Guide · 3 min read
Bedtime yoga: six slow poses and Yoga Nidra
Not a workout. A quarter of an hour on the floor next to your bed, moving slowly enough that your breathing catches up with you.
A good bedtime yoga flow is slow, mostly on the floor, and ends lying down. Try child's pose, cat-cow, legs up the wall, reclining bound angle, a lying twist and corpse pose, about 15 minutes in total, breathing slowly through your nose.
Yoga Nidra is a guided relaxation done lying still, moving your attention through the body step by step. Small studies suggest it can improve sleep quality.
The 15-minute bedtime flow
Do this on a rug or mat, lights low, in whatever you sleep in. Move slowly, breathe through your nose, and let each out-breath be a little longer than the in-breath. Nothing should hurt. If a pose doesn't suit your body, rest in child's pose instead.
| Pose | Time | How |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Child's pose Balasana | 2 min | Kneel, big toes together, knees apart. Fold forward and rest your forehead on the floor or a cushion, arms long or by your sides. |
| 2. Cat-cow Marjaryasana-Bitilasana | 1½ min | On hands and knees. Breathe in as your belly drops and your gaze lifts; breathe out as you round your back. Slowly, with the breath. |
| 3. Legs up the wall Viparita Karani | 4 min | Sit side-on to a wall, then swing your legs up it as you lie back. Arms relaxed. A pillow under the hips if you like. |
| 4. Reclining bound angle Supta Baddha Konasana | 2 min | On your back, soles of the feet together, knees falling open. Cushions under the knees if your hips feel it. |
| 5. Lying twist Supta Matsyendrasana | 2 min | On your back, draw one knee in and let it fall across your body. Arms out, look the other way if your neck is happy. Switch halfway. |
| 6. Corpse pose Savasana | 4 min | Lie flat, arms a little away from your body, palms up. Let the floor take your weight. This is where you can start Yoga Nidra or a body scan. |
Then get into bed. If you'd like to stay on the floor longer, that's fine too; just don't fall asleep there.
What Yoga Nidra is, and how to do it
Yoga Nidra, sometimes called "yogic sleep", is a guided practice done lying completely still. A teacher or recording leads your attention through a sequence of stages. You stay awake, but your body relaxes deeply. It's close to what's often called NSDR (non-sleep deep rest) or a body scan.
A typical practice runs 20 to 30 minutes and moves through stages like these:
- Settling in and noticing sounds around you.
- Setting a short, simple intention.
- Moving your attention around the body, one part at a time.
- Noticing the breath without changing it.
- Noticing opposite sensations, like heavy and light, warm and cool.
- Simple images, one after another.
- Slowly returning, or letting yourself drift into sleep if it's bedtime.
You can't do it wrong. If you notice your mind has wandered, just come back to the next instruction.
Does yoga actually help sleep?
The research is encouraging but still modest. A 2020 meta-analysis of 19 randomized trials in women with sleep problems found that yoga improved sleep quality and insomnia symptoms compared with control groups. A small randomized trial in people with chronic insomnia found that Yoga Nidra improved sleep about as well as the CBT-I comparison group on several measures. A 2023 sleep-lab pilot found it was well tolerated and slowed breathing, but didn't change how quickly people fell asleep in a single session.
So treat bedtime yoga as a good part of a wind-down routine, not a standalone fix. For long-term insomnia, the habits in CBT-I do the heavy lifting.
Doing it safely
- Move within what's comfortable. Mild stretch, never pain.
- Skip legs up the wall and other inversions if you have glaucoma, uncontrolled high blood pressure, or a doctor has told you to avoid them.
- If you're pregnant, have a recent injury, or have back or neck problems, check with a doctor or a qualified teacher first. Lying flat on your back may not suit later pregnancy.
The Yoga tab has this exact six-pose flow with animated steps and a timer for each pose, a seven-stage Yoga Nidra, and five breathing practices. It keeps playing with your phone locked, with pause and next on the lock screen, so you don't have to look at a bright screen.
Sources
- The effect of yoga on sleep quality and insomnia in women with sleep problems: a systematic review and meta-analysis (Wang et al., 2020), BMC Psychiatry
- Yoga nidra practice shows improvement in sleep in patients with chronic insomnia: a randomized controlled trial (Datta et al., 2021), National Medical Journal of India
- A closer look at yoga nidra: early randomized sleep lab investigations (2023), Pilot randomized sleep-lab study, PubMed