^Do you find yourself tossing and turning at night, unable to fall asleep? You're not alone. Many people struggle with getting a good night's rest, and it can take a toll on your health and productivity. The good news is that a simple evening yoga routine can help you wind down, relax, and prepare for a restful night’s sleep. Here’s how you can incorporate yoga into your bedtime routine to improve your sleep quality.

Why Yoga for Better Sleep?

Yoga is a mind-body practice that combines physical poses, breathing exercises, and meditation. It helps reduce stress, ease muscle tension, and calm the mind—all essential for a good night's sleep. Unlike vigorous exercises, yoga's gentle stretches and mindful breathing make it perfect for an evening routine.

The Benefits of Evening Yoga

• Reduces Stress and Anxiety: Yoga helps lower cortisol levels, the stress hormone, allowing you to relax and let go of the day's worries.
• Eases Muscle Tension: Gentle stretches release built-up tension in your muscles, making it easier to fall asleep.
• Calms the Mind: Mindful breathing and meditation practices quiet your mind, reducing racing thoughts that can keep you awake.
• Improves Sleep Quality: Regular practice can lead to deeper, more restorative sleep, helping you wake up refreshed.

Setting the Scene for Your Evening Yoga Practice

Before diving into the yoga poses, create a calming environment. Dim the lights, play soft music, and ensure your space is free of distractions. You might want to use a yoga mat, but it's not necessary. The key is to create a peaceful atmosphere that promotes relaxation.

Evening Yoga Routine for Better Rest

Here’s a simple yet effective yoga routine you can follow before bed. Each pose is designed to help you relax and prepare for a good night's sleep.

1. Child’s Pose (Balasana)

Child’s Pose is a gentle stretch for your back, hips, and thighs. It also helps calm the mind.

• How to Do It:
  • Kneel on the floor with your big toes touching and knees spread apart.
  • Sit back on your heels and stretch your arms forward, lowering your forehead to the mat.
  • Breathe deeply and hold the pose for 1-2 minutes.

2. Cat-Cow Pose (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana)

This pose helps relieve tension in your spine and improves flexibility.

• How to Do It:
  • Start on your hands and knees in a tabletop position.
  • Inhale as you arch your back, lifting your head and tailbone (Cow Pose).
  • Exhale as you round your spine, tucking your chin and tailbone (Cat Pose).
  • Continue flowing between these poses for 1-2 minutes.

3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)

Standing Forward Bend releases tension in your back and shoulders, helping to calm your mind.

• How to Do It:
  • Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
  • Inhale and lift your arms overhead.
  • Exhale and bend forward from your hips, letting your arms and head hang down.
  • Hold the pose for 1-2 minutes, breathing deeply.

4. Legs Up the Wall Pose (Viparita Karani)

This pose helps improve circulation and relaxes the nervous system.

• How to Do It:
  • Sit with one side of your body against a wall.
  • Swing your legs up onto the wall as you lie back on the floor.
  • Relax your arms by your sides and close your eyes.
  • Stay in this pose for 5-10 minutes, breathing deeply.

5. Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana)

This pose opens your hips and chest, promoting deep relaxation.

• How to Do It:
  • Lie on your back and bring the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to fall open.
  • Place your arms by your sides with palms facing up.
  • Close your eyes and breathe deeply for 5-10 minutes.

6. Corpse Pose (Savasana)

Corpse Pose is the ultimate relaxation pose, allowing you to fully unwind.

• How to Do It:
  • Lie flat on your back with your legs extended and arms by your sides.
  • Close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths.
  • Focus on releasing tension from each part of your body, starting from your toes and moving up to your head.
  • Stay in this pose for 5-10 minutes.

Breathing Techniques for Relaxation

In addition to these poses, incorporating breathing exercises can enhance your relaxation.

Deep Breathing (Diaphragmatic Breathing)

• How to Do It:
  • Sit or lie down in a comfortable position.
  • Place one hand on your chest and the other on your abdomen.
  • Inhale deeply through your nose, allowing your abdomen to rise.
  • Exhale slowly through your mouth, letting your abdomen fall.
  • Repeat for 5-10 minutes.

Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana)

This technique balances your nervous system and promotes relaxation.

• How to Do It:
  • Sit in a comfortable position with your spine straight.
  • Use your right thumb to close your right nostril.
  • Inhale deeply through your left nostril.
  • Close your left nostril with your right ring finger and exhale through your right nostril.
  • Inhale through your right nostril, then close it and exhale through your left nostril.
  • Continue alternating for 5-10 minutes.

Tips for a Restful Night

• Consistency is Key: Practice your evening yoga routine regularly to see the best results.
• Avoid Stimulants: Steer clear of caffeine and heavy meals before bedtime.
• Create a Sleep-Friendly Environment: Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet.
• Disconnect from Screens: Limit screen time before bed to reduce blue light exposure, which can interfere with sleep.

