’re in search of ways to make your sleep more comfortable, deeper and peaceful, try the poses described in this article. Practicing these yoga poses will help relax your tense muscles and relax your mind and body as well. However, the results don’t show as quickly as you thought. So keep patience and wait for the desired results. Consistency and regularity is the key to success.
