Five bedtime yoga exercises to help you sleep

Yoga before bed: five poses to help you sleep and relax

Ayushi Singh advises

At senior age, keeping an active lifestyle becomes important. Regular yoga practice can help you fall asleep faster. According to Harvard Health Publishing, ‘A national survey found that over 55 per cent of people who did yoga found that it helped them get better sleep. Over 85 per cent said yoga helped reduce stress. You can use supportive props like bolsters, blankets, and blocks to make poses comfortable so that you can stay in the pose for longer and continue to breathe.’

These easy yoga poses will help you get started safely and calm your mind.

Child's Resting Pose (Balasana)

Child's Resting Pose (Balasana)

Child's pose is a beginner level yoga pose, also known as Balasana in Sanskrit. The resting pose helps to stretch the You should not practice child's pose if you have severe knee pain or recent knee injury.

How to practice Child's Pose - To come into child's pose, start in a kneeling position on the mat. Gently sit on your heels, either separate your knees or keep together but keep the toes together. On an exhalation, lay your torso between the thighs. Slowly rest your forehead on the yoga mat or the floor. Stretch the arms out in front of you with your palms facing up. Focus on your breathing. Stay in this position for 40 seconds to 1 minute.

Corpse Pose

Corpse Pose (Shavasana)

Corpse pose gets its name from the lying down position of the dead body. Corpse pose calms the central nervous system and

helps reduce blood pressure. It helps to reduce mental stress and headache.

slow and deep breath through the nose with your eyes closed. Stay in corpse pose for 5 to 10 minutes.

Alternate Nostril Breathing (Nadi Shodhana Pranayama)

Sleeping Swan

Sleeping Swan Pose (Kapotasana)

The sleeping swan pose requires flexibility of the knees therefore you are advised to practice knee stretching exercises before doing the sleeping swan pose.

How to practice Sleeping Swan Pose -

To come into it, start from a table pose (on hands and knees). Keep the left leg behind and place the right knee between

your hands on the floor. Your right ankle comes close to your buttock. Center yourself so that your body weight is balanced. Bow forward and stretch the arms forward with palms facing up. Hold 3 to 4 minutes in this position. Practice sleeping swan pose on both sides for better results.

Happy Baby Pose

Happy Baby Pose (Aanand Balasana)

Happy baby pose is an easy stretching exercise, which is also common in Pilate due to its calming effect. It gives relaxation because it involves lying on your back on the floor and moving from side to side.

Happy baby pose eases anxiety and stress. It stretches the spine, inner thighs and inner part of the groin. It is beneficial for the digestive system.

How to practice Happy Baby Pose -

Lying on your back and bringing both knees towards your chest. On an inhalation, hold the inside of your each foot with each hand. Hold for 30 to 40 seconds. Alternative Nostril Breathing

In Sanskrit, 'Prana' means life force and 'Yama' means to gain command. The Nadi shodhan pranayam is a breathing technique. It helps keep the mind calm and peaceful.

According to International Journal Of Yoga, ‘Majority of the research studies and reviews evaluating the health benefits of Yoga have considered Yoga asana” and pranayama’ as a whole, without focusing on pranayama solely. Pranayama alone has demonstrated numerous beneficial health effects, including stress relief, beneficial cardiovascular effect, improved respiratory function, and enhanced cognition.’

How to practice Pranayama -

Sit comfortably with crossed legs or on your knees with your spine erect and shoulder relaxed. Place your right thumb to the right nostril and ring and little finger to the left nostril. Gently place your index and middle finger on the bridge of your nose. Close your right nostril with the right thumb and start inhaling from the left nostril. Exhale through the left nostril completely, close the left nostril, and inhale through the right nostril. Now, exhale through the right nostril. Repeat cycles for 8 to 10 minutes.

Keep your eyes closed throughout the breathing practice. Do not breathe from the mouth or force the breathing. Put the fingers gently on the nose and forehead.

Warning: Do not attempt any of these exercises without consulting a medical professionals.

Further information:

For Child's Resting Pose and Corpse Pose

https://www.healthline.com/health/healthy-sleep/bedtimeyoga

For Sleeping Swan Pose aka Pigeon Pose

https://www.lovetoknowhealth.com/fitness/basic-yoga-poses-

for-senior-citizens) For Happy Baby Pose

https://www.google.com/amp/s/morelifehealth.com/articles/ pelvic-floor%3fformat=amp

If you can, please support MSF in this special way Rebecca Ferguson MSF paediatric nurse - Herat, Afghanistan

MSF doctor Solveig Köbe with Nyayesh, eight months old. Nayayesh was severely malnourished and had pneumonia when she was admitted to the intensive care unit of the MSF-supported paediatric department of Herat Regional Hospital. Credit: MSF 2022

I’m a paediatric training nurse in the city of Herat, in the west of Afghanistan. Our training covers all the basics of triage (the process of deciding how sick a patient is), as well as the assessment and care of sick children.

On the hospital’s opening morning, when I ran from triage to the red zone with our first emergency patient to put them onto the resuscitation bed, the nurse working there immediately started checking “ABCDE”. This is airway, breathing, circulation, disability, level of consciousness and exposure – the formal assessment of every patient.

With a moment of pride, I thought back to our days in the classroom before the hospital opened: first with the whiteboard and the team calling out answers to my questions, then with the plastic mannequin – imagining we had someone’s son or daughter in front of us – and I saw all the work click into place. The patient, a small baby only three months old, was referred from a clinic a whole day’s travel away. Pulling back the thick blanket wrapping the baby, we saw he was blue and floppy. The nurse laid the baby onto the resuscitation table and began the assessment: “Airway: no obstruction. Breathing: The baby is not breathing!”

The team sprang into action, calling for extra help. The other nurse assembled what’s known as an Ambu bag and mask to deliver breaths and oxygen to the baby, at the same time the doctor assessed the heart rate with his stethoscope on the baby’s tiny chest. The nurse squeezed the Ambu bag and gently inflated the baby’s lungs. One, two, three, four, five. The doctor reported a good heart rate, and, as he lifted his stethoscope off the chest, we saw the baby start to take his own breaths. Colour returning to his skin, blue to pink. The mother was watching our efforts anxiously and the doctor informed her the baby was improving and breathing without our help. Relief spread across her face and with gentle encouragement she came to hold the hand of her baby. It was a nice moment for the team. Often, patients arrive too late for our help and despite our best efforts, we don’t see them take their own breaths ever again.

After opening the new ER and ICU, we can already see the road ahead will be challenging. We are one of the only hospitals able to provide free emergency care to a large population. This includes people both in the city and in the camps for displaced people on the outskirts, as well as people who travel to us from other provinces.

Some people here have almost nothing and have travelled from their villages to find work. They don’t have access to food and water, and they cannot find these basic human needs at home. Forty years of war seems to have finally reached a tentative end in Afghanistan, but people still suffer the consequence of those years of conflict.

This is my second time working in Afghanistan, and the resilience and strength of the staff, as well as their determination to do everything to the absolute highest standards, drew me back here. The team here have an amazing motivation and are a joy to teach. I believe they will ensure the new service runs full steam ahead, providing world-class emergency care where it is needed the most. It all starts with a simple ABCDE. Leaving a gift in your will is a way for you to stand with us and ensure this vital work continues. Internationally, gifts in wills fund a sixth of our lifesaving work.

If you can, please support MSF in this special way.

A gift in your will can heal and save lives. To request your free brochure with more information please visit msf.ie/legacy, or phone Ruth on 01-2815184