At its core, the physical practice of yoga is simply moving your body into different shapes that enable you to stretch and work on using your breath to relax. You don’t need to do something strenuous to do yoga. You can practice yoga right in bed, and doing so at bedtime can help you have a more restful night’s sleep.
Consider these ways yoga can benefit sleep:
- A study published by the National Library of Medicine found yoga improves sleep quality and reduces insomnia symptoms.
- A study published by BMJ Journals found yoga improves how long it takes to fall asleep and total sleep time.
- Harvard Health Publishing reports a study found 85% of yoga practitioners said yoga reduces stress, while more than 55% of participants achieved better sleep.
Even if you aren’t able to practice yoga during the day on a traditional mat, you can come into different yoga shapes on your bed, breathe deeply, and gain the benefits of yoga for sleep. Here are five poses to try for bedtime yoga. Pair these with instrumental music or a guided meditation for deeper relaxation.
Remember: always consult a physician before beginning a yoga practice.
1. Supine Butterfly (Supta Baddha Konasana)
This is one of my favorite poses to do on the mat right before Savasana (Corpse Pose) in an Alexandria yoga class, and it works well on a bed, too. Supine Butterfly can help you open up your hips and relieve tension from the inner thighs. If you’ve practiced Goddess Pose (Deviasana), where you’re working the inner thighs in a more active posture, this is a great way to stretch them out more passively.
- Lying on your back, bring the bottoms of your feet together.
- Allow your knees to fall out to the sides.
- Place your hands wherever you’d like. I love placing one hand on my heart, and one hand on my stomach, which helps me focus on my breath and heartbeat.
If you want a gentler pose, you can bring your heels further away from you, making your legs into more of a diamond shape. For a more challenging pose, bring the heels closer in to your seat.
2. Supine Spinal Twist (Supta Matsyendrasana)
As I’ve written about, Supine Spinal Twist is one of my all-time favorite yoga poses. It’s great to do in bed, especially if you have a queen size bed or bigger.
- Lying down on your back in the middle of your bed, bend your knees so the soles of your feet are on your bed.
- Arrange your arms in a cactus shape, bending at the elbow to bring them into a 90-degree angle.
- With your legs together, release your knees to the right. Turn your chin toward your left shoulder.
- Repeat on the other side, releasing your knees to the left, and turning your chin toward your right shoulder.
For the full benefit, try to stay in the pose on each side for an equal amount of time. If you have the space and want to go deeper into the pose, you can cross the top leg over the other before twisting. Make sure both your shoulders stay on your mattress, for the full benefit.
3. Knee-to-Chest (Apanasana)
Knee-to-Chest Pose (Apanasana) can help relieve lower back pain. You can also use this pose to do some ankle circles and foot flexing to help with mobility in your feet and ankles.
- Lying down on your back with your legs extended long, bring your right knee in toward your chest/inner right arm. Interlace your fingers behind the right thigh or on top of the right shin.
- Flex your left toes toward your face.
- Use the time during the stretch to flex your right foot, or roll it in circles.
- Switch sides.
If you’d like, you can move directly from Knee-to-Chest to a lying-down Figure 4 stretch. If you were hugging your right knee in, you’d cross that ankle over the left thigh. Weave your arm through the little window you’ve created, interlace behind the left thigh or on top of the left shin, and use your right elbow to open up the knee a bit more. Do the same on the opposite side.
4. Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani)
If you have a headboard or actual wall behind your bed, you can practice Legs Up the Wall with actual physical support, or do this pose on its own using your own balance. This inversion helps with circulation, since you’re enabling the blood in your legs to circulate back to the rest of your body. It’s good to do some type of inversion at least once a day for benefits like these.
- Turn to face the wall while on your bed.
- Get as close to the wall or headboard as you can from a sideways angle.
- Lean onto your elbows and forearms to lower. As you do so, slide your legs up the headboard, and reposition your body so you’re on your back with your legs up the headboard or wall.
- If you don’t want to use your headboard or wall, you can simply lift your legs in the air, as if they were resting on a wall.
There’s no perfect way to get into this pose using an actual wall, so feel free to come into it a different way and scoot yourself close to the base of the bed/headboard or bed/wall. Place your arms down by your sides or wherever is comfortable for you.
To get out of the pose, draw your knees into toward your chest, and roll to the side.
5. Savasana (Corpse Pose)
Finally, Savasana seems like the most obvious pose to do in bed, but when paired with mindfulness, it can be quite challenging. For a reminder on how to get into the pose:
- Lie on your back.
- Extend your arms and legs long.
- Breathe.
How simple, right? To perform this pose with intention while in bed, try to quiet the mind and focus on the sensations within your body. Try to relax every part of your body. Imagine you’re sinking into the bed, letting go of any tension. If you feel the temptation to turn over to your side or wiggle, see if you can resist, let go, and be still.
If you’re a back sleeper, Savasana primes you to transition right into sleep. You can pair this final yoga pose of your day with an instrumental meditation and, perhaps, be asleep by the time the meditation is over.
Bedtime Yoga Helps You End Your Day on a Restful Note
Most poses you do on your back or stomach on a yoga mat can also translate to your bed. Because mattresses can have varying firmness, you should always consult with a physician before doing yoga in bed, so you know which poses are safe for you and which ones you’ll want to be extra-careful with.
Yoga in bed can be a great way to gently stretch before you begin your day, or to wind down as you ready yourself for sleep.
Do you have a favorite bedtime yoga pose? Share it in the comments.
Have a suggestion for what I should write about next on this yoga in Alexandria blog? Send me a message.
About the author: Nicki Escudero is a journalist and RYT-200 yoga instructor certified by Yoga Alliance. She teaches group and private yoga classes in Alexandria, VA, and Washington, DC. Contact Nicki.
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