You can sleep better and fall asleep more quickly by doing yoga before bed.

Stress is proven to be a common factor in all of the causes of sleep deprivation, while there are other factors. Stress not only interferes with your sleep cycle but also makes you irritable and worried before bedtime.

Gentle yoga poses or modifications with breathing exercises are the main focus of therapeutic yoga.

Benefits of yoga before bed

Relaxes your muscles

Due to the activation of muscles in various poses, yoga can temporarily wear one out physically. 

After the bedtime yoga workout, your muscles will start to recuperate, which will help you fall asleep more quickly. close to bedtime.

Better night sleep

Yoga has been shown to enhance both the quantity and the quality of sleep. By controlling the body’s diurnal cortisol level, it promotes restful sleep.

Calms the mind

Yoga has been shown to enhance both the quantity and the quality of sleep. By controlling the body’s diurnal cortisol level, it promotes restful sleep.

Yoga practitioners who practice mindfulness meditation have higher levels of melatonin, a hormone that controls the sleep-wake cycle, which helps the body prepare for sleep by calming the nervous system.

Creates a healthy heart

Yoga is a good lifestyle intervention since it can help reduce blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood sugar levels in addition to stress.

One study found that middle-aged persons with metabolic syndrome who practiced yoga for three months experienced improvements in blood measures and waist circumference, a marker for heart disease.

Yoga routine done in 20 minutes

Yoga positions that stretch your muscles and relieve tension on your nerves are typically practiced before bed to have the relaxing impact needed for a good night’s sleep.

Bedtime yoga effectively delivers various physical and psychological benefits in addition to aiding in sleep.

 As an alternative to pharmaceutical treatments, yoga before bed has therapeutic advantages for older persons and insomniacs.

Child’s Pose

This simple forward fold helps loosen up the lower back. Angle your legs outward and your toes inward while seated at a table. Push your hips back toward your feet gently.

You can either extend your arms out in front of you or let them hang at your sides. Keep inhaling deeply.

How to:

• Put your toes together and your knees hip-width apart while you knead the ground.
• Your palms should be on top of your thighs.
• Lower your torso between your knees while exhaling.
• With your palms down, extend your arms parallel to your torso.
• Rest as long as necessary in the position.

Benefits:

• It stretches the thighs, ankles, and hips softly.
• restores the body’s circulation to normal
• It stretches the knee’s tendons, muscles, and ligaments.
• calming to the body and mind
• encourages deep, regular breathing

Wide-Knee Child’s pose

Wide-knee The Child’s Pose is most effective for people who lead sedentary lifestyles, particularly those who work long hours at a computer. It is a gentle stretch that targets the hip flexors and lumbar spine.

Despite how simple it may seem, this mild stretch activates the heart chakra and helps to calm down negative feelings. As a result, it lessens unneeded pain or mental and emotional strain, which makes the child’s position the ideal choice for unwinding the body and mind and promoting peaceful sleep.

How to:

• Kneel down, extend your toes, and rest your buttocks on your feet.
• Knees should be broader than hips apart.
• Bend forward, extend your arms, and extend your hands.
• Gently inhale while lowering your forehead to the ground.
• For five full breaths, hold it.

Benefits:

• The neck and spine are lengthened and relaxed.
• reduces back and neck pain as well as shoulder stress.
• improves the quality of breathing, which reduces anxiety and stress levels.
• improved digestion and elimination are made possible by massaging the abdominal organs.
• In addition to stretching the muscles, tendons, and ligaments, it also increases blood flow.

Legs up the wall pose

This pose involves lying on the floor or bed and has a restorative impact on the body. In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, this pose (Viparita Karani) is recommended for calming down energy stimuli that could interrupt the sleep cycle.

This pose is excellent for people whose jobs require prolonged standing or sitting. Swelling around the feet and ankles could result from spending the entire day on one’s legs.

 In this pose, inverting the legs returns blood to the affected areas, having a calming effect.

How to:

• Lean against a wall with your buttocks closer to it as you lay on your back.
• Place your legs next to the wall while slowly raising them.
• Maintain a flat spine, shoulders, and head.
• Keep your arms at your sides relaxed for five to ten minutes.

Benefits:

• It enhances digestion by involving the abdominal organs and core muscles.
• The therapeutic benefits of this pose also extend to sciatica pain.
• It has calming benefits on the shoulders and neck.
• While sleeping in this position, concentrating on the breath helps to unwind and calm the mind.

Corpse Pose

The good news is that Corpse Pose can be performed while lying on the bed, making it a necessary component of bedtime yoga.

Taping the parasympathetic nervous system is made more accessible by this calming stance. In addition, it is known to lower stress levels, blood pressure, and heart rate, all of which help promote restful sleep.

