Sleep

Both of us teach until late at night. Often one of us starts teaching around 4:30 pm and ends at 10:30 pm. We come home, have a light bite to eat, and talk together about the day. It is often difficult to wind down and get to sleep before midnight.

If I, Martin, have difficulty getting to sleep, I do many slow repetitions of the Standing Forward Bend down and up, down and up. I use an easy inhalation and focus on a longer exhalation. However, what works for me does not always work for Margaret.

I, Margaret, use the same easy inhalation and long exhalation as Martin, but I bend forward to the bed. With my hands on the bed, I take one, two, or three breaths. I bend my knees and arch as I inhale, and I straighten my legs a bit and stretch down as I exhale. I finish by Iving down on my back, hands on my abdomen, to do some breathing drawing my attention more and more inward. 

After a while I roll over onto my side and place a pillow under my head and perhaps another between my knees. I continue slow easy abdominal breathing, relaxing my forehead, facial muscles, and eyes. I draw my attention even more deeply inward by visualizing a deep, rich, velvety purple color. 

Before long I am inhaling about 3 seconds and exhaling about 3 seconds, deeply relaxed, falling fast asleep.

These practices and poses work for us. They may work for you, or you may need something different. Some people might need to work oft" some restless, tense fatigue by starting with a Dynamic Standing Sequence. 

Many of our students say that they sit in bed and use the Caring Breath, relaxing through their face and eyes, until the lie down to sleep. Experiment freely. The effects of breath and movement are different for everyone.

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