8 Best Yoga Poses to Fight with Insomnia and Better Sleep

Sleep-deprived nights are almost everybody’s concern these days. When we have adequate sleep, the cells of our body repair, and the toxins of our body get removed. Therefore, it is necessary to get at least six to eight hours of sleep daily.

If you feel stressed from not getting enough sleep, then you can follow the path of yoga for sound sleep. A survey reported that 90% of people found yoga reduced stress and promoted better sleep at night.

Regular yoga practice is very beneficial to cure several disorders, including insomnia or abnormal sleeping habits. Yoga helps alleviate stress at the end of the day to get better sleep at night.

Practicing a few yoga poses like child pose, standing forward bending pose can help to get rid of those sleepless nights, which has tremendous adverse effects on your health and well-being. You feel exhausted, lethargic, sleepy, and drained of physical energy during the day. As a result, you feel like having a bad mood and lack of attention in everything you do, which lowers the daily productivity at work.

Here in this article, we have discussed the science of yoga in healing insomnia or sleeplessness, with illustrations of some yoga poses to give a clear idea.

How Does Yoga help to have a Sound sleep?

We feel rejuvenated the next morning if we fall asleep faster and longer. Sleeplessness has a direct connection with anxiety and worries. If we feel mentally stressed, then we fall prey to insomnia. In this context, yoga comes to the rescue.

Certain resting Yoga poses like child pose and corpse pose calms down your mind and relieves the tension. Balasana stretches your body perfectly as you keep your torso down, which enables the blood flow to the upper body. This mechanism helps to restore the calmness of the mind, which facilitates sound sleep.

According to yogic science, poses like Balasana (child pose) and Utana Shisosana (puppy pose) stimulate Anahata chakra. Anahata chakra is the fourth primary chakra, which is responsible for maintaining balance, the calmness of mind and body, and serenity.

Therefore, regular practice of calming yoga poses along with meditation can help to stretch your spine to release all the negative energy and promote sound sleep. Yoga also works for older people suffering from insomnia.

Yoga Poses For Sound Sleep

1. Corpse Pose (Shavasana)

Shavasana helps realign your body’s balance and restores the calmness of the mind. it also helps to improve the quality of sleep.

To do this pose, lie on your back. Keep your legs and arms open and place your arms a little away from your body. Your palms should face upwards. Breathe slowly by closing your eyes. Shift your attention from one body part to another by starting from bottom to top (first pay attention to left feet, then to left feet, and so on). Stay in this posture for 5-15 minutes. And gradually release the posture.

2. Standing half forward bend pose (Ardha Uttanasana)

Stand calmly. place your feet at hip-width. Keep your torso parallel to the floor and look downwards. Raise your hands at the height of your hips in a forward direction such that, they stay parallel to the floor. Keep your feet firm on the ground. Hold this pose for 30-60 seconds.

You can do variations to this pose by standing parallel to the ground at 90 degrees and pressing your palms against the wall for extra support.

3. Standing forward bend (Uttnasana)

To this pose, inhale slowly and stand straight by keeping your hands on both sides of the body. Exhale to bend forward by slightly moving your hips backward. Rest your hands on the floor and next on your feet. Your crown should reach the floor. Keep your gaze through your legs. Hold this posture for 30 seconds.

Gradually release this posture.

4. Supine Spinal Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)

You can perform this reclining twisted pose in bed before you fall asleep.

Lie down on your back. Then bring the right knee towards your chest. Then gradually move the right knee across your left side. Stretch the right arm out and Keep your gaze to the right. Hold this posture for 60 seconds and repeat the same on the other side. Hold this pose for another 60 seconds.

5. Legs up the wall pose (Viparita Karani)

Lie flat on your back at 5-6 inches distance from the wall. Bring your hands to rest on your hips. Raise your legs at a perpendicular distance from the floor with the support of the wall. Push your hands under the lower back and support your waist with your hands. Inhale and raise your legs a little higher. Keep your trunk at 45 degrees from the floor. In your final position, keep the body weight on your shoulders. Hold this posture for 30 seconds.

You can use props like bolster to support your back in this pose.

6. Child pose

Child pose is a relaxing pose that helps calm down your mind, thereby promoting sound sleep.

To do this pose, kneel on the floor. Your toes should touch each other. Then sit on your heels. Exhale and bend down in a forward direction. Keep your hands on the floor by stretching them forwards. Hold this pose for 120 seconds and then gradually release the posture.

7. Reclining Butterfly pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)

You can perform this pose on the bed before you fall asleep.

Lie flat on your back. Gradually get your feet together. Keep your knees in a diamond shape. Keep one hand on your heart and the other on your stomach. Breathe in and out deeply. Hold this pose for 5-10 minutes. Gradually release the posture.

8. Seated Forward Bend (Paschimottanasana)

Sit on the ground by keeping your legs stretched outwards in front of you. Keep your spine erect. Stretch your hands upwards over your head and slowly bring your head down, bringing your hands down towards your toes. Place your hands to the maximum distance they reach towards the toes. Keep your head down in between the knees. Hold this posture for 30-60 seconds. Then gradually release the pose.

Conclusion

Yoga is a therapy for the body and mind. Regular practice of yoga has a calming effect on you as it helps reduces stress levels by enabling blood flow into all the cells of the body. A calm and stress-free mind can facilitate a better sleep at night if you practice all these yoga poses before going to bed.