Yoga for better sleep: an evening practice

Almost everyone who comes to a month-long course here says the same thing in the second week: I am sleeping like I have not slept in years. It is the most consistent effect we see, more consistent than flexibility.

It is worth understanding why, because the reason tells you what to practise.

Why yoga helps sleep

Falling asleep is a release, not an achievement. The body has to let go of a certain amount of muscular tension and the breath has to slow, and only then does sleep arrive on its own. Most people who sleep badly are not short of tiredness. They are short of the ability to put down the day.

That is precisely the thing a traditional practice trains. Slow breathing shifts the body towards rest. Held forward bends quieten rather than stimulate. And the long relaxation at the end of a class is, functionally, twenty minutes of rehearsing exactly what you need to do at 11pm.

Which is why the practice below is mostly breathing and lying down, and why it will look disappointingly easy. If you take only one thing from it, take the humming bee breath.

A fifteen-minute evening sequence

Do this an hour or so before bed, in dim light, with the phone in another room.

1. Cat and cow, ten slow rounds. Let the spine move after a day of being held still.
2. Child's pose, two minutes, forehead resting on the floor or a cushion.
3. Seated forward bend, two minutes, knees generously bent. Fold rather than stretch.
4. Reclining twist, one minute each side. Knees fall to one side, arms out, head turned the other way.
5. Legs up the wall, five minutes. The easiest restorative posture there is, and often the most effective.
6. Long-exhale breathing, twenty rounds: in for four, out for six or eight. Do this lying down, and stop counting when it becomes automatic.

If you fall asleep somewhere in the middle, the practice has worked.

Three things you can do in bed

On the nights you cannot face getting on the floor:

• Knees to chest, rocking gently side to side for a minute.
• A reclining twist, a minute each side, done under the covers.
• The body scan from savasana: attention moving slowly from the feet to the scalp, silently suggesting relax at each place. Most people do not reach the shoulders before they are asleep.

That last one is the real workhorse, and it is worth learning properly — it is set out in full in savasana is a skill.

Waking at three in the morning

The three o'clock wake is a different problem from not falling asleep. You are rested enough not to drop off immediately, and the mind takes the gap as an invitation.

Do not fight it and do not check the time. Turn onto your back, start the long exhale, and if the mind will not settle, run the body scan from the feet upwards, slowly, as many times as it takes. Yoga nidra is the formal version of this and the single most useful practice for broken sleep — you can do it lying exactly where you are, and even if you do not fall back asleep, an hour of it leaves you far better off than an hour of worrying.

What not to do at night

• Kapalabhati and bhastrika. Forceful breathing is stimulating by design. Excellent at 7am, counterproductive at 10pm.
• Strong backbends. Wheel, camel and deep cobra are energising. Keep them for the morning.
• Fast sequences. A vigorous flow raises the heart rate and body temperature, both of which have to come down again before you sleep.
• Inversions. Headstand and shoulderstand are traditionally morning practices, and most people find them too stimulating late.
• Practising to a screen in a bright room. Whatever the sequence, the light undoes it.

What the rest of the day is doing

An evening practice cannot undo a day spent entirely indoors and seated. Two things make more difference than any sequence: daylight in the morning, which is what sets the body clock, and some movement before the afternoon.

This is one of the quiet advantages of a morning class. Students here walk to the shala at 7:15, practise for two hours, and eat breakfast in daylight — and their sleep has usually reorganised itself within a week without anybody discussing sleep at all. Morning or evening practice looks at the trade-offs.

If sleep has been badly broken for months, or you snore heavily and wake unrefreshed, see a doctor rather than a yoga teacher. Sleep apnoea and thyroid problems are common, treatable, and not things a forward bend will fix.

Common questions

Is it good to do yoga right before bed?

Gentle yoga, yes. Keep it slow, keep the lights low and finish lying down. Avoid strong backbends, fast sequences and forceful breathing like kapalabhati within a couple of hours of sleep, because they are stimulating.

Which yoga pose is best for sleep?

Legs up the wall, for most people. It is restorative, requires no flexibility and can be held for five or ten minutes. A long savasana with a slow body scan is the other candidate, and often the more powerful of the two.

Does yoga nidra help with insomnia?

Many people find it the most useful practice for broken sleep, because it can be done lying in bed and does not require falling asleep to be worthwhile. An hour of yoga nidra leaves you more rested than an hour awake and worrying.

How long before I sleep better?

Most people notice a change within one to two weeks of practising most evenings. If your sleep has been badly disrupted for months, or you wake unrefreshed despite enough hours, see a doctor — sleep apnoea and thyroid issues are common and treatable.