It can be hard to wind down after a busy day and this can really interfere with getting a good nights sleep and can even result in insomnia.
Even if you are actually tired it can still be difficult to quieten the mind. You may find that you are still going over what happened during the day or worrying about what will happen tomorrow. This can also cause you to wake up during the middle of the night and lie awake worrying, only to fall into a deep sleep just before your alarm goes off.
We’ve all been there but if this becomes a regular occurrence then you may want to try yoga to see if this can help you.
There have been numerous studies into yoga and sleep including a national survey in the US which found that over 55% of people who did yoga found that it helped them get better sleep. Over 85% said yoga helped reduce stress.
In another study, Yoga for Improving Sleep Quality and Quality of Life for Older Adults, involved a group participating in 12 weeks of classes, held twice weekly, incorporating yoga postures, meditative yoga, and daily home practice of meditative yoga.
They found that the group showed “significant improvements in a range of subjective factors, including overall sleep quality; sleep efficiency; sleep latency and duration; self-assessed sleep quality; fatigue; general well-being; depression; anxiety; stress; tension; anger; vitality; and function in physical, emotional, and social roles.”
The study concluded that Yoga was shown to be safe and improved sleep and quality of life in a group of older adults with insomnia.
The studies support the benefits. The combination of stretching and calming your mind through yoga, especially last thing at night, seems to really help create a ‘switching-off’ routine.
This is especially desirable in the often fast-paced multiple distraction world that we live in.
Even if you can’t manage to fit in a yoga class into your day you may find that doing gentle yoga before bedtime will calm your mind and help your body to relax more deeply into sleep.
Below are a few videos with yoga moves for you to try before bedtime. Why not try for a week and see if you get a better nights sleep?
Leave us a comment and let us know if Yoga improves your sleep or what works for you.
And a slightly longer 20-minute yoga routine in this video.
Top photo by Rishikesh Yogpeeth on Unsplash
How Yoga Improves Sleep