Yoga is a meditative movement that incorporates physical exercise and focused breathing. Including a relaxing yoga class before bedtime can improve the quality of your sleep. If you have insomnia, lack enough time to sleep, or sleep lightly, you can practice yoga before bed. Here is how a yoga class can help with sleep disorders.
How Does Yoga Help With Sleep Disorders?
Yoga combines breathing, stretching, exercise, and meditative movement, which help connect the mind, breath, and body to combat sleep issues. A National Institute of Health (NIH) survey recently showed a dramatic increase in yoga use among adults and adolescents, primarily because of its countless health benefits. A combination of intentional body movements, breathing awareness, and mindfulness calm and relax the body, increasing sleep quality and duration.
Who Needs Yoga to Sleep Better?
Yoga benefits individuals of all ages ranging from the elderly to young children. Anyone can do yoga regardless of gender, fitness level, or body size. Yoga is particularly beneficial for these individuals:
- Older adults with sleep disorders – Yoga can help mitigate the symptoms of insomnia, restless leg disorder, and even chronic snoring.
- Pregnant women – Since yoga is a gentle, holistic exercise, it is not only safe for pregnant women but extremely beneficial for a healthy pregnancy.
- Women experiencing menopause – Focused breathing and gentle stretches have proven to help lessen or even counteract many of the symptoms of menopause.
- Children with autism spectrum disorder – Yoga practice can help these children to lower symptoms of stress or restlessness. Improved mental health can help them overcome sleeping challenges.
How Long Should You Practice Yoga to Improve Your Sleep?
If you want to use yoga as a technique to improve sleep quality, consider creating a schedule with your yoga instructor. You may attend classes weekly, allocate a particular time during the day to practice at home, or combine the two. Even if you only have time for a couple of exercises, your body will still experience many of the benefits.
Yoga Benefits
Alleviate Insomnia
Insomnia is the incapability to stay asleep or fall asleep. Insomnia can lead to long-term effects, including mood changes, memory loss, and daytime sleepiness.
Yoga can help to manage insomnia, particularly among women with breast cancer and postmenopausal women. You are more likely to sleep for longer, fall asleep faster, and sleep quicker after you wake up at night.
Weight Loss
Practicing yoga not only improves the quality of sleep but also helps with weight loss. To sleep better, do yoga before bedtime and experience positive results for weight loss and weight maintenance. It can also help you be more cautious about the kind of foods you eat.
Promotes Relaxation
Yoga helps to put your body in a relaxed and calm state, referred to as the relaxation response. Engaging in calming yoga poses reduces the release of cortisol, the hormone associated with stress.
A routine will help to relieve any concerns that may be stress-related, like insomnia, anxiety, and weight gain. Stress can cause high blood pressure, and doing yoga poses can relax your body, lowering blood pressure.
Tips
If you’re ready to start yoga before bedtime, here are tips to help you:
Create a calm environment: A relaxing environment will help you avoid distractions. Do yoga poses in your bed or invest in a yoga mat. Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothing like sweats or pajamas.
Practice nighttime yoga: Commit to doing yoga every night and make it an evening routine. You can do it every night or several nights weekly to get great sleep results. Positive sleep habits combined with a consistent routine will improve the quality of your sleep. Yoga can help you wake up feeling well rested the following day.
Don’t push yourself too hard: If you experience moderate discomfort, pinching, or pain, stop doing the pose slowly and carefully. When in doubt about any specific physical activity, consult your healthcare provider.
Find the Best Yoga Class App
Look for an app that offers the best yoga class created by a reputable physical therapist. An app you can take anywhere will help you do classes while on the go.
The best app will be grounded in neurodevelopmental training and physical therapy principles. Such principles will help to improve your sleep through safer and smarter movement patterns.
