Yoga for Better Sleep

          If you find a good night’s sleep eluding you, you are probably not alone.  Many things may contribute to your difficulty in finding a peaceful night’s rest.  Sleep deprivation has become recognized as being an impairment that may be hazardous to your safety and health.

          Many aspects of our life experience may alter our opening to a restful sleep or our ability to sustain sleep.  Several cycles of REM sleep are necessary to restore the body and mind fully for the next day.  As we transition from lighter dream-like sleep (REM) to deeper layers we experience wider, longer brain wave patterns that refresh and restore us.

           Yoga postures and breathing techniques can be an easy link to those brain wave patterns.  Certain yoga poses usually can be either energizing, or have a more calming and cooling effect.  Standing poses, active back bending, and more heated and stronger forms of yoga such as astanga and power yoga energize you.  These poses and styles engage muscles in poses to warm and strengthen, building concentration and focus in a more active way.  Counter to these are more calming poses such as forward folds, gentle passive twists, restorative/gentle yoga, and supported backbends.  The more active forms of yoga may be suitable if done earlier in the day, but may keep you awake if done too close to bedtime.  The stimulating effects of these practices may be beneficial overall, as they exercise the body more strongly: and generally, regular exercise promotes a cycle of more restful sleep.  If anxiety is a component of your difficulty sleeping, active daytime yoga will tune that extra energy to flow more smoothly during the day.  Then a good evening practice would be slower, gentler styles or varieties of poses.  Gentle prolonged stretching induces relaxation by engaging muscles less and deepening the slow release of muscle and connective tissue.  Connective tissue such as tendon, ligaments and cartilage carry yin energy, the more soothing aspect of our chi.

          Depression as a source of sleep difficulty is often characterized by early morning or middle of the night waking.  Poses and styles for depression might include gentle beginning stretches, building to more active standing poses and backbends to counter the collapsing physical effects of depression, closing with some full, extended breathing.  Again, try not to emphasize the stronger standing and back bending poses too close to bedtime.  If you wake, try some interval breathing or try legs up the wall pose and or child’s pose.

          It is best to avoid caffeine past the noon hour as the half life of caffeine can be 6-8 hours: so coffee, tea, or chocolate with lunch or in the afternoon will still stimulate you to some degree by bedtime. 

          Whatever style of yoga you choose, basic to your practice will be attention to the pose and breath and turning your concentration away from other thoughts and distractions.  The body and breath can act as a tuning fork.  They can help you first to recognize tension, such as in a tight neck or shoulder or a habit of not breathing fully.  Then the body and breath, used consciously, can lead the mind and emotions toward a more tranquil, peaceful state.

          Keeping in mind that your life or sleep experience will never be one of completely still waters, we can eventually learn to swim with the stream rather than against it, surf the emotions rather than enter into tailspin.  “The key to sound sleep lies in surrendering, not in trying harder”.  When you do get to bed, focus on the breath and allow the cradle of sleep to surround and support you.