How to:

• On the floor or a bed, lie on your back.
• Keep your arms by your side with your palms facing up and your legs straight.
• Breathe naturally and gently.
• From your toes to your head’s top, gradually relax every part of your body.

Benefits:

• The blood pressure is lowered.
• Anxiety, weariness, and headaches are all reduced by this stance.
• Additionally, it enhances one’s capacity for focus and memory.

Breathing exercises for sleep

Some people suffering from primary insomnia may find relief or additional treatment in controlled breathing exercises.

We can control and regulate our breathing, making it a helpful tool for creating a calm and clear frame of mind.

I suggest three breathing methods and activities help you unwind and lessen stress.

Bhramari Pranayama Breathing

1. Sit down and stretch your shoulders while maintaining a straight spine.
2. Put your eyes closed and take a few long, deep breaths.
3. Maintaining control of your breathing, gently exhale while producing a constant, deep humming sound that resembles a bee buzz.
4. Use this approach two or three times.

Box Breathing

1. breathe-in for four counts.
2. Hold the breath in your lungs for four counts.
3. As you exhale, count to four.
4. For four counts, keep your lungs completely empty.
5. Exhale, then repeat the procedure.

4-7-8 Breathing

1. Straighten your back while you sit on a chair.
2. Just behind your upper front teeth, press the tongue tip against the roof of your mouth.
3. 4 seconds of inhalation
4. 7 seconds of breath holding
5. Exhale for 8 seconds via your mouth.

Belly Breathing

1. Sit in a seat or bend your knees over a pillow while lying on your back.
2. Place one hand on your tummy and the other flat against your chest.
3. Breathe deeply and slowly through your nose, allowing the hand on your stomach to rise and fall in time with your chest hand.
4. Next, take a deep inhale through your pursed lips.
5. In the end, you want to be able to breathe in and out without moving your chest.

Alternate Nostril Breathing

1. Sit cross-legged.
2. Place your right thumb against your nose while placing your left hand on your knee.
3. Complete your exhalation, then close your right nostril.
4. Using your left nostril, take a breath.
5. Exhale through your right nose while squeezing your left.
6. After five minutes of this rotation, exhale through your left nostril to complete the exercise.

Pressure points that calm the body

A possible treatment for insomnia is acupressure. It is believed that stimulating particular body parts can bring to restful slumber.

Let’s take a closer look at a few of these pressure locations for sleep induction.

When receiving acupressure therapy, one should inhale and exhale often. Warm water in the shower before beginning the therapy. It facilitates sleep.

Tai Chong(LV3)

This point is stimulated to lower anxiety and blood pressure. It induces sleep and gives the person a pleasant, calm feeling.

Draw a line from the big toe to the next toe and follow it toward the leg. You may feel the toes join the metatarsal bone as you move further away from them. In the depression before the joint, this place is located.

For three to four seconds, rotate the tip in small circles while applying pressure with your thumb. After then, let go and repeat 4 or 5 times. Similarly, move the other leg.

 Taixi (KD3)

For people who are middle-aged and older, activating this spot causes their blood pressure to drop.

For a little period, apply pressure here with your thumb before letting go. Repeat on each leg 6 to 8 times. Maintain a light to moderate pressure. Don’t press too hard because the tissue is thin here.

After massaging this spot, most patients fall asleep peacefully.

San Yin Jiao(SP6)

Women who are pregnant should refrain from stimulating this spot. The body feels calm, and this acupressure point assists with fatigue reduction. A calmer body can sleep better.

This location is located on the inner leg. Four fingers’ breadth should be measured above the inner ankle’s bony projection. Here, directly behind the bone in the flesh, you can find the SP 6 point.

Thumb-deeply presses down for approximately 5–6 counts. Take five seconds to unwind. On each leg, perform the therapy at least six to eight times.

Shen Men(HT7)

 This point lessens anxiety and concern, ensuring restful sleep.

This location is along the wrist line on the inside arm. The pinky finger line should extend rearward and cross the wrist line. The junction is the HT 7 point.

For about a minute, press and spin this place with the forefinger of the other hand. After that, let go for 30 seconds. On each hand, repeat the entire method 5–7 times. Maintain a light to moderate pressure.

Yin Tang

On the forehead, it is situated between the brows. Mind and body are calmed and relaxed by Yin Tang activation.

For about a minute each, press and rotate this point with your fingertip in both the clockwise and counterclockwise directions. As you mentally stimulate the point, keep your attention on it. It improves how effective stimulation is.

Do this 4–6 times.

An Mian

The only pressure point on the head associated with sleep is anmien, the pressure point of calm slumber. 

You can exert pressure on the sensitive area just before the ear, where your neck muscles meet your jawline. 

To activate this pressure point, press your index and middle fingers firmly into the depression for 15 to 20 minutes or until you feel peaceful, relaxed, and prepared for sleep.