Yoga You Can Do In Bed

Oh man, this is a subject close to my heart. I love sleeping. If there weren’t so many other things I like and need to be doing, I’d be sleeping right now. 

In addition to optimizing your sleep with obsessive—and frankly, irritating—levels of sleep hygiene, yoga you can do from the comfort of your bed is excellent for improving your sleep. And we all know that sleep is very important for your physical and mental health. 

While we’re talking mental health, you might be feeling like you can’t or don’t want to get out of bed for emotional reasons. Yoga is annoyingly good at helping people manage their emotions, anxiety, and mental distress. And giving yoga a try just got easier. 

Types of Yoga You Can Do in Bed

There are two classifications of yoga you can do in bed. 

That which you do before you go to sleep, which can help you sleep more quickly and more soundly.

And that which you do to wake you up and get you ready for the day. 

We understand that you might be a night worker, as I was for many years, in which case you might require a little help getting to sleep and getting up. If I say morning yoga, just consider it wake-up yoga. You know the drill.

Yin yoga, commonly associated with relaxation, is not only for helping you relax. It may also comprise stretches and poses that get your mind and body ready for the day ahead.

Before Sleep

Climb into bed and luxuriate in the following yoga practices to have a great night. Or morning/afternoon, if that’s your thing.

Pre-Sleep Yin Yoga

Yin yoga is some of the most relaxing yoga you can do. With a guided yin yoga class, you can allow your deep connective tissues, deep fascia, and also your thoughts to unravel. A yin yoga class is passive, where the sound of your instructor’s voice will take you on a journey around your body and mind. 

This awareness practice and relaxation is especially effective when your instructor is Sarah Jane Steele and she’s leading you through deliciously long holds and profoundly effective visualizations in this gentle Bedtime Yin Yoga. 

There’s no standing, so you can do this class in bed. Grab your pillow or bolster, your blanket, and your smartphone or laptop—just so you can listen to the class. I highly recommend turning off notifications.

Meditation

Meditation, which is a core part of yoga, quietens the mind and can certainly help you set the mental stage for sleep. 

Unless you’re doing an active meditation, such as a moving or walking meditation, you can easily do this in bed. 

Now it’s worth noting that there is a difference between meditating and relaxing. To meditate, aim to maintain your awareness rather than falling asleep. Falling into a soothing, deep sleep is for after the meditation.

You can meditate in bed, but you might consider sitting in a comfortable position to avoid drifting off until you are ready.

Josh’s Turning Off The Lights Meditation is the perfect guided visualization meditation to help you let go of stress and anxiety and get ready for a good night’s sleep.

Yoga nidra is fantastic for helping you to sleep. Jennifer’s Yoga Nidra: Sleep Sessions are the best of the best.

Those with premium access will also want to check out David’s four guided Yoga Meditations for Sleep, which are designed to help you improve all aspects of your sleep, with a bonus of helping you to dream vividly and wake up feeling refreshed.

Pranayama

Breathwork is a critical part of your yoga practice. Being intentional about your inhalation and exhalation and enhancing awareness of your breath can help you get to sleep more quickly and sleep more deeply. 

In Pranayama for Anxiety II, David shows you a simple technique to calm the nervous system with pranayama and meditation. Start with Pranayama for Anxiety I, in which David shows you how to transition from gentle pranayama to meditation.

Asana

Here are some of the top poses you can perform in bed that will promote better sleep.

Child’s pose

This is an asana that you can do anywhere. Well, maybe not in a supermarket queue, but, you know, within reason. Easy to perform in bed before you settle down to sleep, it will help stretch your back, hips, and legs. It’s known to have a calming and grounding effect, which makes it the go-to pose to integrate ad-hoc into a challenging practice or to perform before you go to sleep.

Legs up the wall pose

Great for anxiety, it is an excellent passive pose for de-stressing and calming the nervous system before you sleep. Do this pose to stretch the hamstrings, ease lower back tension, and reduce swelling in the lower body. Just try not to fall asleep like this, especially if your partner will be joining you. 

