Yoga For Sleep: What The Research Says, And 6 Easy Poses

Yoga for sleep: the short answer

Yoga for sleep is well supported by research. A 2026 review in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine of 22 trials in people with insomnia found yoga, compared with usual care, was likely to add a large amount of total sleep time, and may help people fall asleep faster and wake less in the night. A 2020 review of 19 studies in women found yoga improved sleep quality. So yes, yoga can help you sleep better, and the easiest poses are ones you can do before bed or when you wake at 2am. Here is the article in short form.

• Yoga for sleep is backed by a 2026 review of 22 insomnia trials.
• Yoga added sleep time and cut night waking in sleep diaries.
• In women, sleep quality improved across 19 studies.
• Menopause sleep results are mixed, but newer reviews are positive.
• Six supported poses to do at bedtime, or if you wake at night.
• Slow breathing helps the body switch to “rest and digest”.
• Restorative classes run in Darwin and LIVE online; your first is free.

Why sleep matters, and why yoga helps

Getting a good night’s sleep can be a real challenge. Sleep researchers such as Professor Matthew Walker have shown how much it matters: for memory, mood, blood pressure, the immune system and even how long we live. Poor sleep also makes stress and anxiety harder to manage, and the other way round.

Dr Timothy McCall’s poster “117 Health Conditions Helped by Yoga (as found in scientific studies as of June 2019)” lists insomnia among the more common conditions studies have found yoga helps. Here is what the research shows now.

What does the research say about yoga for sleep?

Insomnia

• Bu 2026, BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine. 22 trials, 1,348 people with insomnia, 7 kinds of exercise. Compared with usual care or lifestyle advice, yoga likely added a large amount of total sleep time (moderate certainty), and may improve sleep efficiency (the share of time in bed actually asleep), cut time awake in the night and shorten the time to fall asleep, all measured with sleep diaries. The authors named yoga among the most effective exercises for insomnia (Bu 2026).

Sleep quality in women

• Wang 2020, BMC Psychiatry. 19 studies, 1,832 women. Yoga improved sleep quality overall. The subgroups of women around menopause and women after breast cancer did not show a clear effect in that review (Wang 2020).

Menopause and midlife sleep: the newer reviews

• Wang 2025, International Journal of Nursing Studies. 24 trials in women at menopause. Yoga improved sleep quality as well as overall menopause symptoms (Wang 2025).
• Bruyneel 2026, Sleep Medicine. In women around and after menopause with chronic insomnia, non-drug treatments, including yoga, improved sleep scores and were judged among the most robust first-line options (Bruyneel 2026).
• Fan 2025, Frontiers in Public Health. 18 trials of mind-body therapies in menopausal women. They improved sleep quality by a moderate to large amount, with yoga giving stable benefits for sleep (Fan 2025).

So the earlier mixed signal for menopause sleep has been joined by more positive reviews since.

How does yoga help you sleep?

Your nervous system has a “fight or flight” side and a “rest and digest” side. Sleep needs the second one. Supported yoga poses, held for several minutes with the body fully resting, move you towards “rest and digest”, the heart rate slows and the breath deepens by itself.

Iyengar teaching holds that inverted and supported poses, such as Legs Up The Wall and supported Bridge Pose, quieten the brain, partly through the way they change blood flow and the pressure sensors in the neck and chest. Research has not tested that part directly yet, but it is known from long practice, and students commonly tell us they sleep especially well after a restorative class.

Six yoga poses for sleep, in Chris’s words

These are the poses I (Chris Lalor) use myself, at bedtime or if I wake in the night and need to get back to sleep. My mat and a bolster stay set up in the house so I can simply lie over them. Folded blankets, firm cushions or a pile of hard-cover books will do instead of yoga props.

