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At the top of a busy day, it’s hard to get your body and mind to decelerate.  Perhaps you check your email or scroll through social media and fall down the rabbit hole. Before you understand it, it’s midnight. By then, the blue light out of your electronics has thrown off your circadian rhythm—the body’s biological clock that regulates the 24-hour cycle of every day—and you’ll be able to not go to sleep properly.

In keeping with Ayurveda, the hours between 10 pm and a couple of am are governed by the Pitta dosha, which lets you digest every part you’ve taken in throughout the day—from food to information to interactions. Pitta helps to revive all major systems of our body; it affects your heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. While you skip sleep during this precious 4-hour window, you miss a significant opportunity for healing and renewal. A great night’s rest affects the way you relate to the world. It may help decrease depression and anxiety. Sleep also increases stress resilience, optimism, memory, and even our ability to problem solve.

A helpful first step in shifting your relationship with sleep is popping off your phone an hour before bed and (this may be a stretch) getting under the covers before 11 p.m. If rest doesn’t come easy you would like support to wind down, do that restorative sequence you could do under the covers.  You’ll need two or three pillows and a number of slow, deep breaths. Try only one or the entire asanas. May your dreams be sweet and your sleep refreshingly deep!

Alex Bershaw

Balasana (Child’s Pose)

Rest your chest and belly on one or two (or more!) stacked pillows with knees wide apart and large toes touching. Rest an ear on the pillow, close your eyes, and calm down your jaw and belly. Your arms can rest on the perimeters of the pillow or underneath. Focus your attention on the feeling of breath flowing out and in.

Alex Bershaw

Ardha Bhekasana (Supported Half Frog Pose) variation

For this version of Ardha Bhekasana, lie in your belly, with pillows under your head and torso in the event you select. Extend one leg out to the side and bend it to a 90-degree angle along with your knee level along with your hip. Extend the other leg straight behind you. Turn your head within the direction of your bent leg and rest it on the mattress or pillow. Loosen up your belly, your eyes, and your jaw. Focus your attention on the feeling of breath flowing out and in. Rest this manner for several minutes, then switch sides.

Alex Bershaw

Supta Baddha Konasana (Reclining Certain Angle Pose)

Lie flat in your back. Bend your legs, let your knees open out to both sides, and produce the soles of your feet together. Place a pillow under each thigh; put one behind your head, in the event you select.  Fold the pillows or add more of them if needed for more support. Place your hands in your belly. Together with your eyes closed and jaw relaxed, bring your awareness to where your hands make contact along with your body. Give attention to feeling the rise and fall of your torso with each slow, deep breath out and in.

Alex Bershaw

Pawanmuktasana (Wind-Relieving Pose)

Lie flat in your back; place a pillow behind your head in the event you select. Straighten and extend one leg long. Bend the opposite leg and draw it toward your body, interlacing your fingers around your shin or behind your knee.  Hug that leg in toward your side body as in case your knee could touch your armpit.  With closed eyes and a relaxed jaw, breathe into your belly. Stay for so long as you’d like after which switch sides.

Alex Bershaw

Supported Reclining Twist

Lie flat in your back. Bend each legs at a 90-degree angle and allow them to fall to the side. Stack your knees and hips, and slide one or two pillows between your thighs. Extend your arms straight out at shoulder level and switch your head in the wrong way out of your knees.. Close your eyes and calm down your jaw and belly. Give attention to feeling the breath flow all the best way up, and picture it’s spreading into your collarbones and out within the direction of your arms. Stay for so long as you’d like after which switch sides.

Alex Bershaw

Savasana (Corpse Pose)

Lie down in your back and permit your body to rest along with your hands by your sides or in your stomach. You possibly can place pillows under your upper thighs or behind knees for more support if desired. With eyes closed and your jaw relaxed, feel your breath filling up your belly, expanding your ribs, and flowing up into the chest on an inhalation. Exhale by relaxing your chest, ribs, then belly. This breath is named Dirgha pranayama (Complete Breath). Allow this wave-like rhythm to lull you to sleep.

This text has been updated. Originally published November 27, 2017.

See also: 5 Morning Stretches That You Can Do From Bed

About our contributor

Sara Clark is a yoga and meditation teacher based in Grenada. Find more about her at saraclarkyoga.com or on Instagram @saraclarkyoga.