Being an occasional insomniac I’m always on the lookout for good advice for sleepless nights. You can increase your chances of a good night’s sleep by doing a short restorative yoga practice just before bedtime. One of the main causes of insomnia is stress and an over-active mind, and yoga triggers the relaxation response in the body. (Although some nights there just isn’t anything you can do but get a good book and a snack and settle in on the couch. But don’t give up before you’ve tried this sequence!)

Timothy McCall’s excellent book Yoga as Medicine has a chapter on insomnia, and he mentions some pretty interesting points on how yoga can help:

1. Yoga activates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping the body and mind calm down and reducing the level of stress hormones such as cortisol in the blood.
2. Studies show that inverted yoga poses promote sleep by triggering the baroreflex (a blood pressure reflex), decreasing blood pressure. Regular practice of inversions is believed to be especially calming for the nervous system. If you are comfortable practicing shoulder stand and headstand, include these in your regular practice.
3. Ayurveda sees insomnia as something caused by an excess of Vata (one of the three doshas, dosha = “that which becomes unbalanced”). Ayurvedic advice for insomnia are meant to reduce Vata: Establish a general routine going to bed and getting up at the same time every day, eat warm nutritious meals at regular times, and stop all work one or two hours before bed.
4. If you wake up in the middle of the night, try practicing some gentle Ujjayi Pranayama while lying on your back in bed. Count each exhalation until you reach ten, then start over.

So what can you do when you can’t sleep? Here is a restorative yoga sequence you can do right before bed to relax and hopefully banish the insomnia. Hold each pose as long as you need to (this will vary, it could be anywhere from 30 seconds to 10 minutes). Put on some warm socks and pajama, and find a softly lit spot where no one will disturb you. You need one or two blankets for the supported poses, or you can use a couple of pillows.

Bedtime Yoga Practice against Insomnia

Simple cross-legged seated pose (Sukhasana)
Ujjayi Pranayama
Supported seated forward bend (Paschimottanasana)
(Rest your head on a padded chair or a folded up blanket.)
Reclining bound angle pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)
Knees-to-chest (Apanasana)
Legs-up-the-wall (Viparita Karani)
Corpse pose (Savasana) in bed

Sweet dreams!