Yoga has
many benefits: Improving
flexibility, increasing strength,
managing stress and it can also help
improve sleep. The most common sleep
disorder that millions of Americans
suffer from is called
insomnia.
According
to the American
Academy of Sleep Medicine,
insomnia is defined as “difficulty
with sleep initiation, duration,
consolidation or quality.” Research shows
that when individuals who have
insomnia practice yoga regularly,
they fall asleep faster, sleep
longer and even return to sleep more
quickly with waking during the the
night.
With aging,
insomnia can become more prominent
and may be harder for adults over
the age of 60 to stay asleep during
the night. Regular
yoga practice has been
proven to improve sleep
quality, which results in feeling
better throughout the day for people
with insomnia. Therefore, yoga
improves quality of life.
Bedtime
Yoga
To aid
sleep and decrease insomnia, it
is important to work yoga into
your bedtime routine. It is
essential to practice the
correct yoga poses or exercises
and avoid energizing ones. These
three poses are perfect for
preparing your body for
slumber:
Knee
to chest: Lie on your back
and slowly bring one leg at
a time towards your chest.
Relax in this position and
slowly take 3-5 deep
diaphragm or belly
breaths.
Legs
up the Wall: Lie on your
back and support the back of
your legs with your hands or
put the back of your legs up
a wall, so that the body is
in a “L” shape. Relax in
this position and slowly
take 3-5 deep diaphragm or
belly breaths.
Corpse
Pose: Lie on your back with
legs straight and slightly
wider than hips, arm just
away from your sides and
palms facing upwards. Relax
in this position and slowly
take 3-5 deep diaphragm or
belly breaths.
In this
short 10-minute yoga bedtime
practice, these 3 poses are
demonstrated to help you fall
asleep faster, stay asleep and
improve your sleep
quality.
Yoga
Nidra
There is
actually a “type” of yoga that is
specifically intended to induce and
be similar to sleep called Yoga
Nidra. Yoga
Nidra is defined as “the
ability to enter the deepest,
non-REM delta wave sleep while
maintaining awareness both
internally and of one’s
surroundings”. In classical Yoga
Nidra, one is guided through the
awareness of the body’s senses (see,
feel, hear, taste, and smell) while
always being reminded to stay awake.
There is even a contemporary
adaptation of the ancient Yoga
Nidra, called Integrative
Restoration (iRest). It
shares many basic principles and
techniques with other forms of Yoga
Nidra, but differs in various way.
iRest has even been shown
in research to be
effective on mindfulness, sleep and
pain in health care
workers.
This video
is a great way to learn a bit about
HOW to improve positions of sleep in
conjunction with some yoga poses and
ends with a guided Yoga Nidra
practice. Please enjoy!
Connect
with
Others
Connection
is very important and one of the
pillars to a healthy life! Please
join me virtually every Tuesday or
Thursday @ 10am for Therapeutic Yoga
class. If you do not already receive
email invites for these classes,
just email healwellnessandtherapy@gmail.com
and you will be added to the
distribution list. If the time for
class does not suit your schedule,
feel free to check out the many
therapeutic yoga classes located on
our YouTube channel or from our
website.
Latest
Videos
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Low
Back Arthritis from the September 03,
2020 Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class on what
we like to call "Sofa Yoga" from
the September 01, 2020
