Kundalini Nighttime Routine to Lower Stress and Boost Sleep
Stress and poor quality sleep are two things that go hand in hand. When we sleep poorly, our mental health suffers. Studies show there is a direct link between improving quality of sleep and improving our feelings of wellbeing and decreasing symptoms and anxiety and depression.
Enabling the body to fall into deep, restful sleep is a powerful skill that helps us to be more productive, less anxious, and boosts concentration. This Kundalini Yoga sleep routine is the perfect way to prepare your body and mind for a deep and powerful rest.
The Nighttime Environment
If you’re wondering how to improve your sleep, start by aligning your bed so it is facing from east to west. This stops the polarity of the Earth from draining your electromagnetic field, which can leave you feeling more tired when you wake up.
Ensure your bedroom is deeply darkened and silent—try blackout blinds on the window and remove electronics if you can. This allows the brain to fall into a deep sleep with no threat of distraction.
Top tip: Sleep-boosting crystals placed around the bedroom help to create a calming, loving environment for a good night’s sleep
The Nighttime Routine
- Eat your final meal of the day at least four hours before you want to go to sleep to allow your body time to digest, and ensure your blood flow is not focussed around the stomach.
- Begin winding down your day an hour before your chosen bedtime. This gives you time to switch off, and convinces your brain and body to enter rest mode.
- Try this trick to clear your monkey glands while cleaning your teeth: gently massage the back of your throat with the toothbrush to cause yourself to gag two or three times, and then gargle with a saline solution. This will prevent the glands releasing fluid into the stomach while you sleep.
- Gentle clean out the nostrils and moisturize around the nose with almond oil or Vaseline. You can even flush the nostrils with the gargling saline solution if you wish.
- Treat yourself to a foot massage while washing them with very cold water. Take this time to tune out of the world, and tune into the universe instead. Follow this massage with a coarse towel to dry and exfoliate the skin.
- Drink a glass of water or caffeine-free herbal tea to keep thirst at bay.
- Get into bed and, lying on the stomach, practice deep breathing. Relax the whole body into the soft bed. If you are struggling to relax or the mind is wandering, a top tip for eliminating anxiety is balling up both hands into fists and placing them below the navel, between your stomach and the bed.
- As you feel yourself beginning to doze off, turn from lying on your stomach to lying on your right side. Continue breathing deeply.
- Lying on this side triggers your body to breathe through the left nostril, which will trigger your brain’s right hemisphere. This feels soothing, and helps us to fall into a deep sleep more quickly, avoiding the lighter stages of sleep from which we are more easily disturbed.
- When you feel ready, move onto the back and allow the deep sleep to wash over your body, allowing you to awake feeling rested and rejuvenated.
The Takeaway
Convincing your body to fall asleep and stay asleep is a fantastic way to banish stress, support productivity, and boost concentration. This Kundalini Yoga sleep routine is the perfect way to ease your body and mind into sleep and ensure you wake up feeling rested and rejuvenated.
