Before-Bed Flow for Sleep

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. I'm Sanjana Prasad, sharing the joy of yoga from its birthplace, India, with the world. Let's move, breathe, and grow together. Today we're going to be practicing a very gentle, soothing flow that you can do before you go to bed. It's a nighttime flow, so it's not very stimulating — it still works on the entire body, but in a very subtle, calming way. Let's get into the practice.

We're going to begin our practice with some gentle neck movements. Before we begin, it'll be helpful for you to have a bolster. If you don't have a bolster, use a couple of pillows for you to really enjoy and kind of melt into this practice. We start in a comfortable cross-legged position, placing the palms on the knees. You can close your eyes if you like, to really soak into the practice.

We're going to start off by moving the neck up and down. As you inhale, lift the chin up and look up; as you exhale, chin down towards the collarbone. Inhale, lift the chin up, look up. Exhale, chin down — releasing any tension around the neck that you've accumulated through the day. Inhale, and lift up. Exhale, and down. Inhale, and up. Exhale, down.

Now keep the chin down and just do half circles, shoulder to shoulder. Inhale towards the right shoulder, exhale to center. Inhale to the left, exhale to center. Inhale right, exhale to the center. Inhale left, exhale center. One more time — inhale to the right, exhale center; inhale left, exhale to the center.

Now interlock the fingers and think about pushing away from you. You're just going to round your back, drop the chin down, and release any tension in the back. Stay there and breathe: one, two, three, four, five. Wrap your arms behind the back, inhale, and lift the chest up. Breathe: one, two, three, four, and five. Release, and bring the palms back onto the knees.

Now moving on to the shoulders: just up, back, and down — tiny circles. One, two, three, four, close the direction; one, two, three, four, and five. Now we're just going to consciously let go of all the tension around the shoulders and neck by using movement and the breath. As you inhale, you're going to squeeze the shoulders up to the ears; exhale through the mouth and drop the shoulders down. Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale. Let's take two more nice, sighing breaths out. Inhale, exhale. Last one — inhale, and exhale. Fantastic.

Bring the fingertips down. As you inhale, take your arms up to shoulder level on both sides. As you exhale, place your right palm down and start bending to the right side. The left hand goes behind the head — you can even slide the hand further behind to start lifting your elbow up as much as you can, sinking into the lateral bend. Stay there and breathe: one, two, three, four, five. Inhale and slowly come back to center.

Exhale, place the left palm down, right palm behind the head. You can also slide it further down if your armpits and lats allow, and then you're just going to melt into the floor. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale and come back to center. Release the hands.

Now release your feet in front of you, slightly wider than hip-width apart. Take full support with the palms. As you exhale, drop your knees towards the right side; inhale, back to center. Exhale, knees to the left; inhale, center. Exhale to the right; inhale, center. Exhale to the left; inhale, center. Exhale to the right; inhale, center. Exhale, left. Two more — inhale center, exhale to the right; inhale center, exhale to the left. Last one — inhale center, exhale to the right.

This time, turn completely to the right side, so now your leg position is like a 90/90 — you can adjust the hips here. Turn the torso to the right. From here, as you exhale, start leaning forward; maybe you can bring your elbows down, and if you're very comfortable, go all the way down. Fist your hands, one on top of the other, and place your forehead down on your fists. Stay there and breathe: one, two, three — every exhale, allow your hips to settle into the mat — four, five.

Very gently, walk the hands back and switch to the other side. Bring the knees to the center, drop completely to the left, and adjust so you come into this 90/90 position. Fist the hands and stack one on top of the other, lean forward, and rest on the fists. One, two, three, four, five. Slowly work your way back up. Come back to center.

Then come into a table top position on all fours, stacking the shoulders over the wrists, hips over the knees, and spread your fingers out nicely. As you inhale, look forward, arch the back, chest up, chin up; exhale and round your back. Inhale, arch the back; exhale and round your back. Inhale and arch; exhale and round your back. Two more — inhale and arch the back, exhale, round your back. Last one — inhale and arch the back, exhale and round your back.

Now release the spine a little bit — we're just going to make some free circles, allowing the body to move how it likes. Arch the back, round the back, let the neck go up and down, creating nice waves through the body. Two, three, four — you can bend and straighten the elbows, be free with the movement, bring in that freedom — and five. Fantastic. Back to table top position.

