Sleep Yoga - reducing anxiety and improving your wellbeing

Sleep Yoga - reducing anxiety and improving your wellbeing

Try it out this World Sleep Day (13 March) – your health will thank you

During sleep, most of the body's systems are working hard to restore the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems. Restoring these systems is vital to mood, memory and cognitive function, and plays a large role in the function of the endocrine and immune systems.

Getting a good night's sleep is also crucial for your mental health. Many people, however, report that they don’t get enough sleep or enough good quality sleep and are left feeling tired during the day and/or irritable with poor levels of concentration. Poor sleep can even weaken your immune system!

World Sleep Day is on 13 March 2020 and we thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about sleep, its importance and how relaxation and deep meditation may be able to help you feel more relaxed and restored.

As you may have seen, Clear Mind Studio runs a class called “Sleep Yoga”, also known as Yoga Nidra. Don’t let the name fool you though, you’re not meant to actually sleep through the class (although we do understand when the occasional snore comes out – it is very relaxing!). Sleep Yoga is a guided meditation designed to trigger a relaxation response in the body which balances the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Some people who practice Sleep Yoga have reported that 45 minutes of yogic sleep feels like 3 hours of regular sleep!

If you haven’t experienced it yet, Sleep Yoga is an incredible class run by our experienced practitioners. Why not take advantage of World Sleep Day and check the class out for yourself? And, if you book in via our website, use the code WORLDSLEEPDAY we’ll give you a Sleep Yoga class for free!

Sleep Yoga

Here are some other, simple things that you can do to help improve your sleep and your sleep patterns.

When you wake in the morning:

·       get out of bed immediately

·       get up at approximately the same time every day

·       get some fresh air by going outside

·       do some physical activity.

During the day:

·       don’t nap

·       try to be physically active

·       limit your caffeine intake and avoid caffeine after 4pm

·       address any stressful issues during the day.

Before going to bed:

·       avoid going to bed too early as it isn’t the right time for ‘deep sleep’

·       avoid smoking, vigorous exercise and drinking alcohol

·       don’t go to bed hungry or with a full bladder

·       allow yourself time to wind down

·       avoid using electronic devices in your bedroom or within 30 minutes of your bedtime

·       avoid sleeping pills where possible.

While you sleep

·       keep your bedroom quiet, dark, well ventilated and cool

·       avoid too many blankets and electric blankets – if you’re too hot, you won’t go into a deep sleep.

Prioritising good sleeping habits goes a long way to improving your health and wellbeing. If Sleep Yoga isn’t your thing though, we’d love to chat with you about which of our other wellness initiatives may benefit you.

Give us a ring or drop in for more information – we look forward to welcoming you back soon.