Sweet Dreams and Sleep Well

A good night’s sleep is beneficial to your overall health. Cognitively, your mind wakes up feeling refreshed and your body is rejuvenated. The tired aches of yesterday are gone and you are all set to meet the new day. Besides, who doesn’t like a massive comfy bed to fall sleep on?

However, everyday life does affect your sleeping patterns. It could be stress related, muscle tension or poor eating choices, such as drinking too much caffeine. Relaxing is an essential ingredient to having a good night’s sleep and luckily there are many ways you can ensure this happens. There are breathing techniques that can aid this and yoga. 

Kevala Yoga teacher, Jodie witnesses these benefits first hand in her classes. Her students come up to her and share their tales on how their sleep patterns improve after a week of yoga classes. 

Such as, Kevala Yoga student Jane says she started waking up feeling refreshed after signing up straightaway. 

“I sleep so well and really notice the difference when I miss a class. I really believe everyone would benefit from doing yoga at least once a week!”

Yoga helps improve your overall sleep experience through controlled breathing techniques and poses because both teach you how to relax. Also drinking a nice hot cup of chamomile tea before bed can put your body at ease. 

Breathing deeply and slowly helps to slow your heart rate which leaves you feeling much more relaxed. This soothing technique happens whenever you exhale, so next time when you breathe deeply and exhale for longer. So before you turn in for the night, allocate few minutes or longer to simply breathe deeply and calm the mind. Simply close your eyes and breath in for 4-6 counts, hold 2, exhale 4-6 counts, pause 2. Do this with eyes closed.

And since hormones are linked with insomnia, yoga poses help by balancing out your hormones and relieving muscle tension. Doing the following yoga poses are a great help for a good night’s sleep;

• Downward- Facing Dog Pose – This pose will quiet and calm your mind while you stretching whole back body.
• Legs Up The Wall Pose – This pose will balance out hormones and improve circulation in legs and feet. 
• Head to Knee Pose –This forward bend is calming and it also stretches the spine, shoulders and hamstrings. 
• Child pose – Allows you to go inward to connect and relax more.
• Corpse Pose – This is the ultimate pose of relaxation and is the most recommended pose for improving sleep. 

Also make sure you fit in seven to eight hours of sleep and you can this by going to bed earlier if you live a busy life. Not only will you have more energy but your memory will improve, levels of concentration and you will improve your immune system.

If you want to get a good night’s sleep, then come along to a class today. Kevala Yoga runs classes in the New Upper Coomera community centre and  Helensvale on the Gold Coast.