Conclusion

Incorporating yoga into your evening routine can significantly improve your sleep quality. By reducing stress, easing muscle tension, and calming your mind, yoga prepares your body for a restful night. Try this simple yoga routine before bed and experience the difference it can make in your sleep and overall well-being. Remember, consistency is key, so make it a part of your nightly ritual for the best results. Sweet dreams!

^We've all experienced a bad day while working from home.

You begin your day on a positive note. However, the deadline for a large project is approaching, and you don't have time to complete it. So, instead of staying on track and getting an early start, you get distracted by anything but work.

The majority of your workday is spent on Twitter, Slack, and LinkedIn. We won't even talk about email. So those ambitions of completing the assignment before lunch become far away.

You aren't alone: office workers spend 28% of their time on unnecessary distractions. In addition to this, an average of five hours are spent each week visiting non-work-related websites.

As soon as you put those useless distractions aside, you're hit by midday hunger pangs, and all you want is food. As a result of wasting your whole morning, your mind explodes into a frenzy, and your anxious afternoon transforms into an evening full of stress.

Try to imagine what it would be like if you had a productive workday every day; imagine what it would be like if it became a habit.

At first, you will need to put in more time and effort. Our recommendations, however, may be helpful for long-term adjustments in your work routine with a bit of self-reflection and forward thinking.

‍Starting Your Day

A day's work can be set in stone within its first hour. But, with a couple of mistakes, you will find it's already 11 a.m., having no idea where the first two hours of your day went.

Morning productivity is all about developing habits that will last. So if you're looking for something to do on Monday, instead of opening Facebook, open Google Docs instead.

‍A Few Things To Start With

Starting your day with a nutritious meal will set you up for success. Dietary choices affect your productivity at work, as they provide everything your mind body soul needs.

It is recommended to consume low-glycemic carbohydrate diets throughout the day to maintain consistent energy levels. For those of us who aren't nutritionists, this means lots of fruits and vegetables. In addition, an egg, banana, yogurt, or blueberry breakfast may improve memory and relieve stress.

You should resist the urge to look at your e-mail when you first arrive at your workstation. You might lose your most valuable thinking hours early in the morning if you start your day reading, responding, and sorting your inbox.

The constant checking of your email will also become a habit. Reading your email while you commute to work is an excellent idea if you don't drive to work. If you have any important to-do items to check in your email before heading out to work, allocate five to ten minutes for them.

Once you have inspected it briefly, please turn it off. You will notice the difference in your productivity.

"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." - Paul J. Meyer

‍The Little Things

Do you still want to open Gmail? You can achieve productivity goals most easily by developing "tiny habits." Tiny habits are simple, ongoing activities that create long-term behavioural changes.

For new behaviours to stick, consider the following factors:

1. Motivating factors that may assist in changing a habit.

2. Acts that make the new habit easy to form.

3. A stimulus that results in an action.

If you know that email is a huge distraction for you, schedule times to check it. Then, treat yourself to a snack break if you finish it in less than 15 minutes. Try this strategy for any habit you wish to create, such as reading or meditating, and you will have a perfect work life balance.

‍Setting Priorities

It may not be ideal for everyone to have an organised to-do list, but we could all benefit from it. First, sort chores into priority levels and categorise them accordingly. Prioritising the simplest chores is tempting, but setting priority levels will remind you to focus on the bigger tasks first.

‍Identify Your Distractions

A diagnosis is essential to administering the correct treatment in medicine. In addition, it is essential to understand what precisely distracts you if you want to establish productive habits that last months, not days.

Using time tracking software or good old-fashioned pen and paper, keep track of how you spend your time for a week. Record when you encounter distractions and what they are during the process. 

Review your work time at the end of each week. Analyse patterns of cause and effect. For example, you may fall victim to reading the news while working. Then you scroll for 30 minutes on social media after checking your email.

The process of documenting your week may seem overwhelming to many people. They may claim that it will take a considerable amount of time. But don't ignore this one. You might have more work for one week, but you'll save hundreds of hours later.

‍A Remote Work Environment

Nowadays, more and more people work from home. Indeed, you're not distracted by co-workers at home, but that doesn't mean you're untouched by distractions. Homeworkers often become their own worst enemies when working from home.

‍Conclusion

Whenever possible, try to replicate your regular weekday on your off-days. A regular schedule of waking up, showering, and dressing as if you were going to work is important. Working from home doesn't mean staying at home all day.

Go to a coffee shop to avoid the temptation to clean the bathroom or organise your bookcases. Instead, commit to accomplishing more - preferably ahead of the weekly demands - when you work from home.