Can Yoga Fix Your Sleep Cycle? Expert Shares A Mind-Body Approach For Better Rest

Sleep is all about repair, recovery and the process of emotional healing. But these days, the biggest challenge is getting quality sleep. Yoga offers a holistic mind and body method for better rest and recovery, and a healthy emotional balance.

Reasons behind sleep troubles

Lack of sleep happens due to pulling quite late nighters, too much screen exposure, emotional strain, irregular eating habits, travel, work pressure, and mental overload. These create havoc with the body's natural rhythm and brings in stress while sleeping, or waking up fresh. Poor sleep quality over time also impacts physical, mental and emotional health. However, yoga provides simple yet naturally effective results including restores the body's natural rhythm.

Know sleep from a yogic viewpoint.

Yogic science speaks of sleep as a natural condition of deep relaxation. While sleeping, the nervous system moves into healing mode. When you face stress, emotional overload, too much thinking, and irregular routines, the mind activates the sympathetic nervous system or the fight-or-flight response. Yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system and the rest-and-digest mode, and helps relax and go for deep rest naturally.

How yoga fixes the sleep cycle

1. Relaxes the nervous system: When gentle yoga meets slow breathing, the nervous system calms down. Relaxation hormones get promoted. All of this is essential for sleep.
2. Removes physical tension: Long work hours, excess mobile use, poor posture, and a sedentary life cause neck, shoulder, spine, hip, and leg stiffness. Yoga releases this tension slowly for relaxation.
3. Emotions' stability: Sleep issues often come from emotional stress and mental troubles. Yoga releases these emotional hindrances and returns mind clarity and stability, and emotional balance.
4. Boosts Mindfulness: Yoga helps with awareness of the present moment, resulting in cessation from daily worries and mental mess. The mind thus settles into rest.

Simple yoga practices for good sleep

1. Gentle Yoga Postures (Asanas)

Practise these postures slowly and mindfully in the evening for 30 to 60 minutes.

• Balasana (Child's Pose) calms the mind and anxiety and releases lower back tension.
• Viparita Karani (Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose) is great to relax the nervous system, remove tiredness and bring emotional calm.
• Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Butterfly Pose) helps relax on a deep level and remove emotional stress while opening the hips.
• Paschimottanasana (Seated Forward Bend) helps calm the nervous system and remove mental chaos.
• Shavasana (Corpse Pose) boosts physical and mental relaxation on a deep level.

Tip: You should hold each posture for one to three minutes while breathing slowly and steadily.

2. Breathing Techniques (Pranayama)

When you breathe slowly and controlled manner, your body signals the nervous system to relax.

• Anulom Vilom (Alternate Nostril Breathing) balances the nervous system to remove mental restlessness.
• Bhramari (Humming Bee Breath) immediately calms down the mind and boosts emotional relaxation.
• Deep abdominal breathing slows down the heart rate, lowers stress levels and helps the body to sleep.

Tip: Slow breathing should be practised for five to 10 minutes before sleeping for improvement.

3. Meditation & Body Awareness

When you face short-guided relaxation or body scan meditation, you release physical or mental tension. When you knowingly relax each body part, the mind too shifts into a restful state slowly.

Simple practice: Lie down in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Bring awareness to your breath slowly. Then, scan your whole body slowly and relax all muscles willingly for the nervous system to go into deep sleep.

Lifestyle Tips for Improved Sleep

• Keep a consistent daily sleep schedule
• Avoid heavy meals at least two to three hours before bedtime.
• Lower screen exposure 60 minutes before sleep
• Stay away from caffeine later in the afternoon.
• The bedroom should be kept cool, quiet, and dark.
• Gratitude and journaling practice help release mental chaos.

Emotional Balance and Sleep

Yoga's most powerful benefit would be emotional regulation. Often, sleep issues happen due to emotional baggage stored. Yoga develops space to release emotional baggage with considerate mindful movement, breathing, and meditation. Then, sleep turns deep, natural, and nourishing.

Regular yoga offers enduring change like restructuring the nervous system, providing hormone balance, controlling emotions, bringing back the natural sleep cycle, better digestion and mental clarity, stronger immunity, emotional strength, and good energy levels. In a world always asking for more, yoga tells you to slow down and reconnect with the natural for sleep to naturally trail behind.

(By Sailendra S Raane, Founder of Mahati Wellness, Wellness Leader, and Spiritual Practitioner)

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