Yoga is a union of physical postures, meditations, and breathing exercise techniques, with multiple physical and mental health benefits improving blood circulation, levels of blood sugar (Diabetes), pain relief, and relaxing the central nervous system. Yoga poses help encourage mindfulness and a suffering-free healthy life.
Due to various reasons like a fast-paced lifestyle, stress and anxiety, excessive workload, and too much use of mobile phones, and social media, we usually do not get enough sleep, sometimes improper sleep leads to the risk of chronic insomnia.
Sleep is an essential component for the proper function of the body and mental health, incomplete sleep causes various physical health issues like weak immune systems, weakness, and low energy levels. Apart from physical health issues, the sleeping cycle affects our mental well-being.
In this article, we suggest how yoga poses help you with insomnia or sleep-related issues and work on your mental well-being by reducing stress and anxiety, some yoga poses improve the nervous system and sleep cycle.
How Does Yoga For Sleep Work?
Yoga is helping in connecting body, mind, and soul, it is a combination of physical postures, meditation, and breathing exercises, it is beneficial in better sleep by reducing sleep disturbance, improving mindfulness, and increasing melatonin levels, which is an important hormone for better sleep and maintain sleep-wake cycles.
Most of the persons have a sleeping disorder and face insomnia, yoga helps nourish full sleeping and relaxation, reduces muscle tension, stress, and depression, and supports a calm mind and relaxing sleep. Yoga incorporates many physical poses and deep breathing techniques advantageous in calming the mind and body. It also stops repetitive thoughts, promotes better sleep, and lowers stress.
It has been studied that regularly practicing yoga helps us sleep fast, and improves quality sleep, apart from all this fight against chronic conditions like insomnia.
Benefits Of Yoga In Insomnia
Yoga encourages mindfulness, which can help in quality sleep, reduce sleep disturbance, and increase melatonin levels an important hormone to maintain a good sleep cycle.
Yoga offers many deep breathing practices that help the body with deep relaxation, reduce stress, strengthen the respiratory muscles, and enhance the oxygen supply flow in the body.
Yoga works on mental well-being and relieves stress builds a sense of calmness and hyperactiveness of the median forebrain, it promotes healthy peace of mind and positive outlooks.
Regular practice of yoga releases endorphin hormones that encourage restful sleep, an effective way to get rid of insomnia, yoga poses improve blood flow and better the circulatory systems.
Best Yoga Poses For Better Sleep
These yoga poses are best for insomnia and anxiety.
1. Child’s Pose
2. Corpse Pose
3. Happy Baby Pose
4. Leg Up The Wall Pose
5. Bridge Pose
6. Butterfly Pose
7. Cat Cow Pose
8. Seated Forward Bent Pose
9. Standing Forward Bend Pose
Other Tips For Better Sleep
- Limit drinking tea and coffee.
- Late-night movies.
- Listen to soft instrumental music.
- Create a gap between sleep and the last meal.
- Take a warm bath before sleeping.
- Wear soft cotton clothes at bedtime.
- Be consistent for sleep.
- Create a restful environment.
- Limit the screen time before sleep.
- Drink warm milk.
Causes Of Insomnia And Irregular Sleep
- Stressful or difficult life events
- Consumption of caffeine
- Mental Health Disorder
- Irregular Schedules
- Medical Conditions
- Stress and Anxiety
- Physical Pain
- Lifestyle
- Neurological Disorder
- Excess Smoking & Tabacoo
Frequently Asked Question
Q1. Which yoga is best for insomnia?
Ans. Poses like Corpse Pose (Savasana), legs up against a wall (Viparita Karani), and bending forward (Uttanasana) are great. They calm your mind and body, making it easier to fall asleep.
Q2. How can I improve my sleep quality with yoga?
Ans. To enhance relaxation in yoga poses, your breath plays an important role. Breath control is as important as physical posture. Try Ujjayi Breath for a relaxing effect, also known as Ocean Breath. Start by inhaling deeply through the nose, allowing your breath to flow smoothly and gently.
Q3. Can insomnia be treated with yoga?
Ans. Accordingly, clinical trial studies of insomnia treatments that reduce arousal, including relaxation and meditation, have reported positive results. Yoga is a multicomponent practice also known to be effective in reducing arousal, although it has not been well-evaluated as a treatment for insomnia. [Source: NCBI]
Q4. Which is the best pranayama for insomnia?
Ans. Bhramari Pranayama: This is an excellent simple practice for relaxing the mind. It can be practiced before sleeping.
Conclusion
Daily at least 6-8 hours of good sleep is necessary for overall health. Quality sleep helps repair cellular damage and removes toxin products from the body. If you are not getting enough sleep 6-8 hours daily, your normal behavior might change to frustrating and irritative. Yoga can help you to get rid of these issues. If you suffer from incomplete sleep or severe insomnia, yoga is a good technique to treat your sleeping cycles effectively.
Yoga is an energetic full-body workout that helps you improve blood circulation, relax the mind and body, and reduce stress levels. Regularly practicing yoga and adding it to your daily routine, can fix your sleep-related problems. Adequate sleep boosts immunity systems, and body energy levels, and increases productivity, focus, and overall physical and mental health. Yoga has calming and relaxing effects on the body and mind.
If you have any suggestions or questions, please comment below, we will be pleased to answer all your queries. Thank You!
About The Author
Honey is a certified yoga teacher from Patanjali Yogpeeth, Haridwar. Through the learning process, she realized, that yoga can be helpful in the wellness of one’s life.
