Yoga before bed: a slow practice for sleep

When sleep will not come, the body is often still running the day: shoulders up, jaw tight, breath short and high in the chest. A slow evening practice gives that busyness somewhere to settle. It is not a sleeping pill, and I will not promise it will change your nights, but many people find it a kinder way to end the day than scrolling in bed.

This page gives you a fifteen-minute practice made only of quiet, supported shapes, a breath for the last few minutes, and a clear list of what to leave for the morning. If you would like to be guided through this kind of practice, it is close to what happens in restorative yoga at home, fully propped with bolsters.

First, a line that matters more than any pose. If you have had trouble sleeping for months, if you snore loudly or wake gasping, if you feel very sleepy in the day, or if low mood is keeping you awake, please see a doctor. Nothing here treats a sleep disorder.

Can yoga help you sleep?

Honestly: it can help some people wind down, and that is all I will claim. The NHS advice for poor sleep is mostly about routine: relax for at least an hour before bed, keep the bedroom dark and quiet, and put screens away. A gentle practice can become part of that hour, a signal to yourself that the day is over.

What helps is the slowness. Long, easy exhales, shapes where the floor or a cushion takes your weight, and the same order every night. What does not help is effort. If a practice leaves you warm, breathless or buzzing, it belongs earlier in the day.

What to skip in the evening

• Inversions, such as Headstand or Shoulderstand. Save them for daytime practice, if you do them at all.
• Strong backbends, such as Wheel or a deep Camel. Big backbends tend to wake the body up.
• Fast flows and sun salutations. Anything that raises your heart rate is closer to a workout. The NHS advises against exercise in the four hours before bed, so keep vigorous practice for the morning or afternoon.
• Breath holds and fast breathing. Keep the breath natural or slow.
• Your phone. Put it in another room, or at least face down with the sound off, before you begin.

A 15-minute practice before bed

Dim the lights. Have a pillow, a folded blanket and a clear bit of wall nearby. Move slowly between each shape.

1. Child’s Pose, 2 minutes. Kneel, knees apart, and fold forward with your forehead on a pillow. Let your belly rest between your thighs and feel the breath move into your back. See resting in Child’s Pose for ways to pad the knees.
2. Knees to chest, 1 minute. Roll onto your back and hug your knees in gently. Rock a little from side to side if that feels good.
3. Reclined Butterfly, 3 minutes. Bring the soles of your feet together and let your knees fall open, with a pillow under each knee so nothing strains. Rest your hands on your belly. The reclined butterfly with support page shows the setup.
4. Legs Up the Wall, 4 minutes. Sit side-on to the wall, swing your legs up it and lie back, with a folded blanket under your hips if you like. This is a gentle, supported shape rather than a true inversion, but skip it if your doctor has told you to avoid raising your legs. See how to set up Legs Up the Wall.
5. Savasana, 5 minutes. Lie flat with a pillow under your knees and a blanket over you. This is where the breath below comes in.

If fifteen minutes is too long tonight, do only the last two shapes.

A breath for the last five minutes

Lying in Savasana, let your breath find its own pace for a few rounds. Then begin to make the out-breath a little longer than the in-breath, gently, as if breathing out through a straw. There is no need to count, and no need to force anything. If you want counts, the long exhale and 4-7-8 breathing are written out with their safety notes.

When the breathing feels settled, you can let it go and move your attention slowly from your feet to your head. That is a short body scan you can do in bed. For a longer, fully guided form of rest lying down, yoga nidra for deep rest is the next step.

Night shifts and late flights

Manila keeps odd hours. Many people work nights for offices on other time zones, and others land late after work trips. The same rules apply whenever your “night” falls: dim the room, keep the practice slow, and do it before the sleep you are protecting, not before your shift. A dark bedroom matters even more when you sleep in the day, so blackout curtains or an eye mask are worth having.

If you work nights near the Eastwood offices, a late-morning lesson at home in Eastwood, after the shift and before sleep, can be kept entirely on the floor.

If your sleep is also tangled up with a sore back, gentle yoga for a stiff back has shapes that pair well with this one, and if cramps are what keep you up once a month, see supported shapes for period cramps. For the other end of the day, a ten-minute morning stretch for condo bedrooms starts under the covers.

When poor sleep needs a doctor

The NHS suggests seeing a doctor if changing your sleep habits has not helped, if you have had trouble sleeping for months, or if poor sleep is making daily life hard to cope with. I would add: loud snoring, gasping or choking in the night, falling asleep in the day when you do not mean to, or sleep that is disturbed by worry or low mood. A doctor can look for causes that a mat cannot. Yoga can sit alongside that care, never in place of it.