Slide your left arm between the right palm and the knee, get the shoulder and side of the head down, and then extend the right hand forward. Stay here: one, two, three, four, five. Bring the right hand back for support and then slowly work your way back up. Switch to the other side — slide the right arm between the left palm and the knee, get the side of the head down, and extend the hand forward. Stay there and breathe: one, two, three, four, five. Bring the palm back. Let's slowly come back to table top position.

Now, from your table top position, we're going to practice a round of puppy pose — but this is not to open your chest up, to stimulate you, or prepare for any backbending. It's just to release any tension around the neck or shoulders, so you're going to do this very gently. Walk your hands forward — see if you can go down, rest the chest and chin down. Hold the opposite elbows and rest the forehead on the forearms. Stay there and breathe: one, two, three, four, five. Slowly work your way back up.

Now, from your table top position, step the right foot outside of the right palm, getting into a lunge. Push the hip forward and down — we're not going to do a dynamic movement here to wake up the body, it's more to release and relax the hip flexors and hips. So place the palm on the thigh, interlock the fingers, and breathe: one, two, three — every exhale, allow the hips to melt further into the mat — four, and five.

From here, place the fingertips down and start to straighten out this right leg into a half-split position. Every exhale, bring your chest closer to the thigh: one, two, three. You can also use your pillows here — slide the bolster or pillow underneath the leg and rest here, allowing your chest to melt further: four, five. Nice. Bend the knee, and you can remove the pillow away. Take the right foot back.

Now your left foot comes forward. Bring the palms to the waist, gently push the hips forward and down, take support on the thighs, and breathe: one, two — this entire practice is meant to calm the nervous system and prepare for sleep, so there is no challenge here, no deepening, no forcing, nothing — just do as much as is comfortable for you — four, and five.

Slowly come back, bringing the bolster underneath the leg here. Take full support here — I'm not worrying about lengthening the spine, nothing — it's just to melt into the leg, stretch out the hamstring, and make it more comfortable for you. Stay there and breathe: one, two — if you're very comfortable, you can bend the elbows more — three, four, and five. Slowly come back up. Remove the bolster or the pillows and take the leg back.

From here, sit down in Vajrasana, palms on the knees. Once again, interlock the fingers, inhale, and lift the chest up; exhale and round your back. Inhale and lift the chest up; exhale and round the back. Last one — inhale, lift the chest up, exhale and round your back. Release, sit down on your mat, and we're going to use the pillows now to move into a very comfortable forward fold.

I want you to use the pillows vertically. My bolster is quite thick here, so I'm not going to place the legs on top of it — instead, I'm going to place it down by the sides, bringing it very close to me, so my legs are more in a diamond shape. If your pillows are flatter and softer, you can go ahead and place them on top also — it also depends on how open and comfortable your hips are.

Once again, I'm reminding you this is not to deepen your forward fold or open your hips, nothing — it's more to just release the lower back a little, do a bit of hip opening, and welcome that sleep, rest, and relaxation to the body. So you're going to use the pillow here and very gently lean forward into the pillow. Your back will round a bit here — it's okay, and if this feels good, this feels comfortable, lean forward further. Rest your head down. Breathe: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Gently roll the spine up.

Now move the bolster forward, extend both your legs forward, so your feet are flat and apart. From here again, exhale, and you can start leaning forward onto the bolster or the pillow. I'm just leaning forward very slightly, not reaching, not lengthening, nothing. If my body is feeling comfortable and I'm having the urge to go forward more, then I will go forward — I can always stack the fists this way. Stay here and breathe: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Slowly roll your spine up and remove the props from here, and you're going to lie down now on your belly.

Now, as you notice in these two forward folds, the back was nice and rounded, a nice flexed position. Very often we completely avoid flexion — we think, okay, we should not round the back, we should not — but that is also a healthy movement and position for the spine. So as much as you want to work on that when you're lifting a load or when you're performing a particular asana where you want more length, sometimes it's good to allow the spine to relax.

Now we're going to lie down on the belly. From here, I want you to extend your right arm out to the side. Lift your left leg up, bend the knee, and start curling and opening up the chest towards the ceiling — my left hand is supporting me here. Stay here and breathe: one, two, three, four, five. Slowly come back to center.

Now switch the arms — extend the left arm out, right palm is supporting you. Lift the right leg up, twist, and start turning the chest towards the ceiling. One, two, three, four, five. Slowly come back, palms on either side of the chest. Exhale, push your hips back into a child's pose.

