Yoga Postures for Natural Insomnia Relief
January 23rd, 2010 9:26 amUsing yoga for insomnia can be one of the most practical applications that there is for this healing form of exercise. You can often successfully relieve insomnia with a well planned daily yoga session. Many of our most common sleep issues are actually related to stress, rather than an actual physical problem. Of course, certain medications can also help keep you awake well into the night. Fortunately, using yoga for insomnia can be an easy way to help you settle down after a long day of stressful activities and get a calm and relaxed night of sleep.
Yoga offers natural insomnia relief through its well known ability to help you center. You can really get in touch with the spiritual side of your life through the practice and discipline of yoga. Because you are using the natural state of the mind-body-spirit connection to help you work toward well rested nights, you are most likely going to be able to tune into your body’s needs more effectively. Listening to your body is a great way to get started.
By its very nature yoga is a soothing, calming experience that can be helpful to anyone who is struggling to get to sleep and stay asleep. The calculated stretching and poses can be highly beneficial when you are trying to get in touch with the brain’s sleep center, offering a natural sleep aid. There is a peaceful sense of drifting off when you use yoga stretches to naturally settle mind and body, rather than trying to force yourself to fall asleep.
The intensity of blood flow to the central nervous system, including the brain, increases with daily Yoga postures for insomnia. Increasing the flow of blood to the sleep center of the brain can also be helpful for settling the mind and facilitating sleep. The process of creating a normal pattern and routine for your individual sleep cycle isn’t really all that difficult, but it does take a dedicated effort to keep on a regular schedule while you’re teaching your body to fall asleep again.
Remember as you’re planning your day that yoga releases additional endorphins. Endorphins are a naturally energizing hormone that can keep you awake. For natural insomnia relief you don’t want to go through most of the yoga positions anytime close to bed time. That said, you can use two or three special poses to release pent up energy and relax the entire body while you’re lying in bed.
Happy Baby pose can be good for releasing energy and tension from the hips and the back. Additionally, resting Pigeon pose is useful for settling mind and body by releasing tension in the deep muscles of the hip area, where we often hold stress, and Child’s pose can help you settle down and gain natural insomnia relief.
The best pose to practice right before bed is the Corpse pose. This pose provides natural insomnia relief, because it allows you to consciously release tension from muscle groups. You simply walk through the muscles that you want to encourage to let go of stress, and of course get rid of a lot of the tension that you carry in your muscles. This can make using yoga for insomnia very effective and well worth the additional investment of time or money.
To learn more about yoga for sleep problems, try YogaTherapyWeb.com, which includes articles about about yoga for insomnia and online yoga downloads for better sleep