Yoga for Better Sleep

Hi everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. This is Rasika Sampath, bringing you yoga practices all the way from India, its birthplace. Today, I am helping you wind down from the entire day. Let go of all that stress and get ready to fall asleep. Join me as we get cozy, and you can do the sequence on the floor, on a mat, or even your bed. Let's get started.

We can get started by sitting comfortably on the mat or the bed. First, close your eyes. We're going to take a deep inhale, raise the shoulders up to the ears, roll the shoulders back, exhale and relax the shoulders down. Inhale up, take the shoulders up to the ears, and relax the shoulders down. One more time. Inhale, take it up, exhale, roll it back, and relax it down. Inhale up, exhale, and relax the shoulders down. One more time. Inhale up and exhale, relax it down.

Relax all the tension you're holding in your shoulders and slowly bring your awareness to your breath. Let's keep our eyes closed. Take a deep inhale, and I want you to give out a sigh with your mouth. Let's do this together. Take a deep inhale. Deep inhale. One more time. One more time. Completely relaxed. See how much your body is relaxed now, how your shoulders are relaxed, your palms are relaxed. Even your legs and thighs have relaxed. Gently open your eyes.

For the next one, we'll take the hands back, interlock them behind. If you need to, you can even place them at the back of your mat or your bed. From here, we're going to roll the neck from side to side. Take the left ear to the left shoulder, bring it all the way down, and from here, take the right ear to the right shoulder. Feel the stretch going from the back of the ear towards the shoulder. Exhale, bring the chin to the chest. Take the left ear to the left shoulder. Again, down. Exhale, right ear to right shoulder. Exhale, left ear to left shoulder. Feel the stretch. Exhale, right ear to right shoulder. Exhale, last one, left ear to left shoulder.

Let's do the same thing on the other side. Take the chin all the way up, right ear to right shoulder. From here, all the way up and back, left ear to left shoulder. Again, up and back, roll the neck. Again, up and back, roll the neck. Last time, up and back, and up and back, and relax.

Okay, from here, let's move on to the arms. I want you to take the right arm over the left and give yourself a tight hug. Imagine you're taking your fingertips towards the shoulder blades. Just give yourself a tight hug here. Lift your elbows high, but not away from you. Stay here for one, two, three, four, and five. Again, inhale, open the hands wide. Take a deep inhale. Exhale, left hand over the right. Hug yourself in, one, two, three, four, and five. Exhale and slowly relax.

From here, let's take our hands again in the back. Now, exhale, and you're just going to gently fold forward. Try and bring the palms up towards the ceiling. Feel the stretch on the upper back. One, two, three, four, five. Inhale and slowly come back to center and release your arms.

From here, let's remove any stiffness in the low back. For this, you're going to take your right palm and place it on the right knee. Okay, you can loosen up your cross-leg position a little bit for this one. From here, I'm going to take my right shoulder to the left knee by pressing the right hand. Yeah, so I'm going to take my right hand, push, take the right shoulder to the left knee, and bend. You're going to feel a stretch here on the right, behind the right waist, on the low back. Inhale and come back to center.

Same thing on the other side. Left palm, left knee. Push it down towards the floor. Left shoulder to the right knee. One, two, three. Inhale and come back. Other side again, right hand on the right knee. Exhale, take the right shoulder to the left knee. With your right hand, keep pushing the palm down, the knee down. Inhale, come back to center. Left hand on the left knee. Exhale, and the other side. One, two, three. Inhale and come back. One last time, right hand on the right knee, right shoulder to left knee. Stay here. Inhale and come back. Left hand on left knee, left shoulder to right knee. One, two, three. Inhale and come back. Slowly release.

From here, we're going to take the legs and keep in a mermaid position. So the right leg stays in the front, left leg goes back. So what we're going to do is inhale, bring the right hand down, left hand up, and tilt towards the side. From here, we're going to lift up, bring the left hand down, take the right hand up. Oh, you're going to feel a very good stretch on the right side of your body over here. Stay here. Again, on the right side, left hand up. Try not to do this. Open the chest towards the ceiling. Again, inhale, come back. Exhale and tilt towards the left side. Open the chest towards the ceiling. Stay there and come back. Last time, right hand down, left hand up. Inhale and come back. Right hand up and tilt towards the left side.

