In my humble experience, I can state with robust confidence that ceiling fans don’t get more interesting the longer you stare at them. That is, however, what I find myself doing some nights, especially when I’ve had a busy, productive day and my mind isn’t ready to power down for the night, and my body hasn’t run out of steam.
There is a vast amount of research on the importance of sleep, and whether we’re getting enough of it is something almost every physician explores with their patients during wellness visits. In my sphere, we strive to normalize good nutrition and sleep patterns among patients to ensure they recover as quickly and fully as possible. Sleep is much, much more important to continued health and function than many of us give it credit for, and make no mistake: you need good, regular sleep to be at your best.
Unfortunately, between the distractions, demands, and diversions, the modern world plays hard against getting enough sleep, and it isn’t necessarily that we stay up late. Many of us struggle to fall asleep even after we lie down.
6 Simple Stretches for Sleepy-Time Success
The following exercises can help prepare your brain and body for sleeping and can help you get the rest you need. They are easy but robust, and I train patients in these techniques every day, but I suggest that you confer with your medical provider to ensure that they are right for you.
1. Mountain Pose
Mountain Pose is a great place to start, because you perform it standing. After you lower your sheets, you can enter this pose before moving into bed to funnel the flurries of the day into a state of tranquility.
Step 1: Stand with your arms hanging at your sides, palms facing forward, feet hip-width apart for stability, and your torso and hips directly over your feet. Gently pull your shoulders back. Make sure your head is upright. Slow your breathing purposefully and move into a deep breathing pattern. I find that taking a very deep breath and slowly letting it out over several seconds helps me move into a slow-breathing mindset that makes it easier.
Step 2: Maintaining your alignment, gently contract your thigh and calf muscles, elevate your kneecaps (“pull” them up), and ease your knees into a soft lockout without aggressively forcing them back into lockout.
Step 3: Slightly tuck your tailbone and gently pull your belly button toward your spine as you firm your core and spinal muscles.
Step 4: Keeping your head straight forward, extend your head and body up as tall as you can. You can imagine having a string attached to the top of your head, pulling you upward. Once you move into position, hold for 15 to 20 seconds.
Note: Although these seem to be a whole lot of instructions, the movement is natural to perform once you get the hang of it.
Modifications: You can place your feet further apart for better balance if needed. Stand close to the bed or do the pose against a wall if you struggle to maintain your balance during this activity. Feel free to modify the hold time for this exercise.
Why I Like It: Mountain Pose is a great, calming movement that helps you end your day in quiet repose. It also teaches you to focus on different areas of your body.
2. Windshield Wipers
Once you’re in bed, you can move into supine stretches. Windshield Wipers are great for hip joints and also work very well to loosen tight backs.
Step 1: Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the bed, side by side.
Step 2: Slowly move your knees as far toward the right as possible, keeping them together. Your left foot will likely move up off the surface as you do so, which is OK. Slow your breath and focus on deep breathing.
Step 3: Return your legs to the starting position and repeat the movement to the left side. Lowering your legs down and then back up counts as one repetition. Try to perform 15 repetitions per side.
Modifications: If you can’t lower your legs very far at first, just do what you can. You should loosen up over time and be able to move them farther.
Why I Like It: Because this exercise targets your lower back, it can eliminate a lot of tightness and discomfort that can keep you awake at night.
3. Open Book Stretch
Now that we’ve worked on your lower back, let’s transition to an exercise for your upper back. The Open Book Stretch exercise is a twisting movement that can help focus relaxation on your upper back muscles and spinal column.
Step 1: Lie on your left side with your legs side-by-side and your hips and knees bent to 90 degrees. Extend your elbows until your arms are straight out from your shoulders, with your palms together.
Step 2: Slowly lift your right arm in an arc toward the ceiling, and continue until you move it as far behind you as you can or until you touch the bed with your knuckles. Keep your hand and head aligned, and your eyes on your rising hand. Move slowly without pushing into pain.
Step 3: Once you’ve rotated as far as you can, hold for 10 seconds before slowly returning to the starting position.
Step 4: Rotating as far as you can, and then returning to the starting position, counts as one repetition. Try to perform three repetitions on each side.
Modifications: If you can’t move your arm all the way over to the surface behind you, just move it over as far as you can. You will get better over time. You can perform all stretches on one side, and then the other, or alternate between sides as you go.
Why I Like It: The Open Book Stretch pairs well with the Windshield Wipers exercise to stretch and relax your back through rotational movements and holds.
