Restorative Yoga for Better Sleep
“Every sunset is an opportunity to reset.”
Is an overactive mind, stress, or aches in the body preventing you to have a good quality sleep?
I'm a mother of two, a yoga teacher, an entrepreneur, and a wife whose daily life oftentimes is rather busy and hectic. I used to sleep very badly mostly because of stress and constant thoughts and worries running through my mind day in and day out. It was only when I started to intensively study and practice yoga asana (the physical poses), meditation, and breathing that I managed to calm my brain and my nervous system before going to bed. This made a huge difference in my sleep quality! Well, this and creating myself a calming evening routine.
A few years ago, I promised myself to put sleep at the top of my priority list simply because I was tired of feeling tired and needing caffeine to keep me going through the day. The biggest and most powerful change was to make the last hour before going to bed as peaceful and pleasant as possible (with small kids this is sometimes easier said than done but we do our best and accept the rest).
This meant ditching all the distracting things (like browsing the internet, working, snacking, tv, etc.) and switching them to calming things like a warm shower, oil massage, restorative yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation.
Most of the waking hours we spend living in the state of doing. We complete tasks, think, analyze, calculate, communicate, and do most of our daily tasks using the power of the mind. Now, this is a very important part of our day but if our minds are constantly active and working towards something or are clinging to something belonging to the past. If we don’t give our minds the chance to rest and recharge we get into trouble. If we let our mind keep running an eternal marathon, it will eventually burn out leaving us lying scattered and breathless along our journey of life.
When bedtime's approaching we should move away from the sensory stimulus and bring our awareness into ourselves. In the evening we want to reduce the sympathetic activity and increase the parasympathetic response in order to have a more peaceful night and get all the different sleep cycles we need. And here's where yoga, meditation, and breathing become very helpful tools. In yoga, we have something that will create a response of calmness.
For us to sleep better, our bodies need to settle into a parasympathetic mode where rest and healing can happen. Oftentimes, especially after a busy day, our minds are racing, our breath is fast and shallow, and we might experience aches and pains in the body which can all disturb our sleep. The practice of restorative yoga is a great way to support good sleep because it soothes frazzled nerves and quiets anxious minds.
Restorative yoga is not a cure-all pill that will solve all your sleeping problems but it is an effective way to down-regulate the nervous system, release muscle tension, and wind down before going to bed.
Here are six reasons why restorative yoga supports better sleep:
Teaches you to move away from sensory stimuli and into yourself
Increases parasympathetic tone
Reduces cortisol and adrenalin production
Reduces muscle tension
Relaxes you
Helps you to get all the different sleep cycles needed
Through the practice of restorative yoga, you get an opportunity to free your mind from the constant chatter so that it is easier for you to fall asleep and your brain can reset itself during the night.
The magic doesn’t happen overnight, but just like with everything, it requires consistent practice over a longer period of time. Depending on how familiar you are with restorative yoga and how easy it is for you to relax, it can take from a few days to a few weeks to notice the positive effects. Consistency is the key.
We need to free our minds from the constant chatter so that we can easily fall asleep and our brain can reset itself during the night. Releasing physical tension, calming the mind, and freeing the breath to bring our whole being into a parasympathetic mode prepares us for a restful night.
February 24th I'm teaching a 90 minutes restorative yoga class at Mala Yoga in Thalwil from 9:30-11:00. If you live nearby why don't you come and try it out yourself? This is the last purely restorative yoga class of the season. Restorative yoga classes will continue again starting from the last Friday of September. For the spring and summer seasons, the focus will be on active and a bit more invigorating yoga classes.
“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”
