Sleepy after yoga

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

In the last three or four days I feel tired and sleepy after an hour-long yoga session. I’ve had enough sleep at night (7-8 hours). If I have time, I do lie down in bed after yoga and doze off for about forty five minutes. Then I wake up, without an alarm.

I am unsure of how to understand this. My meditation teacher has often spoken about the fact that the body and mind use sleep as a way of processing stress that has been pushed away from consciousness, without being processed. When this stress emerges in consciousness, especially in meditation, the mind tends to fall asleep. He said this is a good thing and we should let it happen. I agree that he has a point there.

Has any of you experienced sleepiness after yoga? What do you think it means?

#2

So you’re concerned about napping?

#3

I am curious about it. I don’t mind napping because usually I have the time. When I don’t, I don’t nap. But it seems that yoga is opening up something in me, which manifests as the need to take a small nap. I would like to have a better intellectual understanding of it, although it is not absolutely necessary.

#4

Okay so intellectualize I will:-)

  1. different doshas have different sleep requirements AND said requirements presume nourishment. So a statement about “enough sleep” doesn’t carry much weight. It may be so, and it may not be so. But let’s assume it’s spot on and you’re not, like most of the population, sleep deprived on a regular basis.

  2. Asana has both physiology and psychology. For these and many other reasons sequencing is an art form - mangled by most, ignored by others, and mastered by few. Change wht you’re doing and see if the result is altered.Since I do not know what you are doing this will have to be left up to you and the person you’ve chosen to teach you.

  3. Sleep can, in some instances, be a block or obstacle. It can actually be an avoidance of self-confrontation. I’m not suggesting one force themselves to remain awake. I’m suggesting that in stillness what we face is ourselves and that, for some, is terrifying. To nod off is to avoid and escape, sorry, check that, CAN be to avoid or escape. If it is not valid for you after consideration then dismiss it.

I have drifted off a time or two but not by intent or direction and in most every case due to exhaustion I was not aware of at the conscious level. I try to remain as relaxed as possible in passive poses WITHOUT drifting off … to see what happens:-)

#5

Thanks. That it is an avoidance of something does not really resonate with me, but I do think that the sleeping is possibly caused by unconscious, unacknowleged need for rest.

#6

In the last three or four days I feel tired and sleepy after an hour-long yoga session. I’ve had enough sleep at night (7-8 hours).

You have been into yoga pratice for few years and in the last three or four days if you feel sleepy even after enough sleep of 7-8 hours then simply take rest. When your body is demanding it then listen to it.

Based on your earlier posts, it seems you are resisting or doubting your own instincts. Don’t kill it. Let it blossom.