Yoga for Sleep Workshop

With Sleep Coach & 500EYRT Yoga TeacherSarah Harrison

Sarah@InnerTruthYoga.org

What we’re going to learn today:

How to fall asleep, tonight We will use yoga nidra & binaural beats sleep music to reinforce our relaxation response & create a conditioned response between bed & deep relaxation.

How to create an energized morning (no matter what)We will use light, yoga movement, wakeup time, & caffeine to support a strong circadian rhythm & temperature rhythm giving you great energy, every morning.

How to program your body to sleep through the nightWe will use clinically proven “sleep reprogramming” to reboot your body’s capacity to rest deeply through the night.

How to stop night-time thinking (so it doesn’t keep you awake)We will use journaling, reframing, and present mindfulness/ awareness of reality to allow your mind to feel safe so your body can rest.

How to release daytime stress (so you can sleep at night)We will use mini relaxation techniques including postures, breathwork, progressive muscular relaxation, and gratitude to reduce daytime stress buildup so it doesn’t keep you awake at night.

Sleep Science + Yoga Wisdom = Return to the Sleep You Were Born to Have

How to Fall Asleep Tonight:

Step 1: Strengthen the relaxation response Why Modern Life Saps Our Sleep:

• We have accidentally trained our bodies to be stuck “on” in low-level stress

• We evolved to stay awake if we feel stressed or unsafe

• Because in modern life we don’t actually fight or flee we now have to “manually” turn off the stress response

If we don’t relax, we stay stressed:

• Stress and relaxation are opposites

• By strengthening the relaxation response we turn off the stress response

• By decreasing stress and increasing relaxation our bodies recognize there’s no immediate threat and therefore it’s safe to sleep.

We need to relax on every level:

• We are more than just physical bodies

• Yoga calls the different layers of our beings “Koshas”

• The layers are: physical, energetic, mental, wisdom, & joy

Notes:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yoga Nidra is the key to nightly deep relaxation:

• Yoga Nidra means “sleep yoga”; a traditional form of guided relaxation that relaxes the body on all 5 levels

• Physically: through progressive muscular relaxation

• Energetically: through diaphragmatic breathing

• Mentally: through mental “sweeping” to release present thoughts and past injury

• Wisdom: though our “sankalpa” or conscious resolution & entering the place deep inside where your wisdom lives

• Joy: through resting in the bliss body, the place in you that is a pure experience of aliveness using “witness consciousness”

Yoga nidra moves the body down the 5 phases of sleep, keeping the body in deep sleep longer:

The 5 phases of sleep1. Falling Asleep 2. Light Sleep 3. Deep Sleep (Delta/ Core Sleep) 4. Dream Sleep 5. Brief Waking

Yoga Nidra is even more effective with modern Binaural Beats Sleep Music:

• Binaural beats sleep music is a sound technology, positively impacting the brain sending it down into its delta wave deep sleep mode, and keeping it there longer.

• As a result, 1 hour of yoga nidra + binaural beats = 2-4 hours of regular sleep.

• The more often you use yoga nidra + binaural beats the more effective it becomes as your body’s relaxation response strengthens

Notes:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yoga nidra heals many root causes of stress:

• In addition to supporting deep sleep, yoga nidra has been clinically shown to reduce anxiety, depression, PTSD, and lasting effects of trauma. It also opens you to your own innate wisdom so you can guide your own path more clearly.

• If you listen to binaural beats music nightly the effects pattern interrupt the insomnia-stress cycle… leading to better sleep, less daytime stress, and again better sleep…

3 things that make Yoga Nidra even more effective:

• Make a sanctuary that’s quiet, dark, and cool.

• Practice nightly.

• Start in legs up the wall with diaphragmatic breathing for 15-20min… When tired, head to bed to listen as you fall asleep.

