Yoga for Better Sleep
A wind-down sequence designed to quiet the body and mind before bed. These restorative poses release the physical tension of the day and ease the nervous system into a state ready for deep rest.
Legs Up the Wall
Viparita Karani
Legs Up the Wall is the most accessible and most consistently useful restorative pose in the practice. All it requires is a wall and a floor. The effect is immediate: the legs drain, the lower back releases, and the nervous system begins to quiet within the first minute. Sit sideways against the wall, hip touching the baseboard. Swing both legs up the wall as you lie back, scooting the hips as close to the wall as comfortable. Arms rest at the sides or on the belly. Eyes close. The position reverses the venous blood flow in the legs, which is why tired or swollen legs feel so much better afterward. The heart doesn't have to work as hard against gravity to circulate blood from the legs back up. The lower back benefits because the hamstrings, which often pull on the pelvis and create lumbar tension, are in a lengthened position without weight-bearing. The lumbar spine settles toward the floor. If the hamstrings are very tight, the legs will pull away from the wall as they try to straighten. Move the hips farther from the wall until the legs can rest comfortably. The goal is ease, not maximum hip-to-wall proximity. Stay for five to ten minutes. Set a timer so you don't spend the time wondering how long you've been here. This pose is particularly useful during perimenopause for hot flash management, after long runs for leg recovery, during high-stress periods for nervous system regulation, and before sleep for anyone who finds it hard to wind down.
Child's Pose
Balasana
Child's Pose is the most reliable reset in the practice. When things get hard, when the breath shortens, when you need a moment, this is where you go. It's also where you can start a practice if you need to arrive slowly, and where you can return between challenging poses to find your breath again. Come to hands and knees. Bring the big toes together, knees either together or wide. Sink the hips back toward the heels and let the torso fold forward. Arms can extend in front of you or rest alongside the body. The forehead comes to the mat or to stacked fists if the floor feels far away. The wide-knee variation opens the groin and allows the torso to rest between the thighs. The narrow-knee version gives more lower back release. Both are useful; experiment to find which one your body needs on a given day. Child's Pose gently decompresses the lumbar spine, releases the hips and thighs, and quiets the nervous system. The forehead on the mat has a grounding, almost cooling effect. The breath into the back body fills the space between the shoulder blades and helps the upper back let go. It can be held for thirty seconds or thirty minutes. During a restorative practice it becomes a five-minute pose. As a rest between more demanding poses it serves in thirty seconds. There is no performance here. Child's Pose is just rest.
Savasana
Corpse Pose
Savasana is the hardest pose in yoga for many people. Not physically. Mentally. It asks you to lie completely still, to not be productive, to not plan, to not solve anything. For most adults, five minutes of that is genuinely challenging. Lie flat on your back with your arms slightly away from your body, palms facing up. Legs extend naturally, feet falling open. Close your eyes. That's the external form of the pose. The internal practice is releasing. Starting from the feet and working upward, consciously let each part of the body soften and release contact with the floor. The calves, the backs of the thighs, the buttocks, the lower back, the shoulder blades, the backs of the hands, the jaw, the muscles around the eyes. Most people do a version of Savasana that is mostly rest but not complete rest. The jaw still holds a little tension. The hands curl slightly. The mind plans tomorrow. This is fine. The pose still works. But noticing these small holdouts and releasing them is the actual practice. The physiological purpose is integration. After a practice that has challenged the muscles, heated the body, and asked the nervous system to adapt continuously, Savasana gives the system time to process and absorb what happened. Skipping it to get to the next thing is the equivalent of leaving the oven to cool with the door open. The baking still happened, but the finishing step is incomplete. Five minutes minimum. Ten is better.
Supported Forward Fold
Supported Forward Fold is the restorative version of Seated Forward Fold. The effort of reaching toward the feet is removed, and the torso simply rests forward onto a bolster or folded blankets that are stacked on the legs. The result is a genuinely passive release of the lower back and hamstrings, which is different from what happens when the muscles have to hold a position actively. Sit with legs extended. Stack a bolster or two or three folded blankets on the thighs, at a height that allows the torso to drape forward onto the support without straining. Fold the torso forward and rest the head on the support. Arms rest at the sides. The support height is the key variable. Too low and the body strains to reach it, which defeats the purpose. Too high and the stretch disappears. Find the height where the lower back and hamstrings feel a gentle but real opening without any effort or discomfort. The head rests completely. If there's any tension in the neck from holding the head up, add more height under the support. Breathe into the back body. Feel the inhale expand the back ribs. The exhale softens everything further. Let each exhale release a little more tension. Hold for three to five minutes. This is long enough for the nervous system to stop guarding the position and allow the deeper release that makes restorative work different from active stretching.
Happy Baby
Ananda Balasana
Happy Baby is a decompression pose that most adults approach with more self-consciousness than it deserves. The name describes it accurately: you're lying on your back holding your feet while your knees open wide, which is exactly what babies do when they're content on the floor. Lie on your back and bring your knees toward your armpits. Reach up and grab the outer edges of your feet, or your ankles, or behind your knees if that's what's accessible. Open the knees wide, letting them drop toward the armpits. Gently pull the feet down. The lower back presses into the mat. This is the lumbar decompression that makes the pose so satisfying after standing, running, or sitting for long periods. Feel the sacrum and lower back heavy on the floor. Rock gently side to side if it feels good. This motion massages the lower back against the floor and works any residual tension out of the sacroiliac joints. Happy Baby also opens the inner groin and hip flexors. The outer hip of each leg gets a gentle stretch from the external rotation. It's doing several things at once without feeling effortful. Common modification: if the hands don't comfortably reach the feet, use a strap or belt around each foot, or simply hold behind the knees instead. This is a good finishing pose before Savasana. It releases the hips and lower back from whatever the practice has built up, and the supine position is already close to final rest.
