Sleepy? How yoga can help sleep.

 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.