Step 1: Where do you hold physical tension? Close your eyes & scan from your toes to your head & label the diagram 0-10 (0= total relaxation; 10= total tension)

Step 2:After yoga nidra scan again and re-label your new tension levelsTo Bring Yoga Nidra home: Take the card at the back of this booklet to Sarah at a break with your cc. Your $1 trial membership will let you easily download the sleep tracks to your device & have the sleep solutions you need, right at home.

2 Steps to an energized morning.

Step 1:Support your circadian rhythm

• Wake up at the same time, 7 days/ week; 365 days/ year. This can’t be emphasized enough!

• Waking up at the same time allows your body’s clock proteins to coordinate your body’s systems to support your daytime energy & night-time sleep.

• This predictability allows your clock proteins to: bring your brainwaves to their waking state so you don’t wake up groggy, triggers cortisol, the body’s wakeup hormone, so you feel energized, & triggers a strong temp rise so your body is brightly awake, and later will sleep deeply.

• Pretty soon you will be waking up before your alarm, well rested & ready for the day.

My daily wakeup time: _______:_______

Note: If you work shifts, or are a new mom this may not be possible for you 100%… in this case look for a 4hour “anchor time”… a 4 hour window where you always sleep, and have the other ‘chunk’ of sleep float to accommodate your life. Having any piece of sleep be consistent will help support your sleep quality. My anchor time: ____:____ to ____:____

To avoid feeling groggy in the morning… Do Not hit the snooze button

• When you wake up at the same time, your body learns to naturally bring you to waking just before your wake-up time.

• If you press snooze your body will go into the next sleep cycle & feel groggy when you get up. Interrupting a sleep cycle is what causes this morning grogginess, NOT lack of sleep.

• To avoid feeling groggy, sit up with your alarm/ wakeup time & get up within 20min of waking.

• Not only will you feel better, but you’re setting a subconscious signal that you’re saying YES! to the day. The more you embrace the moment as it is, the more energy you will feel.

Step 2: Raise your body temperature

• 98.6* is the human body temp average; our body temp falls to sleep, and raises to wake up

• In order to have our body temp fall at night (sleep!)we need a strong temp rise in the morning

• Stress, low-activity, menopause, depression, chronic fatigue, and sleeplessness all lead to a flattened temp rhythm and poor sleep

How to create a strong (healthy) body temp rise in the morning:

• Waking up at the same time

• Exercise: walking, morning sun-salutations, jogging etc (30min)

• Natural light exposure (30min)

• Enjoy endorphins! Dance to 1 song, raise your heart rate (ex: gentle vinyasa yoga), laugh!, cuddle up a loved one, mindfully ENJOY 1 piece of low-sugar dark chocolate, make love.

• OPTIONAL: 1 serving of healthy caffeine: green tea, matcha, mate, organic light roast coffee, 80%+ dark chocolate

My morning wakeup routine:

My wakeup time: ____:_____ My exercise of choice: __________________________________________________________ My light exposure: _____________________________________________________________

My endorphin enjoyment: _______________________________________________________ My (optional) yummy healthy single serving of caffeine: ________________________________

Notes:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How to program your body to sleep through the night:

Step 1: Create a conditioned response between bed and deep sleep

• Human beings are highly programmable. When we use bed for TV, computer, phone, work, conversations, reading, or waiting for sleep to come harm our sleep by ‘programming” a link between bed & being awake.

• This accidental programming harms our sleep & keeps us awake.

Reserve bed for sleeping, making love, and deep relaxation like yoga nidra.

• 20min only in bed.

• If you’re still awake after 20min, get up & do something relaxing.

• Once you’re tired, return to bed.

• Repeat if necessary.

• This leads to maximal “sleep efficiency” helpful conditioning between bed & deep sleep

Step 2: Relax about your sleepYou won’t get sick from little sleep. • Sleeplessness is not related to developing any major illness.

Physiologically, we only need 5.5 hours of sleep/ night on average.

• This first 5.5 hours is called “core” sleep & our bodies always compensate to get it.

• When we get little sleep one night our bodies compensate the next night by spending more time in our ‘Delta’ deep sleep state & less in lighter stages of sleep.

