Sleep

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

Sometimes when I wake up from sleep I feel as if I had not breathed well during my sleep. I have always been someone who is short of breath and I am doing yoga 5-6 days a week now to improve my posture, which will open the breath. also working on the diet and mental/spiritual aspects of myself as well and feel positive results from it. I am still only a few months in to really practicing a disciplined yoga practice. My question is this, would sleeping in a certain pose, like savashana be good to help open the breath while I sleep? or are there any other poses that would be good to sleep it? any drawbacks to doing something like this?

thanks
neil

#2

Are you practicing relaxation (abdominal) breathing? Sometimes the body becomes habituated to stress-pattern breathing. Practicing abdominal breathing and progressive relaxation can help to unwind these patterns. See Donna Farhi’s “The Breathing Book” for good overview and exercises.

Namaste,
Chandra

#3

Hi Neil,
Depending on what type of yoga you are practicing it is a good idea to finish your day with some Restorative Yoga before bed. This relaxing style used natural openings enhanced through the use of cushions and other props to facilitate the relaxation response to occur. Many of these postures are also great for opening the body in order to take in a fuller deep breath. Judith Lasaterhas a great book called Relax and Renew which clearly outlines a variety of postures and sequences for different conditions.

Click herefor more info on our blog.

Trinity

#4

thanks for the responses :smiley:
I practice breathing in through the cetner and having it expand from there. Into the core and then I feel the back and stomach expand. I went to sleep last night on an 8 inch wide stacked blanket with a folded blanket to support my head. This is one pose supposed to help open the breath, is it ok to sleep in this pose, or would that be overdoing it and swing the balance too far the other way? I currently am doing anusara yoga which is a type of Hatha yoga I believe.