Slowly come. From here, I'm going to take my right leg, push it a little away from me so that the shin is parallel. Take the right leg, left leg a little back in a way. I'm just going to fold forward over my right leg and stay here. So this might feel good on your outer right hip. It can also give you a stretch on the upper left thigh. Just stay here and notice the sensations in your body. With each exhale, try and relax into the pose. Relax into your mat, floor, or the bed. Inhale and slowly lift yourself back up.

From here, I'm bringing my legs back and taking the legs towards the other side. Drop both the knees towards the left side, taking the right leg back and left foot close towards you. Same thing, let's do the mermaid tilt on the other side. So left hand down, right hand up, and go. Again, exhale and tilt towards the right. Inhale back, exhale, tilt towards the left. Inhale back, exhale, and tilt towards the right. Inhale back, exhale, and left. Inhale back, exhale, and right. Inhale back, exhale, and left. Inhale back, exhale, and left. Inhale, come back to center, and drop your hands down.

From here, I'm going to take the left leg, pull it out, take the right knee away and further back over here. I'm going to get into a full forward fold, folding over my left shin. Yeah, exhale, fold forward and stay here. You should feel a stretch on your outer left hip, sometimes even on the upper right thigh. With each exhale, try to relax into the full forward fold, letting go of any tension you're holding in your hips, anything you're holding in your shoulders, and completely relax. Inhale and slowly come up.

Bring your right leg back and now let the soles of the feet be kept together to touch. Bring the heels close towards you. Interlock the fingers around the toes, and we're just going to gently move the knees up and down. Just give gentle movements. Let your body get used to this movement and this position. High and low, high and low. Imagine you're trying to reach the knees towards the floor. Okay, now I'm letting go of my right hand, taking the right knee, and giving it a gentle push down towards the floor. Feeling it, two, three, four, and five. Bring the right hand back, left hand on the left knee, and give it a gentle push. One, two, three, four, and five.

So let's come back to center. Bring the knees back together, keeping the legs wide. Let's get into windshield wipers. So drop the knee to the right, inhale, center, drop the knee to the left, inhale, center. This is just a relax from what we did before. Now we'll lie down and do the same thing and just deepen this pose a little bit. Yeah, slowly come to lying down position.

Keep the feet wide, wider than hip width, maybe your mat width apart, or just slightly wider than your hips. From here, I'm dropping my right knees, both my knees down towards the right side. Here, what we're going to do is take the right heel, place it on the left knee, and slightly press it down. Feel the stretch going on from the back, the lower back of your left side, and maybe even the front of your left thigh. You can take your hands over the top, or at shoulder level, whatever feels good for you. Just stay here, feel that stretch in your lower back. Two, three, four, and five. First, release the right leg and bring both the knees up.

Now, drop both the knees towards the left side. Lift your left heel up, place it on the right knee, and press it down towards the floor. One, two. Feel that stretch on the right side, on the low back, and maybe on the front of your thighs. You can even close your eyes and completely relax. Feel the different sensations in your body. Release the left leg, come back into center.

Now, what we're going to do is take the right leg on top of the left, imagine you're sitting in a cross-leg position, and now you're going to bring both the knees towards your chest, bring the feet up, and maybe hold both the heels, and then you're going to lift the heels up and then bring them towards your chest. This is going to feel really good on your outer hips. Stay here, one, two, three, four, five, and relax.

Left leg down, right leg down. Now, left over the right, bring both the knees towards your chest. Now, bring the ankles towards your chest as well. Lift them up, hold the ankles, and pull the ankles towards your chest. One, two. Feel that stretch on the outer left hip. This feels really good. Four, and five. Finally, let go and relax in Shavasana.

Hands wide, legs wide. Re-adjust yourself so that your spine is straight. Palms are open, facing the ceiling. Maybe you can keep one palm on your belly, one palm on your chest, and slowly bring your awareness to your belly. Inhale, let your belly rise and expand. Exhale, the belly completely relaxes down. Inhale, the belly expands. Exhale, the belly relaxes down. Inhale, the belly expands. Exhale, the belly relaxes down completely. And now, you can completely relax in Shavasana.

Now, you're all set for sweet dreams and a restful sleep. Repeat this flow whenever you need to unwind at the end of the day. And I'll see you soon with some more peaceful sessions. Thank you.