1. Legs Up The Wall (Viparita Karani). A firm bolster or folded blankets under the lower back, about a hand’s width from the wall, legs up the wall and feet flexed. Stay 5 to 10 minutes, and longer is better. If your legs tingle, fold them down for a moment and put them back up.
2. Supported Bridge Pose, T-shape (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana). One bolster against the wall, another at right angles to it. Feet on the wall support, spine along the other, shoulders just touching the floor.
3. Bridge Pose on a block. A firm foam brick, or two strapped together, under the sacrum (the flat bone at the base of the spine), feet wedged against the wall. Stronger, and for me the most calming. Stay 10 minutes if you can.
4. Supported Child’s Pose (Adho Mukha Virasana), the forehead resting on a bolster.
5. Reclining Bound Angle Pose (Supta Baddha Konasana), lying back over one or two bolsters with the soles of the feet together.
6. Supported standing forward bend (Uttanasana), with the head resting on a chair or blocks. Good during the day, to arrive at bedtime already calmer.

There is no need to worry about exactly where each foot or hand goes. Follow the pictures, keep it comfortable, and let the poses do the work.

Breathing for sleep

Slow breathing is the other half of yoga for sleep. A large 2022 review found slow breathing raises heart rate variability (a sign the calming side of the nervous system is working) (Laborde 2022). In Flametree’s pranayama (breath meditation) classes you learn slow, smooth breathing lying down with the chest supported, which many students then use in bed.

Keep evening breathing slow and quiet. Fast, energising breaths such as skull-shining breath (Kapalabhati) belong in the morning, not before bed.

What about yoga nidra for sleep?

Yoga nidra (a guided deep relaxation lying down) is popular for sleep. A 2026 review found possible benefits but called the evidence very low certainty, from only a handful of small studies (Singh 2026). Flametree does not teach yoga nidra. Restorative yoga, with its supported poses and slow breathing, does much the same job, and we find it de-stresses, calms and improves sleep.

Yoga for insomnia: Chris’s own sleep routine

Chris Lalor came to yoga about 30 years ago looking for help with insomnia, and she no longer suffers from it. She puts that down to her asana (poses) and pranayama practice, plus a set of simple sleep habits she added later. That is one person’s experience, not a promise, but it is the routine she still follows.

“Yoga is a discipline that helps you quieten your mind and start to understand yourself. But a few years ago I came across Professor Matthew Walker’s TED talk, Sleep is your superpower, and realised there was still much more I could do to improve the quality of my sleep. I changed quite a few habits, and every one of them has helped.”

What is in Chris’s evening routine?

• A dark room. A fitted blind that cuts out all light, and total darkness to sleep.
• No screens in the bedroom. Phones and tablets go off two hours before bed.
• A room for sleep only. No clutter, and kept cooler than the rest of the house.
• The same bedtime, around 10pm, every night.
• No late meals. “When I break this, I notice I don’t sleep as well.”
• No coffee, at any time of day.
• A warm, dim bedside light, turned off to sleep.
• Three things she is grateful for, every night.

What does Chris do on the mat, morning and night?

Active poses early, quiet ones late. She practises pranayama every day, with inversions and more active poses in the morning and late afternoon to wake the nervous system up, and restorative poses at night to settle it.

“When I teach late evening classes, I come home and put my legs up the wall for 10 minutes, then lie in supported Bridge Pose for 10 minutes to wind down and stop my mind churning. Time and again, if I try to go straight to bed, my mind is simply too wound up, and I have to get up and do these poses anyway.”

The Flametree timetable follows the same idea: morning classes are more active, to wake the body up, and late classes are quieter, to prepare for sleep. Mornings matter for sleep too. Getting outside into daylight early, rather than onto a phone, helps set the body clock that makes you sleepy at night.

Honest limits, and good sleep habits

• The sleep time results come mostly from sleep diaries, not sleep lab measurements.
• Most trials are small and people know they are doing yoga.
• Results in women around menopause were mixed in an earlier review, though newer reviews are positive.
• If you snore loudly, stop breathing in your sleep, or are sleepy every day, see your GP. Sleep apnoea (breathing stopping during sleep) needs medical care.

Yoga works best alongside good sleep habits: a dark, cool room, a regular bedtime, and not eating late. In the Darwin build-up that cool room matters even more.

Yoga for sleep in Darwin, or LIVE online

Flametree Yoga Studio runs restorative and gentle classes each week, plus early morning pranayama, at Woolner in Darwin and LIVE online. Restorative poses are also built into the end of most classes.