4. Single-Leg Knee-to-Chest Stretch
Now that we’ve worked on rotational movements, let’s progress to one of my favorite simple exercises: the knee-to-chest movement. For the purposes of preparing you for sleep, I’m going to have you do one leg at a time.
Step 1: Lie on your back with your arms by your sides and legs straight.
Step 2: Slowly bend your right hip and knee and bring your knee toward your chest while keeping your head on the pillow. Once your leg is high enough, grasp it below the knee with both hands, gently pull the knee into your chest, and hold for approximately 15 seconds before slowly lowering your leg back down. Repeat on the other side.
Step 3: Elevating your leg and then lowering it back down counts as one repetition. Perform three of these per side.
Modifications: If you can’t fully tuck your knees up to your chest, just move into the stretch as far as you can. If you want, you can straighten your knee when it’s tucked into your chest, which can introduce a nice stretch for tight hamstrings. Be careful, though, and don’t push into pain.
Why I Like It: Try it, you’ll like it. It gives me a deep stretch throughout my lower back, leaving it feeling relaxed and ready for nap-naps.
5. Box Breathing
Those were some excellent stretches, and they can help alleviate a lot of stress. Sleep readiness, however, requires more than just stretched, relaxed muscles. It requires a relaxed state of mind, and breathing techniques are sensational for helping you achieve it. Out of the many breathing techniques, I prefer the 4-second inhale, 4-second hold, 4-second exhale, 4-second hold (4-4-4-4) technique to calm the nervous system and lower the heart rate.
Our video, played on a loop, offers the counts with the sound of a chime.
Step 1: Lying in your favorite sleeping position, breathe in slowly for four seconds.
Step 2: Next, pause your breath for four seconds. Relax your body, allowing tension to release and your muscles to settle.
Step 3: Slowly release your breath, taking four seconds to fully exhale.
Step 4: After exhaling, pause again for four seconds before slowly inhaling again. This may sound counterintuitive, but it feels very natural as you relax into the technique.
Modifications: If you struggle with a four-second count, feel free to try a 3-3-3-3 pattern, but slightly reduce your total intake of air to avoid a feeling of effort. You want to relax into this exercise and have it, in turn, relax you. Also, don’t be surprised if this breathing technique kicks off a few yawns, which is a very good thing.
Why I Like It: Patterned breathing is sensational for signaling your body into a state of relaxation. You will very likely feel the day’s remaining stress melt away.
6. Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Once we’ve moved into a relaxed state with stretches and breath patterning, there’s one final step: make sure all of your muscles are relaxed. One of the best ways to do this is to relax them segmentally. The tense-and-release method we’ll use for each muscle group throughout the body is like wringing everything out—it guides your body from the sympathetic (alert and stressed) nervous system into the parasympathetic (calm and relaxed) nervous system, effectively telling your body that it’s OK to relax. This lowers your heart rate and helps you fall asleep faster.
Step 1: Lying in your favorite sleeping position, gently scrunch your toes and arches for approximately five seconds, then slowly relax them, feeling the sensation of relaxation.
Step 2: Next, move up to your calves, and gently contract them for five seconds, then slowly relax them.
Step 3: Segmentally move up to your thighs and pelvis, your trunk, your arms and shoulders, and finally your face and neck. Breathe softly and slowly throughout and especially focus on relaxing your trunk and shoulder muscles, which are often holdouts for tension.
Step 4: It is also very important to allow your mind to relax during this time. Now is not the time to fret over what may come tomorrow or general, worldly concerns. Attention to the natural flow of the breath can help you stay present. The idea is to relax and drift blissfully off to sleep. Getting a good night’s rest can greatly help you deal with whatever you have to face tomorrow.
Modifications: You don’t necessarily have to tense your muscles before relaxing them. You can simply relax them instead.
Why I Like It: This exercise will help you eliminate the last vestiges of tension and concern, and its progressive nature is very calming, leaving you closer to sleep once you finish.
As an easy in-bed routine, these stretches and relaxation techniques help prepare you for a successful night of rest. I hope they work well for you and wish you luck, because as far as I can tell, ceiling fans aren’t getting any more interesting these days, and you can feel free to quietly let them do their thing while you sleep the night away.
About the Fitness Model: Aerowenn Hunter is a health editor for The Epoch Times. She’s an accredited yoga therapist with more than three decades of teaching experience.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.