“This pose is great for insomnia,” says the tall, lithe yoga instructor at the head of the class, leading a small group through a set of restorative yoga poses over the quiet din of slow movement in an NYC studio.
We yoga students were lying on our backs, our derrieres pushed up against the pale lemon walls, our legs long and extended up the wall, and our backs flat on our mats. For added comfort, many of us had pillows placed under our lower backs or underneath our heads. This pose, known as Legs Up the Wall, is a restorative rather than an one–and is said to aid with a slew of unwanted symptoms ranging from menstrual cramps and lower back pain to sore feet and legs and, the biggie, insomnia.
That got your attention, all the tired parents in the city? Here’s how it’s supposed to work: the pose helps slow down the central nervous system and calm the mind as one focuses on steady and relaxed breathing. It sounded like a pretty powerful tool to me, so I recently set out to learn more about the functionality of this pose as a natural sleep aid.
On my quest to find the truth behind what I’ve heard so many yoga instructors preach, I met with Evalena Leedy, the owner of Yoga Sole, a boutique yoga studio in Brooklyn. Like her studio, Ms. Leedy emits a soothing and inviting aura. Her voice is both strong and calming, and she was delighted to discuss the ways in which practicing yoga can relieve anxiety and insomnia, two things with which many of us busy and exhausted New Yorkers are all too familiar.
“Certainly yoga–with such poses as Legs Up the Wall–and meditation can help with sleep,” she affirmed. But she explained something that surprised me: During those nights when I find myself tossing and turning, basically begging the sleep gods to carry me away into dreamland, I’m supposed to leave the confines of my cozy bed and lie on the hard floor with my legs inverted up above me.
“Twenty minutes is great, but if you can even manage twenty slow breaths, that’s wonderful, too,” she said.
To supply me with some real-life testimonials, Leedy opened our discussion to a few lingering students who had stayed after the class she had just held. One student announced that simply practicing yoga regularly has indeed helped her sleep better and more soundly. Another said that breathing exercises, meant to calm one from the inside, enriched her sleep.
For those new to yoga, the Vinyasa classes at Yoga Sole and many other studios in the city follows an arc where active or energy-inducing poses (think: headstand, Warrior, and Chair poses) are followed by restorative ones. Then, as with all types of yoga, the class ends with Savasana, or corpse pose, often referred to as final relaxation. It’s this pose that yoga teachers suggest is the most important part of the practice–and the function that truly helps one sleep better.
Of course, exercise and an active lifestyle are widely believed to contribute to better sleep–as is limiting caffeine and sugar intake before bedtime–but if considering these factors fails to result in good and sound sleep, there is always the nocturnal yoga alternative that requires only a wall and enough frustrated wakefulness to draw one’s legs to it.