• Everything beyond the first 5.5 hours is “feel-good-sleep” Of course we want it, but we don’t NEED it.

We can reprogram your body’s sleep response using “Prior Wakefulness”

• The longer you’ve been awake, the more “prior wakefulness” and the stronger your sleep urge.

• So, if you didn’t sleep well the night before, your body will have more prior wakefulness & a stronger sleep urge sending you into longer & better sleep.

• By increasing sleep efficiency, limiting time in bed to sleep time, we will improve the quality depth, and length of our sleep.

Here’s how to “Reprogram Your Sleep” so you sleep through the night, get your optimal amount of sleep, & wake rested:

1. Track your sleep for 7 days using your sleep tracker.

2. Calculate your average sleep time: _________________

3. Count backwards the average number of hours you’re sleeping from your wake-up time.

4. Count back another 30min (earlier). This is your new “training” bedtime: ________________

5. Go to bed no earlier than your “training” bedtime.

6. When you’ve had a great night’s sleep 3 nights in a row with this bedtime & wakeup time, move your bedtime 30min earlier.

7. Repeat until your body “stabilizes” at your optimal amount of sleep.

Notes to support your sleep reprogramming success:

• Wind down before bed. Yin yoga, tea, & legs up the wall are great.

• Keep your bedroom cool & dark.

• Use your yoga nidra + binaural sleep music to fall asleep to.

• Max 20 min in bed (if needed, get up until you’re tired, then return)

• During sleep reprogramming, don’t nap during the day.

Important sleep myths to remember:Sleep myth #1: I need 8 hours of sleep.Sleep reality: The average body requires only 5.5 hours of sleep/ day to get the required “core” sleep to repair. If you happen to get less sleep one night your body WILL recuperate this sleep the next time you sleep or nap.

Sleep myth #2:Sleeping pills or a “nightcap” will help me to sleep & wake rested.

Sleep reality: No sleeping pill works faster than 20minutes and sleeping pills stop working clinically after 6 weeks of continual use. If they work faster than 20minutes, or after 6 weeks it’s the placebo effect at work. Sleeping pill “fog” results in poorer mental capacity the next day than simply being tired.

“Nightcaps” cause the body to relax but prevent deep sleep brainwave states so result in more hours of sleep but waking without feeling rested, leaving you more tired than if you got less sleep.

Sleep myth #3:Reading in bed will help me to fall asleep faster.

Sleep reality:Reading stimulates mental activity which raises body temperature and can lead to lying in bed with your mind whirling, triggering stress and keeping you awake. While a few minutes of light reading before bed is fine, it’s best to avoid linking bed with wakefulness by reading in a chair or couch instead of in bed and heading to bed without your book when you feel tired. Leave bed for relaxation and love only.

Sleep myth #5:Sleeping in on weekends will help me to be more rested next week.

Sleep reality:We don’t have direct control over when we fall asleep, only when we wake up. If you sleep in on the weekend your body will readjust to a later bedtime, leaving you with “Sunday night insomnia” and being very tired on Monday, setting up a vicious cycle of leaving you tired through the week and wanting to sleep in on weekends. Instead of sleeping in, simply set your waking time to be the same during both weekdays and weekends and go to bed when you’re tired. Your body will settle into an easy well-rested rhythm this way.

Sleep myth #6:It’s a problem if I wake up in the middle of the night.

Sleep reality:We all wake up! Yes! Every human on the planet wakes up in the middle of the night. In fact, waking up every 90-120min is a required part of a normal human sleep cycle. Most people simply don’t remember they’ve woken up because they’re not worried about it. It’s actually the fear of waking up that causes us to notice that we’re awake, which gets the mind whirling, the body temperature rising, the cortisol flowing, and us to then REALLY be awake. Oops! If we know it’s normal we can relax and just fall back into our next sleep cycle, no prob!

Notes:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

How to release daytime stress so it doesn’t keep you up at night:

Stress makes sleep very difficult

• Stress leads to physical tension and stressful thinking that keeps us awake.

