Yoga Poses to Ease You Into Sleep

Why Your Body Needs a Wind-Down, Not a Workout

By the time you climb the stairs, your body has usually been holding itself together for sixteen hours or more. Shoulders crept up towards the ears during the afternoon. The jaw tightened over an email. The lower back quietly absorbed every chair you sat in. None of that tension simply evaporates because you have decided it is bedtime.

Restorative yoga works differently from the energetic, sweaty practice you might do at a studio on a Saturday morning. Here, you are not trying to achieve anything. You are arranging your body in shapes that let the nervous system shift out of its alert, doing mode and into the slower rhythm that precedes sleep. The poses below are held for minutes rather than breaths, supported by whatever cushions you have to hand. The aim is not flexibility. The aim is a quiet, heavy, unhurried feeling in the limbs.

Give yourself twenty minutes, or ten if that is what the evening allows. Both are enough.

Setting the Scene for Rest

A little preparation makes the whole practice easier to sink into. Before you begin, dim the lights or light a single lamp. Turn your phone face down and, ideally, out of the room. The room itself should be cool rather than warm — most people sleep better in a slightly chilly space with a blanket over them than in a stuffy one.

Gather a few props so you are not getting up mid-pose:

• A yoga mat, or a rug with a folded blanket on top
• A bolster, or two pillows stacked firmly together
• A folded blanket for under the hips or head
• An eye pillow, or a small folded flannel over the eyes
• Warm socks, because cold feet keep more people awake than they realise

Wear something soft and loose. There is no need to warm up, stretch beforehand or worry about technique. Move slowly between each shape, and let your breath stay quiet and unforced throughout.

Child's Pose: The Gentle Fold

Child's pose is the closest thing yoga has to being safely tucked away. Kneel on your mat with your big toes touching and your knees apart, then sit back towards your heels and fold forward, letting your forehead rest on a folded blanket or your stacked fists. If your hips feel tight or your knees complain, place a cushion or bolster between your thighs and sit on that instead — the fold does not need to be deep to be effective.

Rest your arms wherever feels comfortable: stretched forward, or alongside your body with the palms turned up. Turn your head to one side for a few minutes, then to the other, so your neck is not held in one position. Breathe into your back ribs, feeling them widen on the inhale and soften on the exhale. After a long day this shape tends to release the lower back first, then the shoulders.

Stay for three to five minutes. If your feet go numb, tuck your toes under and sit up slowly before settling again.

Legs Up the Wall: A Reset for Heavy Legs

This is the pose most people fall in love with, because it asks almost nothing of you. Sit sideways next to a wall, then swing your legs up as you lower your back to the floor. Your hips should be a hand's width or so from the skirting board. If your hamstrings feel tight, shuffle a little further away; if you want more support, slide a folded blanket under your pelvis.

Let your arms rest out to the sides, palms up, and close your eyes. The legs are simply being allowed to drain, which is often a physical relief after a day of standing, commuting or sitting at a desk. A blanket over the legs and an eye pillow make this even better.

Stay for five to ten minutes. To come out, bend your knees, roll onto one side and lie there for a few breaths before pushing up. Rising too quickly can leave you light-headed.

Gentle Twists: Wringing Out the Day

A soft supine twist is a lovely way to finish, because you stay lying down the whole time. Lie on your back, draw your knees towards your chest, then let them fall to the right. Stretch your left arm out to the side and turn your head gently to the left if that feels kind on your neck. Let gravity do the work — never push your knees towards the floor.

Hold for one to two minutes on each side, breathing slowly and letting the exhale lengthen. You may feel the twist in your waist, your outer hip or between the shoulder blades, and it can shift from one evening to the next. Then draw the knees back to centre, pause, and repeat on the other side.

If you are pregnant, or you have a back or hip injury, keep twists very small or leave them out and stay longer in child's pose and legs up the wall instead. Aches that sharpen or pinch are a signal to stop.

A Ten-Minute Sequence to Slip Into Sleep

If you would rather follow a ready-made order than decide as you go, try this:

• Child's pose — three minutes, head turned to each side
• Gentle supine twist — one minute each side
• Legs up the wall — five minutes, blanket over the legs
• Knees to chest, rocking gently side to side — thirty seconds
• Lie still on your back for a few breaths, then roll to your side and get into bed

You may well fall asleep during the last pose. That is not a failure of technique; it is the practice working.

Making It a Habit That Sticks

The trick with evening yoga is to keep the bar low. Five minutes of child's pose on a bad night is worth more than a perfect half-hour sequence that you never get round to. Anchor it to something you already do — after brushing your teeth, after the kitchen is tidied, once the last light downstairs is switched off — and it will quietly become part of the evening rather than another task on the list.

Over a week or two, most people notice they are falling asleep a little faster and waking less in the night. Your bedroom becomes the place you unwind rather than the place you lie awake, and that shift in association is often the most valuable thing of all.