Getting the proper amount of sleep is crucial for a healthier and happier life overall. Yoga has proven to help achieve better sleep, as it can help to relieve tension and stress from the body and mind. The following article will share 5 best yoga poses for better sleep. If you are also interested in reading about which poses can help with anxiety relief (which often go hand in hand with interrupted sleeping patterns), click on the following Yoga for Anxiety article.

5 Yoga Poses for Better sleep

The following are 5 yoga poses that you can practice before bed that will help to relieve tension, relax the nervous system and help you have a better night’s sleep.

Legs Against the Wall Pose: relieves swollen ankles and varicose veins, restores tired feet or legs, regulates blood flow, calms anxiety, and relieves symptoms of mild depressions and insomnia.

Woman relaxing in Legs Against the Wall pose for better sleep.

How to get into this pose

  1. Start with laying on your back, and place the palms of your feet on the floor, close to your hips. Keep you arms along side your body, with the palms pressing against the floor.
  2. Lift up one leg at a time, and flex both feet towards the ceiling.
  3. Keep your lower back grounded into the mat, your shoulders away from the ears and your core slightly engaged. Add a gentle bend into the knees, so that your knees aren’t locking.
  4. Stay here for 10-15 deep breaths through the nose, allowing your body to fully relax and experience the wonderful benefits of this pose

Modifications & Variations:

  • Place a block under your hips (in whatever height works best for you), and raise your legs up to the ceiling. This will provide extra elevation and support.
  • Place a rolled up towel or blanket under your head.

Half (or full) Happy Baby: Helps relieve stress and tension, calms the brain, stretches and soothes and the spine and hamstrings, relieves lower back pain, and soothes the nervous system and relieves anxiety.

Woman in a relaxing Happy Baby pose.

How to get into this pose:

  1. Start with laying on your back, bend your knees and bring the soles of your feet on the mat
  2. bend your right knee, and bring it closer to your chest for a moment
  3. Grab the outside of your right foot, and using your hand, open up the knee as wide as you can
  4. Use your inhale to lengthen, and your exhale to bring the knee closer towards the ground
  5. Keep you right foot flexing towards the ceiling, and your left hand on your left him to ensure that both hips are grounding into the mat
  6. Stay here for 8-10 deep breaths through the nose, and slowly bring the knee back in towards the chest, squeeze it for a moment and release it down. Repeat the same steps on the opposite side.

Variations & Modifications:

  • For full happy baby, grab the outside of both feet, and open up the knees as wide as you can and follow the same steps as noted above.
  • If you are unable to reach for the outside of your feet, use a strap or a rolled up towel to place on the arches of your feet, and this will help you to find extra length

Sleeping Pigeon Pose: relieves and reduces stress and anxiety, calms and soothes the nervous system, reduces stiffness in the back, shoulders and hips, and helps to decrease the symptoms of sciatica.

Woman in a deep hip-opening Sleeping Pigeon pose.

How to get into this pose

  1. Start in a table top position, bring your right knee behind your right wrist, so that you knee is bent in a horizontal way
  2. Try to keep the knee parallel to the front of your mat, with your right foot flexing
  3. Keep both hips facing forward towards the front, and the left leg straight behind
  4. Take a deep inhale and lengthen your back, relaxing the shoulders down and away from the ears. If this is already enough of a stretch for you, stay in an elevated position.
  5. If you can go further, on your exhale bring your palms forward and lower yourself on your forearms.
  6. Relax your head down and stay here for 10-15 breaths through the nose.
  7. To come out from this pose, press into your palms and slowly roll yourself up. Curl the left toes and step the right knee back to table top position. Repeat the same thing on the opposite side.

Modifications & Variations:

  • Place a block or a bolster underneath you right hip for extra elevation (great for those with super tight hips)
  • Place a blanket under your left knee for extra cushion
  • For a deeper stretch, when in sleeping pigeon, bend your back leg, grab it with your hand, and bring the heel closer towards the hip.
  • Rest your chest on top of a pillow or bolder. This will provide extra elevation and make it comfortable for you to get into the full expression of the pose.

Seated Wide Legged Forward Fold: relieves tension and stress from the hips and lower back, calms the nervous system down and help to relieve anxiety, stretches hamstrings and groins, and detoxes kidneys.

Woman in a Seated Wide Legged Forward Fold.

How to get into this pose

  1. Start in a comfortable seated position. Extend your right leg out first, and then your left leg.
  2. Keep both feet flexed so that the toes are facing up towards the ceiling
  3. Rotate your hip forward, and bring the hands in front of you
  4. Take a deep inhale, lengthen your back, relax the shoulders down and on your exhale, either stay in an elevated position, or bring yourself onto your forearms.
  5. Stay here for 8-10 deep breaths.
  6. To come out, very gently roll yourself up into seated (if you are on your forearms), and bring your hands on the outside of your knees. Using your hands for extra support, bend your right knee in, and then your left knee in. Wrap your arms around your knees, and give yourself a squeeze.

Variations & Modifications:

  • Place a block or a pillow under your hips. This will elevate your hips and make it easier on your knees
  • If your hips are too tight to do the full expression of this pose, extend only one leg out at a time, while keeping the other close to your groin area

Supine Reclined Twist: It lengthens, realigns and relaxes the spine, massages the abdominal muscles, helps to relieve anxiety, stress and tension, helps to massage internal organs and detoxes, and calms and soothes the nervous system.

Woman in a gentle Supine Reclined Twist.

How to get into this pose

  1. Start on your back, with your knees in towards the chest
  2. Open your arms into T or cactus position.
  3. Take a deep inhale, lengthen your back and on your exhale drop the knees over towards the right. Bring your gaze to the left.
  4. Keep both of your shoulder blades grounding into the mat (even if it means that your knees aren’t touching the ground)
  5. Stay here for 8-10 breaths and slowly return back to center, and repeat the same thing on the opposite side.

Modifications & Variations:

  • Rest your knees on a bolster or pillow. This will give you extra elevation and enable you to ensure that both shoulders are grounding into the mat
  • Extend one leg out and only twist with one knee to your chest (instead of both knees being together)

To conclude…

Yoga can help you sleep better at night. The 5 yoga poses above can help you achieve this. Practice these poses on a regular basis and see what great difference it makes in your sleeping patterns!