• New to Flametree? Your first class is free. In the studio, just come along. Online, click the class time you want and we email you the link to join.
• Keep going at half price. 10 classes at half price plus 2 more free, $59.50, studio, online or both. No discount code is needed, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee. It is for newcomers and anyone away three months or more.
• Already practising yoga? The non-beginner half price 10 pass with 2 free, $104.50, no code needed.
• See every class time on the beginner timetable.

Read more: what is restorative yoga, yoga for stress relief, yoga for anxiety and breathing for anxiety, what is pranayama, lower blood pressure with Iyengar yoga, and the benefits of yoga hub.

Yoga for sleep: questions people ask

Is yoga good for insomnia?

For many people, yes. A 2026 review of 22 trials in people with insomnia found yoga likely added a large amount of total sleep time compared with usual care, and may help people fall asleep faster and wake less. Most results came from sleep diaries, and the trials were small, so yoga works best alongside good sleep habits and your GP’s advice.

Which yoga is best for sleep?

Restorative yoga, where the body is fully supported by bolsters, blankets and the wall, and poses are held for several minutes. Legs Up The Wall, supported Bridge Pose, supported Child’s Pose and Reclining Bound Angle Pose are the ones we use most.

Is yoga before bed good for sleep?

Yes, if it is quiet, supported yoga. Five to fifteen minutes of restful poses and slow breathing before bed helps the body switch to “rest and digest”. Save strong standing poses, backbends and fast breathing for earlier in the day.

What can I do if I wake at 2am and cannot get back to sleep?

Get up quietly and do Legs Up The Wall or Bridge Pose on a block for 5 to 10 minutes, breathing slowly with a longer out-breath. Many people find this settles them enough to get back to sleep. Keep the lights low.

How does yoga help you sleep?

Supported poses held for several minutes move the nervous system towards “rest and digest”: the heart slows and the breath deepens. Regular classes also lower day-to-day stress, which is one of the main reasons people lie awake.

Can yoga cure insomnia?

No one should promise that. What the research shows is that yoga can improve sleep time and sleep quality for many people with insomnia. If insomnia lasts more than a few weeks, see your GP, as treatments such as cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia also have strong evidence.

Does yoga help sleep during menopause?

Newer reviews say it can. A 2025 review of 24 trials found yoga improved sleep quality in women at menopause, and a 2026 review judged non-drug approaches including yoga among the most robust first options for menopause-related insomnia.

Where can I do yoga for sleep in Darwin?

Flametree Yoga Studio runs restorative and gentle classes, and early morning pranayama, at Woolner in Darwin and LIVE online. If you are new to Flametree your first class is free, then there is a half price 10 class pass with 2 free, $59.50.

Last updated 1 October 2026: added Chris Lalor’s own insomnia story and her evening sleep routine.

Sources

• Bu ZJ et al. Effects of various exercise interventions in insomnia patients, network meta-analysis. BMJ Evid Based Med 2026. doi:10.1136/bmjebm-2024-113512
• Wang WL et al. The effect of yoga on sleep quality and insomnia in women with sleep problems. BMC Psychiatry 2020. doi:10.1186/s12888-020-02566-4
• Wang H et al. The effectiveness of yoga on menopausal symptoms. Int J Nurs Stud 2025. doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2024.104928
• Bruyneel M et al. Treatments for chronic insomnia in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women. Sleep Med 2026. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2026.109040
• Fan Z et al. Mind-body therapies for sleep disturbances, depression, and anxiety in menopausal women. Front Public Health 2025. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1686981
• Singh S et al. Effect of yoga nidra in sleep disturbances and insomnia. Sleep Breath 2026. doi:10.1007/s11325-026-03685-0
• Laborde S et al. Effects of voluntary slow breathing on heart rate and heart rate variability. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2022. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104711
• McCall T. 117 Health Conditions Helped by Yoga (as of June 2019). Yoga As Medicine, DrMcCall.com.

Flametree Yoga Studio, Darwin NT. This article is general information, not medical advice. See your GP if poor sleep lasts more than a few weeks.