Trouble Sleeping? Best Exercises For Better Quality Sleep

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A good night’s sleep has a huge impact on your daily life and longevity. Our sleep influences our mood, productivity, and various cognitive and bodily functions. Prolonged lack of adequate sleep can negatively affect your health, your work life, and your personal life.

Our lifestyle and diet directly affect our quality of sleep. Regular exercise has been shown to instantly improve our sleep cycle. Some exercises can be even more helpful in improving sleep. In this article, we discuss some easy-to-do exercises that can significantly improve our quality of sleep.

Exercises that improve our quality of sleep:

seated twists

This exercise is easy to follow and can be practiced sitting in a chair. You can also do this in your bed just before you go to sleep. Here’s how you can try seated twists:

• sit up straight in a chair
• Now turn to your right and use the handle of the chair for support and stretch your back as far as you can looking back.
• Stretch for about 10 seconds and release
• Now repeat on the other side
• Do these 10 on each side in 1-2 sets

child’s posture

Child’s pose, also known as ‘balasana’, is a yoga pose known to relax the mind and body.

This is how you can perform the ‘child’s pose’:

• Sit up straight with your legs bent under your hips
• At this point, your feet are supposed to be facing up.
• Now slowly bend your torso forward on the floor
• At this point, your arms should also extend forward, as far as possible.
• Your face should also face the ground, as well as your palms.
• The calves, the forehead and the palms of the hands should touch the ground in this position.
• Since it only stretches the body and is a resting posture, it provides comfort and relaxation.
• Hold this position for 10-15 seconds and do 4-5 sets daily.

looking up

This is a great exercise for anyone struggling with stress or tension in their body. Both of these factors may be worsening the quality of your sleep. This is how you can perform upward facing dog:

• Lie on the floor facing the ground
• Slowly bring your arms forward and try to lift your upper body.
• Your legs are supposed to be together, however your arms should be further apart (compared to your shoulders)
• At this point, the parts of the body that touch the ground would be the legs and the palms of the hands.
• In this position, you should be looking up at the sky.
• Hold this position for a few seconds and release, repeat 5-10 times minimum

Standing Forward Bend

This is another extremely relaxing yoga pose. This is how you can perform the standing forward bend position:

• Stand up straight
• Now slowly lean forward.
• The objective is to place the palms of the hands on the ground (bending the body in half)
• Touching your toes can also suffice if you can’t bend far enough. As discussed above, this position can be changed. Therefore, reaching the hands towards the ground as much as possible is appropriate and helpful.
• At this point your face is supposed to be looking down at your legs (the top of your head towards the ground)
• Repeat this several times in small intervals

Breathing exercises

Pranayamas are breathing exercises that belong to yoga. As it is a breathing exercise you can do it anywhere. One of the easiest Pranayamas are Nadi Shodhan Pranayamas. This is how you can perform Nadi Shodhan Pranayamas:

• Sit with your back straight and your legs bent
• Place the tips of the index and middle fingers of the right hand on the forehead, between the eyebrows.
• Now gently place your thumb over your right nostril.
• Place your ring finger in the left nostril
• Lift your thumb and inhale through your right nostril and return your hand to your right nostril.
• Exhale through the left nostril and then inhale through the same nostril.
• repeat this several times
• Make sure you don’t force your breath, this exercise is supposed to be gentle and relaxing.

In conclusion, providing your brain and body with enough physical activity can improve sleep quality. Exercise relaxes the mind and also increases happy hormones which also promote good sleep. Along with this, we also encourage you to eat healthy food. Our food and what time of day we consume it all influence our sleep.

Disclaimer: This content, including tips, provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV is not responsible for this information.