5 Yoga poses for insomnia proven to help sleep.

5 Yoga poses for insomnia

Can the practice of yoga poses help for insomnia & provide great relief? We say yes and we’re giving you our favourite five yoga poses for insomnia.

Yoga is good for you

A new study indicates that Yoga can help to improve sleep among people who have chronic insomnia. Researchers at Harvard Medical School investigated how a daily yoga practise might affect sleep for people with insomnia and found broad improvements to measurements of sleep quality and quantity.sleep quality and quantity.

In this study, researchers included people with different types of insomnia, evaluating people with both primary and secondary insomnia. Primary insomnia is sleeplessness that develops on its own, independent of any other health problem or sleep disorder. Secondary insomnia develops as a symptom or consequence of another medical condition.

Insomnia

Many illnesses and health problems are associated with insomnia, including cancer, chronic pain conditions such as arthritis and fibromyalgia, and depression. Medications taken for chronic or acute health conditions can also trigger insomnia, as can the use (and abuse) of substances such as alcohol.

How can yoga help you sleep better?

Deep relaxation improves deeper diaphragmatic breathing reducing stress and tension. Thus the effect is to calm the nervous system, thus enabling a change in the brain waves to delta waves.

Our 5 top yoga poses for insomnia are;

Balasana; child’s-pose

Ado Mukha Svanasana; down-facing dog

Uttanasana; forward-bend

Viparita-Karini;(half-shoulder-stand)-Bolster-supported-legs-in-the-air

Savasana; corpse pose

Start on all fours with the tips of your big toes touching the ground. You are heading towards Balasana; childs-pose. Release the breath until you receive weight on them. Release towards the spine from the lower abdomen, pay attention to how your belly expands and see if it feels like your lower back softens. Follow the direction moving back towards your heels., Grow fingers long.

Ado Mukha Svanasana; down-facing dog pose is where you are heading now. From Balasana pick your knees off the ground. Releasing the breath also releases movement towards the ground. Now the action lets you touch your wrists down and let the backs of the knees open but don’t kick the heels down. Breath here. Invite space between your toes to keep the knees soft.

Uttanasana-forward-bend; follows. From dog walk your feet to your hands. Invite space between your toes and in the ankles. Try to keep the backs of the knees soft. Release the breath to the hands and feet. Receive the breath behind the heart feeling the back of the body expand. You develop a rhythmic pulse. 

Viparita-Karini;(half-shoulder-stand)-Bolster-supported-legs-in-the-air. Use a bolster or hard cushion behind your pelvis. Lying back lift the feet to the sky. Invite space between your toes, release your jaw let your breath out, leave the soles of your feet up in the sky, let the breathe out and feel the back of the pelvis touch more and more the support behind you. Lift the arms over the head and let the outward breath draw the hands back toward the shoulders. Pulse in and out, with your breath.

Savasana; corpse pose; Can you just let everything go now. Keep your attention on your breath. Notice how the diaphragm sits up under the ribs, how the breath is smaller as you rest to keep your focus on that feeling for a few minutes at least.

Yoga is your awareness

The sensitivity we show ourselves while practising yoga could be seen as quite revealing! How we treat ourselves may reflect how we treat others. There is no doubt in my mind that yoga has the potential to bring considerable benefits to the individual. We also have the opportunity to touch our world kindly with great compassion and love. That’s worth it. In a way, yoga is our touch, our filter to our societies.