Put on some relaxing music and try this gentle routine about 20 minutes before bedtime. Spend a good 10- 15 minutes in Savasana after the final pose, using an eye pillow to help relax your eyelids and forehead. You can rub a little bit of Lavender or Chamomile essential oils on your wrists and temples to help induce sleep, but skip if you find them stimulating. Remain in each posture as long as you can without strain or discomfort, and feel free to use blocks, blankets, pillows, bolsters, etc. to help you maintain the poses without tension. 

For insomnia, your best bets are deep stretches, forward bends, and inversions. Try not to get your heart rate up, and breathe slowly and evenly throughout. You must not practice backbends, arm-balances, core strengthening poses, Sun Salutations, or the Warrior Poses before bed. They are very stimulating and can make sleep more elusive.

10. Hero Pose: Virasana

9.   Child’s Pose: Balasana 

8.   Puppy Pose: Uttana Shishosana

7.   Downward-facing Dog: Adho Mukha Svanasana

6.   Standing Forward Bend: Uttanasana

5.   Wide-angle Seated Forward Bend: Upavistha Konasana

4.   Head-to-knee Forward Bend: Janu Sirsasana

3.   Plough: Halasana

2.   Happy Baby: Ananda Balasana

1.   Legs-up the-wall Pose: Viparita Karani - position your hips further from the wall than shown, so that                                                                           legs can rest on the wall without muscular effort.

One of the main reasons I practice yoga is to manage my insomnia, which can be very severe at times. I have had episodes of total sleeplessness that have lasted 3-4 days. Seriously. When my anxiety goes through the roof like that, nothing helps, not a hot bath, or a boring book, not even sleeping pills. I needed to find a natural, long term solution. Yoga has helped me more than anything else, as long as I don’t practice too vigorously before bedtime. (Sun Salutations are meant to be done when the sun is up!) A good, sweaty power yoga session in the morning, and then calming forward bends and spinal twists at night are my best defense. Here is an article from Yoga Journal about the benefits of yoga for insomniacs.

Leslie Bradley remembers lying awake as a child, unable to sleep. “I’ve been something of an insomniac my entire life,” says the 56-year-old owner of Blue Spruce Yoga in Lakewood, Colorado. But after she contracted West Nile virus in 2004, her sleepless nights became intolerable. “I was in really bad shape,” Bradley says. “I couldn’t sleep at all without taking drugs like Ambien.”

After the prescription sleeping pills became less effective, Bradley decided to explore an alternative route, making an appointment to see Ayurvedic doctor John Douillard, director of the LifeSpa School of Ayurveda in Boulder, Colorado. He put Bradley on a regimen of herbs, tea, self-massage, and breathwork. He also helped her understand the best bedtimes for her body type and encouraged her to make changes to her lifestyle, such as eating a bigger lunch, and not teaching evening yoga classes.

Drawing on her yoga background, she began doing Sarvangasana (Shoulderstand), Halasana (Plow Pose), and restorative poses before going to bed. Within three months, Bradley was off the drugs. “All those things combined have basically cured my insomnia,” she says. “I feel much stronger and more solid, more vibrant.”

Read more at Yoga Journal – Sweet Slumber.