Yoga for Bedtime for More Restful Sleep

Transcript

hey Yogi's thank you so much for tuning in again especially if you're having a desk job and you're sitting a lot or maybe you're driving a lot so your body is most of the day in the same position it feels especially good to stretch out right before going to sleep this is a very gentle full-body stretching routine I'll try to keep it short and this is something you can do right before going to bed maybe in even in bed maybe on the ground using your yoga mat or just on your carpet or whatever you have at home that's all you need for this practice let's do it [Music] [Music] let's go ahead and come on to your belly go starting out in Sting's posts especially like I just said you're sitting a lot driving or at your office you want to arch your back a little bit find a little bit more back bends so come onto your forearms bring the elbows right underneath the shoulders untuck your toes and then pull the shoulders back move the chest forward so again in this practice we don't want to go and that's a really deep this is really not the kind of track that's right before you go to sleep or you want to go deep or work hard or work on the breath or whatever it's just easy gentle to feel better and hopefully sleep better so push the chest forward pull the shoulders back and gauge your gluts just find that backbend here if this is too much for you it feels uncomfortable for your lower back you can bring the legs wide apart so the wide apart you bring your legs the more gentle it is for the lower back for those of us that want to go deeper you can straighten your arms and come into seal posts don't have to straighten the arms fully you can keep them bent a little bit make sure you externally rotate round the triceps in and keep the breath nice and soft just for a couple more breaths here wherever you are and slowly release now bend your right leg and I'll reach for the right foot press the top of your right foot down so you're pressing the right heel towards the right hip this is called half frog what we're doing is we're stretching the right shoulder the anterior deltoid the front side of the shoulder and also the right thigh the right quad make sure this feels fine for your right knee so basically you want to have the the shin right above the the thigh and not going out to the side like this press into your left forearm and slowly release it switch sides right forearm down bend your left leg grab that left foot and then press it down [Music] like I said you really don't need much for this practice you can just do this in your bed if you're watching this video in your bed right before sleep make sure you can or make sure you turn on the blue light filter yeah there's a apps you can download that do that that filter out the blue light and depending if you have a MacBook or so they already have it built in it's called night shift reducing a blue light what the one or two hours before going to bed really can improve your sleep quality one more time back to things and slowly beliefs send the hips back for Child's Pose walk the hands forward relax your forehead down to the ground just a couple breaths here slowly release rise up now we're gonna sit down sit down on the butt so bring the legs forward bring the soles of your feet together and if you want to take this really gently bring the legs wide are away from you if you want to go deeper you're bring the the heels closer to your hips just find what feels comfortable for you grab the feet and then bring the elbows outside the shins and fold forward and down also round your back tuck your chin to the chest so we not only stretch the lower body but also the upper body maybe you can go deeper in this pose usually in your practice it's all good it's really not about that at all you just want to stretch through the sensation most importantly make this a moving meditation so you want to unwind relax let go of what happens in the day and get ready for for bed and for you for you about deserved rest couple more breaths and I find that it's mostly the lower body that's stiff and least for me especially from sitting a lot during your day then I want to work mostly in the lower body mostly the hips the lower back and stretch all of that out and I don't really want to do so much for the upper body sorry buddies and then come onto your back now bring your heels close to your hips press into your heels lift your hips up bridge pose you can interlace your hands behind your back if you want come even higher onto the shoulder blades engage the glutes lift your hips up high if a gap between the chin and the chest don't even ease down now cross your right ankle over there you're over the left thigh 50 go for now reach through that hole that you create with your legs grab the left hamstring or the left shin and then pull both of your legs closer to you relax your head back down to the ground make sure the right foot is flexed that the right toes are pointing towards the right knee that helps to protect the right knee joint just hang out here breathe both leave both legs into your chest when you release bring your left foot back down to the ground and then you can either keep the legs like this and just bring them over to your left or you slide the right foot at the right leg over the left side and then you scoot your hips to the right and bring your legs all the way over to the left all the way down to the ground for a twist extend your right arm away from you maybe you place your left hand on top of the row of the legs just to add a little bit more extra weight five breaths here use your left hand to help your legs back to the center unwind the legs hug both knees into the chest and find the other side right foot down cross the left ankle over the right thigh figure 4 hug both knees both legs into your chest Lex your left foot protect your left knee just hang out here 5 breaths if you have trouble sleeping or falling asleep we did a video about the 5 most important tips at least that we think to help both sleep to sleep better one of them is ready to reduce the screen time right before bed and not be on your phone so much or on your computer especially without any blue light filter all the blue light that's coming nowadays from LEDs is stimulating the brain and just kind of tricks your brain that it's still daytime when you still have to think a lot and be awake and so by turning a filter on a blue light filter for basically after sunset turn it on and then it will help you sleep find the twist to the right there's also a blue light glasses you can get and wear after sunset just at home when you're walking around you just have blue light glasses on some are pretty stylish some look very yellow you look more like your Robocop but doesn't matter how it looks I mean if it's good for you go for it [Music] like I said we keep this really short you don't want to do I got 30 minute of one-hour stretching routine right before bed so you can also the second time you do this so if you just take the stretches and movements and you do them in your own pace feel free to do it faster or slower you can also always pause the video use your right hand help your legs back to the center hug both knees into the chest now for the last one grab the outer edges of your feet for happy baby try to keep the lower back and the shoulders on the ground as you move your knees into your armpits I recommend closing the eyes and maybe you want to go ahead and straighten one leg keep the other leg bent so with this routine we really targeted everything we found extension it in the spine we worked on some gentle back bends we stretched our thighs our hamstrings open the inner hips the thighs the groin area and also stress our piriformis and the outer hips so really everything you need and we also twisted switch side and the other leg straighten the other maybe both [Music] feel free to stay here I'll bring both legs up and over your head for plow pose but gap between the chin and the chest always protecting the neck and all of our joints slowly release our both knees into the chest close your eyes give yourself a nice hug we product yourself for wrapping up your day finishing up your day we firk up with a couple of minutes off investing in yourself take a deep breath in through the nose open mouth let it go extend the heels straighten the legs take all the space you need maybe grab a blanket pulled over you just let the video end and I wish you a wonderful night restful sleep one of the most important things for health is really to get enough sleep and get enough quality sleep so take the time to invest thank you so much for watching and see you in the next video namaste [Music] you