Supine Twist
Supine Twist is the pose most people want at the end of a long day and the one they're least likely to skip. Lying down takes the effort out of it, the spine gets to release without supporting any weight, and the rotation happens through gravity rather than muscular effort. Lie on your back. Hug both knees to the chest. Extend the arms out to the sides at shoulder height. Let both knees fall to the right, stacking them on top of each other. The left shoulder stays on or near the floor. Gaze can go to the left. The rotation releases the lower back, the outer hip of the top leg, and the IT band. Most people feel it primarily in the lower back and the hip of the upper leg. If the knees are far from the floor, place a folded blanket under them so the body can relax completely. The key to getting the most from this pose: breathe into the left side of the chest. The exhale helps the left shoulder release toward the floor and deepens the rotation gently with each breath. Hold for eight to ten breaths per side at minimum. For tighter bodies or after a long run, two to three minutes per side is not too much. This is also a useful pose for SI joint tension, the area where the sacrum meets the pelvis. The rotation creates movement through the joint that daily upright movement doesn't access.
Easy Seated Pose
Sukhasana
Easy Seated Pose is the default seated position for meditation, breathing exercises, and grounding practices in yoga. It looks straightforward: sit cross-legged with the spine tall. In practice, many adults find it difficult to sit comfortably here for more than a minute or two without the lower back rounding and the spine slumping. The rounding happens because the hip flexors and external rotators are tight enough that the pelvis tips backward when the legs are crossed. The fix is simple: sit on a folded blanket, a meditation cushion, or a yoga block. Elevating the hips changes the angle of the pelvis, allowing the spine to be tall without effort. Hands rest on the knees or in the lap. The jaw and face are relaxed. The shoulders drop away from the ears. Eyes can be closed or softly downcast. There is no one correct position for the legs. Some people have one shin in front of the other. Some people can only do this with significant hip support. None of that matters. The point is a stable base and a long spine. Easy Seated Pose is not passive. Maintaining a tall spine without gripping requires the deep postural muscles to work gently but continuously. Over months of regular sitting, those muscles become stronger and sitting upright becomes genuinely easier, rather than something that has to be maintained by effort.
Seated Forward Fold
Paschimottanasana
Seated Forward Fold is a pose most people approach by thinking about how far forward they can go. That's not the right frame. The question is whether the fold is coming from the hip joint or from the spine, because only one of those actually stretches the hamstrings. Sit with legs extended in front of you. On an inhale, sit tall, spine long, feeling the sit bones grounded. On an exhale, hinge forward from the hips as if you're tipping the pelvis forward over the thighs. Let the chest lead rather than the forehead. Hands rest wherever they reach: shins, ankles, or feet. If the lower back immediately rounds and the pelvis tucks, the hamstrings are limiting the hip hinge. This is very common. The modification: bend the knees enough to allow a slight anterior tilt of the pelvis. From there, fold forward with a flat back. Over time, as the hamstrings lengthen, you can begin to straighten the legs gradually while maintaining the hip hinge. This is one of the most calming poses in the practice. Forward folds have a settiling effect on the nervous system, particularly when they're held for longer than thirty seconds. The head below the heart, the reduced sensory input, and the compression through the front body all signal safety. Stay for five to ten breaths at minimum. Longer holds, two to five minutes, are where significant changes in hamstring length begin to happen.
Restorative Fish Pose
Restorative Fish Pose is a chest and heart opener done passively, with the body supported by a bolster or rolled blanket rather than held up by muscular effort. The front of the body, which is almost always in a closed, forward-facing position during daily life, gets a full and completely effortless opening. Place a bolster or two folded blankets on the mat lengthwise. Sit in front of the support and slowly lie back over it, positioning the support so it lands between the shoulder blades when you're lying down. The head can rest on the floor or on an additional thin support. Legs extend in front of you or soles of the feet together in a reclined bound angle. Arms open to the sides, palms facing up. The support under the thoracic spine creates extension through the mid-back, which opens the chest and front shoulders without any muscular engagement required. The pectoral muscles, front deltoids, and intercostals all release over time. The neck should feel comfortable. If there's any strain in the throat or compression in the back of the neck, add support under the head. Close the eyes. Breathe naturally. Notice the chest rising and falling with each breath, the front ribs expanding as the support encourages them to open. This pose consistently produces a sense of vulnerability as the chest opens. That openness, physical and emotional, is part of what makes restorative chest openers feel so different from active ones.
Bound Angle Pose
Baddha Konasana
Bound Angle Pose is one of those poses where the instruction sounds simple and the reality is quite varied. Sit with the soles of the feet together, knees falling open to the sides. Some people's knees are six inches from the floor. Others are at the level of the hips or higher. Both are completely normal. The goal is not to push the knees toward the floor. The goal is to sit with a neutral pelvis, feel the gentle stretch in the inner thighs and groin, and breathe. Pushing the knees down actively tends to create tension rather than release. What often needs adjusting: the pelvis. Most people tip backward at the pelvis when they sit in this position, which rounds the lower back and takes the stretch out of the inner thigh. Sitting on a folded blanket or cushion to elevate the hips corrects this. With the hips elevated, the pelvis can be neutral and the spine can be tall. For a deeper stretch, fold the torso forward over the feet. Hinge from the hips, not the waist, and let the spine stay long rather than rounding sharply. This pose works the inner thighs and adductors gently over time. It is also useful preparation for sitting in meditation and for reducing tension in the pelvic floor, which many people carry unconsciously. Held for two to three minutes, it becomes a different experience than a thirty-second version. The inner groins begin to soften in a way that feels almost like letting go.