Now, straight away from this child's pose, I want you to walk towards the right side as much as you can, trying to reach with the left hand more. One, two, three, four, five. Walk to the center and then completely towards the left side, reach with the right hand more. One, two, three, four, five. Walk the hands back. Come all the way up.

Bring in your pillows or the bolster. Anything that you're doing with the pillows or the bolster, try to stay for a little longer — even though I'm only counting eight here, if you feel like you can stay there for 45 seconds to a minute, completely enjoy the bolster. Lean forward, hug the pillow or the bolster, close your eyes, and try to settle your hips into the heels. And just breathe: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Vertebra by vertebra, roll your spine up, and you're going to lie down on your back.

Now, from this part of the practice, or from child's pose itself, if you feel like you're feeling nice and relaxed, you can shift the practice to your bed, because you're going to move into a lying down practice, and at the end of the practice, once you finish our breath work, you can fall straight away into sleep also. So you can move your practice if you wish.

You're going to lie down on the back, keeping the knees bent only. From here, as you exhale, hug the right knee into the chest. Breathe: one, two, three, four, five. Exhale, bring the forehead up to the knee, give yourself a tight hug. Inhale and let go. Exhale, hug the left knee to the chest. One, two, three, four, five. Wrap the arms around the left leg. Exhale, come up. One, two, three. Inhale, relax.

Hug both knees to the chest now, and we're going to do a dynamic movement. As you inhale, you allow the knees to go away from you, so your elbows will straighten out; as you exhale, you bring the knees back into the chest. Inhale and allow the knees to go away from you. Exhale, knees back into the chest. Inhale and open. Exhale and hug the knees close. Inhale, exhale. Last one — inhale and exhale.

Now keep the knees close to you. You can even wrap your arms around the legs and very gently rock side to side. One, two, three, four, and five. Lift the feet up towards the ceiling, hold the arches of your feet, and start bringing the knees towards the armpits for happy baby pose — you can continue the rocking, dropping the knees side to side. One, two, three, four, and five. Come back to center and very gently bring your feet down.

Now from here, you're going to take the pillow or the bolster and lift your hips up in a bridge pose, and very quickly slide this pillow or bolster underneath the lower back. Now if you see, I'm not really lifting the hips off, but there is a little bit of elevation because of the bolster — you can always adjust so that you feel comfortable at the lower back. Close your eyes. Stay here. Breathe: one, two, three, four, five.

Now if you are comfortable with the pillow or this elevation, you can extend the legs forward. What this does is it really stretches out your front body, especially your hip flexors. You can hold the opposite elbows here and start to take the arms above the head. Your entire front body is nice and open, but you're also quite supported by the bolster. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Gently let go of your arms. You're going to bend the knees.

Now if you have a wall, say behind your bed or the back rest of the bed, you can use that, or you can simply just lift your legs up with the support of the pillows — I'll leave that up to you depending on where you're doing this practice. I don't have a wall here, so I'm just going to lift both my legs up using the support of the pillow. Stay here and breathe.

This is Viparita Karani, a half inversion. It really helps to relax the legs — the whole day we are on the feet and we rarely pay attention to them, but they are carrying us the whole day, and this will really help relax the feet. It helps drain any excess fluid — if you have swelling or water retention, it will really help with that — and it's also good for that venous return of the blood, which usually happens only with movement, and some inversion work helps because there's no pumping system for the return of the blood. It happens only through the movement, so this is a great way to kind of ease that out. As you continue to stay longer, maybe you'll find a tingling sensation around the toes; your feet might become numb, it's completely okay. Very gently, you can bend your knees and bring your feet back to the mat.

Lift your hips up, and from here you can slide the bolster away and bring the soles of your feet together in a butterfly position. If you feel like you need support, you can place one pillow underneath your thighs. If not, you can just stay here, palms by the sides, close your eyes, and we're going to just practice a few rounds of Bhramari lying down.

Take a deep breath in, exhale through the nose with the humming sound.

So that was your gentle nighttime practice for restful sleep. Throughout this practice I want you to practice with that intention of kind of letting go, and just working within your comfort zone and focusing more on relaxation. That will really help you actually enjoy the practice, and I promise you we will feel very, very rested and be ready to fall into sleep. I really hope this was useful and you enjoyed this one. Thank you.