“Good Night and Sleep Tight”, is a nice rhyming phrase that we use to wish each other when going to bed. But not all of us enjoy good sleep the way we did when we were kids.
Insomnia is a gift of the tensions we carry from our daily stresses when we go to bed. This leads to sleeplessness, lack of sound sleep, frequent interruptions during sleep, etc. All these lead to a feeling of giddiness when you get up, in addition to morning sickness, nausea, burning sensation in the eyes, and many other discomforts, all of which combine to spoil your day.
Requiring sound sleep for between six to eight hours is a must if you are to remain in good health. Yoga has many poses to offer that help you in getting sound sleep.
A calm mind is a must to enjoy sound sleep. So the first thing you can do is to meditate and make your mind free of all thoughts that bedevil your mind. These thoughts originate from the different events that took place during the day, or at any time in the past.
There are different meditation techniques, but the common element in all of them is to focus your mind on any one single thought so that you keep away all other thoughts. You may also concentrate on your inhalation and exhalation to help in making your mind free of other thoughts. This would help you to breathe better and also to move away from the chain of thoughts that you carry over to sleep, and which in turn prevent you from sleeping well.
One yoga pose that is helpful to set your mind at rest is the Corpse pose. When you do this pose you lie in a supine position and spread your arms at a forty five degree angle. You place your palms facing upwards and your legs slightly away from each other. You do not engage any muscles of your body, and also close your eyes. All this helps to relax your body and to make your mind thought free. Herein are all the ingredients to give you sound sleep.
Other yoga poses which you can do before calling it a day, include the Easy Pose which is also known as the Sukhasana, and the Lotus Pose or the Padmasana. In both these poses you sit cross-legged and keep your spine straight as you breathe consciously and slowly. In the Lotus Pose, you place your foot soles facing upwards, while in the Easy pose you sit in a normal cross-legged position with your feet tucked under your thighs.
The Child pose is also a sleep inducing pose. You do this pose by being in a kneeling position and bending forward, lowering your forehead to the floor, and resting your forehead on the floor. You stretch your arms in front of you and close your eyes.
The essential element in all these poses is to relax your body and make your mind free of thoughts, so that you doze off to sleep without carrying with you any of the different thoughts that can prevent you from getting sound, good quality sleep.
Sources:
http://ayurveda-foryou.com/yoga/yoga_sleep.html
8-Minute Workout: Yoga for Better Sleep
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/workout/yoga/poses/yoga-routine-before-sleep/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKm7Br6PaGw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCU-84rkzX8
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