 After class recently, I've had a couple of conversations about the quality of sleep after yoga.
Usually sleep is great and notably improved after taking yoga practice, even if the session was earlier in the day. If you are taking yoga once or twice a week, then those are often the best sleeps of the week. And if you practice daily, then the general trajectory of sleep is hugely improved. But one student noted that their sleep hadn't been as good as usual after yoga and we dug a little deeper. We talked through her practice and there were two suggestions that she took on board, and I'm happy to say that her sleep is back on track. If ever you aren't sleeping really well after your evening yoga, consider these tweaks to help improve things: Posture choice 1) Reduce the amount of downward facing dog or staying down in forward bends after 7pm. This isn't a rule, but these are quite a stimulating poses which when you are getting into the wind-down part of the evening can be helpful to reduce. So if your sleep is struggling use a more gentle, flowing visit to the poses rather than staying and holding the pose. Or even going half way in rather than the full pose can be better. Experiment and see what you can tolerate and what is helpful. More is not always better. Breathing 2) Notice if you are holding your breath during yoga We are aiming to free up our breath and improve how well it flows in harmony with our body. There are often patterns that I observe in students breathing and posture, where things are a little stuck, or there is a tension pattern observable in the chest or in the depth of the breath. The ocean breathing (Ujjayi) is great at helping us discover and improve these patterns. The smooth sound, or lack thereof, can be a great reference point to help us understand and improve our breathing habits. Holding the breath, particularly after the inhale, is contraindicated if you are struggling with sleep or anxiety and observing that they are showing up in your practice is the first step to improvements. It takes a little practice to get the hang of but it is well worth prioritising. The research There's heaps of research that shows us that sleep is a primary pillar of health and wellbeing, and there are lots of resources and supports out there to help clean up your sleep patterns and help optimise sleep. Try this one for starters if you are interested: https://www.hubermanlab.com/newsletter/toolkit-for-sleep Other suggestions If you know you are going to be on a limited supply of sleep for a while, perhaps as a new parent or for lifestyle reasons, then the skills of yoga are invaluable. 1) Avoid overthinking about the quality or quantity of your sleep. Cultivate being more accepting that this is how life is right now and resolve to make the best of what you have, rather than dwelling on what you don't have. Check your attitude towards it and resolve to not let things you can't control take up too much of your headspace. 2) Take a lying relaxation or yoga nidra practice which can be deeply restorative if you find your sleep windows are too sporadic. YogaSpace members: use the short-practices in the library Remember that in the short-practice video library there are gentle practices from only a few minutes and also a couple of yoga nidra videos to help guide you and support you with this. Yoga is great for your sleep It will be notably improved if you are practicing regularly. However if that isn't the case, then these suggestions or a chat with me can help understand areas to tweak your practice to be more helpful.
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 Have you noticed the paradox in yoga practice?
A) Be present On the one hand, we are invited to be fully present. To pay full and vibrant attention to every aspect of the moment that we are in. Notice and experience each breath as it happens, the sensations in the body, the feeling of each posture, the placement of the feet, the thoughts going on around all of this. Not thinking ahead to where we are going. This helps us feel more alive in the rest of our day as we stay grounded in what is actually happening, rather than leaping ahead to all the other things coming our way. B) Improve and change On the other hand, we are working on ourselves. Hoping and aiming to make improvements and changes. Improve our posture, our breath, our focus, our tense and tight areas and feel stronger, healthier, more mobile and less achy, more alert and energised, to feel calm and steady, grounded and serene. We are doing both Simultaneously we are being in this moment, and becoming something more. We are improving and developing for future health and wellbeing. Plus we are full immersing ourselves in the moment as it unfolds. And cultivating our awareness to all of this. There is no contradition Yoga invites us to be fully immersed in the practice. To let go of the goals and aims for a moment and realise the potential of the place that you discover you are already in. The practices also do the future work that you are hoping to achieve. The postures, the breath, the flow, the ease and stretch are there to serve you. You simply enter into your yoga, do the exercises and techniques sensibly, and watch it all unfold. It isn't as effortful as it sounds. Sometimes less is more - allow the posture to do the work, let go of struggling or pushing and just be in it fully. You just need to show up The effort may well be showing up in the first place. That much you do have to do. A bit like spring time, where we find ourselves now. A magical unfolding of buds, flowers, lambs and all things gorgeous. You can't rush it. You show up to it and be in it and reap the rewards of its beauty and potential. (The above photo is from last year's retreat in Somerset. A gorgeous toddler staggering happily after a cute pet lamb in fabulous countryside followed by a fluffy puppy. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.)  When I first bought my puppy home, in the car journey she was distraught and anxious. She was in a cardboard box and jumping up, whining, sniffing around, and very agitated. Then all of a sudden, she collapsed in a heap and didn't move.
Oh no! Is she still breathing? I checked and looked, and it turns out she had exhausted herself and fallen into instant sleep. No pre-amble, no sniffing around, no time for landing comfortably, no settling into just the right spot. She stopped exactly where she was and stayed there for about half an hour. In hindsight, it's funny. At the time I thought we'd lost her. Savasana Savasana, the lying rest pose in yoga, rather unromantically translates from Sanskrit into 'corpse' posture. A cessation of movement. A resting from all effort. A stopping of 'doing'. Pausing into an awareness of simply 'being'. Over time we learn to be fully present in an otherwise resting body, and then notice all that remains when you land there. Tune in Perhaps you can tune into subtle sensations of your heartbeat, your breath, and the open presence and aliveness that we can sense more deeply when we are still. It is often a hard posture to get the hang of and a stark contrast to the rest of our lives. It isn't sleep. It isn't Yoga Nidra which is another practice again, even though from the outside they look similar. Pause & be curious It is a pause from being busy and fidgeting, from being lost in thought, from reacting to impulses to adjust our hair or our clothing. We are letting our nervous systems relax and rest, along with our limbs, and our tensions. Be curious next time you are invited to Savasana about what it translates into for you. It is nothing like what my puppy did. That was a scarily abrupt. But on the other end of the spectrum, sometimes the process to get ready for the pose takes longer than the pose itself. Donning socks, jumpers, blankets, having a drink, adjusting hair, getting 'nested'. How much comfort is enough? A level of comfort is helpful for the body to relax. And sometimes if we are feeling anxious or agitated, these preparations are as close as we get. They are important ways to sooth and care for ourselves, and allow us to feel able to approach the pose. This is all part of the process of our yoga which over time, if our practice is working for us, get easier. If it is a 10 minute Savasana then more comfort can be helpful. But lying in mild discomfort can bear its own fruit too. A curious openness to how reactive often are. And how deliciously freeing it can feel when we discover that we can let go of all of that. We can even start to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, which is one of the many gifts yoga can offer us. Build tolerance & patience Savasana is one of those precious poses that we gradually get used to, and build up our tolerance to. We can't rush this process. But we could sleep through it. Be patient and curious along the way. |
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