Seated forward fold

This has some of the effects of a standing forward bend, but without the standing, which makes it great to do in bed. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which slows down your bodily processes and releases tension.

Savasana

The crowned king or queen of falling asleep during yoga, savasana (a.k.a. corpse pose) is excellent at promoting deep, quality sleep. While you can follow yoga nidra guided meditations in a seated position, it’s common to do yoga nidra while lying down.  

In the Morning

Many people plan to do yoga morning routines, but a percentage will face the same obstacle all around the world. Getting out of bed.

With yoga that you can do in bed, however, you can overcome any resistance to doing or starting a morning practice.

Whether you restrict your yoga practice to the mattress or you then get out of bed, hit the mat, and perform a morning yoga routine, doing yoga in bed can help stimulate your body and mind to give you the start you need. 

Yin Yoga

While yin yoga is deeply contemplative and slow-paced, it’s also effective in the morning as a gentle way to introduce you to the day ahead. 

Instead of stretching, hearing a crack, and then heading for the coffee pot, Good Morning Yin, a premium class with Helen, helps you give yourself some extra time to stretch your body thoroughly and warm up your mind.

In another premium class, Yoga for Sleepy Heads, Nyk will take you from lying down to sitting to kneeling and finally standing, ready to start your day (the standing part is your queue to get out of bed; don’t do this on your bed).

Pranayama

While David’s Pranayama for Anxiety III is designed to help you deal with anxiety, it is also a useful counterpoint to Pranayama for Anxiety II, which can help you sleep. The third part of this anxiety series activates the nervous system, giving you physical and mental energy. In other words, these are great breathing exercises to wake you up. 

The pranayama sequence features a great introduction to kapalabhati breath (the skull cleanser), which you’ll meet again in Pranayama Yoga to Wake Up. It’s not the easiest breathing exercise to do, but the results are well worth it. Do it on an empty stomach.

Meditation

A morning meditation is a great way to start the day as it can clear your mind and help you move through the day with awareness and calm. The risk is that meditating in bed in the morning is too much temptation to fall back to sleep.

If your pranayama practice has energized you, however, or you simply don’t feel tired, here are some excellent guided meditations you might enjoy to start your day.

This premium class – Loving-Kindness Meditation – gives us an opportunity to cultivate kindness to ourselves as well as our loved ones, our community, and the world at large. It’s an excellent practice before stepping out of bed and into everyday life.

David has many contributions among DoYogaWithMe’s selection of free meditations, but these 6-Minute Guided Meditations might be perfect for those of us who can’t afford to lie in bed too long in the morning!

Asana

Child’s pose (again) – this is a truly great restorative pose, so that’s why it appears twice! Its ability to make you feel grounded makes it the perfect pose to bring you back to your body after a night of turning up to exams naked without having studied, teeth falling out, or even peaceful, joyful dreams. Child’s pose can provide you with a gentle transition back to reality and to the day ahead. It also feels great. 

Forward fold (again) – it’s another one of those peanut butter poses: it’s great for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Try it in the morning as part of your wake-up routine and feel the difference as you hop rather than slither out of bed.

Cat-cow pose – this pose is easy to do in bed and it may set you up for the day by strengthening your spine, releasing tension in the neck and upper back, and improving your posture and balance. 

Happy baby pose

This pose puts a little pressure on your abs and excretory organs, so it’s good for getting your digestive system up and running in the morning. Remember to breathe. And rock side to side for a deeper effect. 

Spinal twist – a gentle spinal twist is also a good way to start the day as it can support digestion and spinal flexibility to help your posture during the day.

Cobra pose – making like a snake in the morning may also do wonders for your abs and digestive organs in addition to many benefits that make it a great pose for your morning body and mind. 

Bookend Your Day with Yoga

If you love sleep and yoga, the perfect place to combine them is your bed. Your day most likely begins and ends there. So, yoga you can do in bed seems like a great practice for cultivating positive vibes for your body, your mind, and everyone around you.