Category: Relaxation

Yoga To Improve Sleep.

Yoga to Improve Sleep: 5 Ways to Fight Insomnia Naturally

Kritika Bairagi | October 1st, 2024

Millions are fighting Insomnia across the world. How does a body define insomnia? Essentially, it is the condition where one cannot fall asleep or stay asleep. These can sometimes lead to fatigue, poor health, and mental strain as well. Fast lifestyles and stress form the major causes. Allopathic treatments in the form of sleep aids for some time do give relief from this problem; however, yoga helps in fighting it without any artificial or unnatural aids.

In Online Yoga Life, we are interested in holistic health through yoga. We’re providing an online teacher training course with specific units of Yoga therapy, students being prepared to lead others over insomnia and much more using yogic techniques.

There are a multitude of reasons for insomnia :

Stress and Anxiety: Often, stressors in life can interrupt sleep.

Lifestyle Choices: Irregular sleep schedules, too much time staring at electronic screens, and stimulants like caffeine.

Physical and Mental Health: Chronic pain, depression, and anxiety are among the most common causes of sleep disorders.

Environmental Factors: Inadequate lighting or too much noise from the environment or even a sleeping space could compromise the quality of sleep.

Traditional treatments include:

Sleep Medications: They are short-term solutions that can sometimes be effective but come with the cost of addiction as well as many side effects.

CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy): Could alter errant thoughts about sleep but this does take some time as well as availability.

Lifestyle Changes: Avoiding caffeine, creating bedtime rituals, and optimizing the sleep environment can contribute but will not necessarily relate to deeper reasons.

Unlike the other methods, which are mostly targeted at the symptoms, Yoga holds to a root level. It targets all of these multiple layers – the physical, the psychological, as well as the emotional in the insomnia cycle. With continued yogic practice, balance is re-established in the nervous system, the body calms, and the mind quietens.

Yogic techniques that helps in aiding insomnia:

Some Yoga postures force the body to release tension in areas that commonly collect stress like the shoulders, neck, and lower back. These poses help induce a state of serenity suitable for restful sleep:

Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclined Bound Angle Pose): Opens the hips and chest while promoting deep relaxation.

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Viparita Karani (Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose): It is a gentle inversion, and its utilization brings both a calming of the mind and perhaps gets tired legs off the ground, striking serenity.

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Balasana (Child’s Pose): It is a restorative posture that tends to reduce tension in the lower back while gently stretching the spine.

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Shavasana (Corpse Pose): It is often the final posture in a session of yoga. Shavasana allows the body to absorb the impacts of practice and moves toward deep rest.

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Yogic breathing techniques, one of the most effective tools to manage stress that is often at the root of insomnia. Managing the breath changes the nervous system’s mode from fight-or-flight to rest-and-digest.

Alternate Nostril Breathing, or Nadi Shodhana, balances the hemispheres of the brain and calms the mind in preparation for the restful sleep desired.

Bhramari Pranayama (Bee Breath): This calms the nervous system and is done to help reduce stress and anxiety.

4-7-8 Breathing Technique: Not a Yogic technique, but rather adopted as an addendum to Pranayama for enhancing sleep. Inhale for 4 seconds, retain for 7, then exhale for 8. This will slow your breathing down in a way that effectively acts upon the parasympathetic nervous system in the body, and your body will adjust into relaxation.

Yogic Kriyas cleanse the inner systems of the body and ensure smooth flow of energy in the body. Built-up stress can also be released; this is of utmost importance to sleep.

Jala Neti (Nasal Cleansing): This involves rinsing the nose with warm saline water-a simple but effective practice. Jala neti often helps the person improve their respiration and promote sleeping habits; it also cuts down on snoring when performed.

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Probably one of the greatest long-term tools against insomnia is meditation. Regular practice quiets the mind, reduces stress levels, and makes it easier to remain in the present.

Yoga Nidra (Yogic Sleep): This is a guided meditation that is intended to guide the individual into an unconscious state of rest, sometimes referred to as “sleeping with awareness.”

While we talk about being aware while sleeping one must be known to the fact that curing insomnia is not just managing your sleeping pattern but working on your thoughts which pass through your mind every second, one should consciously work on remembering lord or cherished divinity and surrender your pattern of thoughts to him. Doing the process mindfully would definitely provide positive results & can be very potent for those who experience difficulty sleeping.

Mindfulness Meditation: Mindfulness practice helps maintain being in the moment, away from rushing and anxious thoughts that mostly do not allow sleep to come.

Apart from physical and mental practices, diet also plays an important role in regulating sleep. The kind of food we have determines our digestion and energy level as well as mental clarity of which we need to be clear in order to sleep well.

Avoid Stimulants: Don’t have coffee, smoke, or feast on spicy or heavy food before you sleep. It stimulates the nervous system and would interfere with easy sleep.

Light Evening Meals: For dinner, select easily digestible foods like soups, salads, or steamed vegetables. Avoid overeating or gobbling too much rich food during the night as it would give you disrupted digestion and sleep.

Indulge in Slumber-Enhancing Foods: Almonds, walnuts, bananas, and milk, hot, are rich in magnesium, tryptophan, and melatonin, all of which improve sleep quality.

Restoring and maintaining health through sleep is essential. Through Yoga, meditation, and mindful breathing, you create inner peace, promoting better sleep. Real rest begins within, and when your body and mind align, sleep becomes restful. Trust your body’s capacity to heal through gentle movement and deep breathing. As you become more attuned to yourself, your sleep will gradually normalize, leaving you feeling refreshed and restored.

Also if you’re an admirer of Yoga and want to know more about how to handle disorders like insomnia, then certainly the online teacher training class would be the class of your dreams. There’s also a special unit on Yoga as therapy; we teach the students how to use holistic methods in addressing sleep disorders. That way, if you want to be a guide for other people on their wellness path, or if you feel you need to seek betterment of your own practice, our course will give you tools in using Yoga therapeutically in finding ways to beat common challenges that lead to insomnia.

In a world that’s so great at snap fixes and quick solutions, here’s yoga: the sustainable path to retune the body’s natural sleep patterns, reduce stress, and boost the quality of life altogether. So long as you adopt yoga in your daily routine and make a few lifestyle changes, you are bound to naturally win over the battle with insomnia and enjoy the deep, restful sleep you deserve.

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