• Stress also flattens our body’s temp rhythm leading to neither deep sleep nor feeling awake.

• In the past we would have “fought or fled” stressors. Today we need tools to to “burn off” stress.

We can meet stress in 2 ways

• Turning off the stress response.• Turning on the relaxation response.

Ultimately we want a low baseline stress level.

Mini relaxations allow us to ‘burn off’ stress and strengthen the relaxation response so stress never builds up too much.

• Breath of Joy• Alternate Nostril Breathing• Progressive Muscular Relaxation• Diaphragmatic breathing

Use mini relaxations 3min every 3 hours throughout your day.

Notes:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ *These stress-relief techniques are included as easy-to-follow videos in Sarah’s online Sleep Solutions Program Also included are full-length yoga videos for morning energy, daytime stress-relief, evening wind-down, and middle-of-the-night sleep-inducers …and of course the yoga nidra + binaural beats sleep tracks.

How to quiet your busy mind at night

Your mind is designed to think

• We cannot think our way to sleep. • Thinking wakes us up. • Resistance to thinking wakes us up even more because it stimulates a stress response.

“The surest way to suffering is to resist reality. The surest way to happiness is to accept reality.”

-Adyashanti

Why thinking (especially stress/ worry thoughts) wakes us up:

• Cortisol (stress/ wakeup hormone) is released.• Shift to alert brainwaves states (Gamma & Beta).• Body temp increases (inhibits sleep).

We can pattern-interrupt thinking in 2 ways:

• Focusing upon a “louder” verbal stimulus (ex: Yoga Nidra/ CBC) until your mind shuts off.

• Replacing unhelpful “sticky” negative thoughts with reality-based thoughts that are more helpful, accurate & relief-giving.

To help the mind & body feel safe we use “reframing” to change worry thoughts into sleep-supporting PSTs (positive sleep thoughts)

• Reframing is a technique that helps us transform stressful thinking into neutral or positive thinking.

• It is NOT being a “Polly-Anna”. It is correctly and accurately recognizing the truth in a situation and focusing upon what is helpful not fearful to allow the body & mind to relax.

• Presence and Loving Kindness are key

Reframing via Loving Kindness Pages: (AKA: Evening Pages)

Step 1: Free-write up to 3 pages.Let go of everything that feels negative or stressful onto the page.Leave every 2nd line blank.

Step 2: Turn your NSTs into PSTs. (Negative Self-Thoughts into Positive-Self Thoughts).

Go back & cross out the fear-based/ negative/ monkey mind/ unhelpful/ not-in reality/ ego-mind/ goal-oriented/ not aligned with what you want to be serving thoughts and instead write more reality-based/ helpful thoughts in the blank lines between. Step 3: Gratitude Thoughts: Conclude your PSTs with gratitude thoughts. (3 or more things you’re grateful for!)Step 4: Sink in & SMILE! Close your eyes and hold the PSTs & Gratitude Thoughts in your mind & take 3 deep breaths!

Experience it yourself:

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Gratitude thoughts:

____________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________

Sleep Self- Assessment:

Quiz: Please answer Y/ N for the following:

Y / N I listen to binaural beats + yoga nidra as I fall asleep at night.

Y / N I wake up in the morning at the same time each day, no matter what.

Y / N I enjoy a single serving of healthy caffeine like green tea each morning.

Y / N I dance & smile to a song I love each morning while making breakfast!

Y / N I raise my heart rate for ~30minutes each morning.

Y / N I get 20+minutes of exposure to sunlight each morning, ideally within 30minutes of waking.

Y / N I practice a simple relaxation activity every ~3hours throughout my day.

Y / N I avoid foods that are sweet/ high on the glycemic index (spike my blood sugar) and instead choose high fibre whole foods as often as I can.

Y / N I have a hot 25min+ bath or lie on the biomat ~2hours prior to bed each night (especially if in (peri-)menopause).

Y / N I have a pre-bed relaxation routine that I do every night.

Y / N I go to bed when I’m tired, at about the same time each night.

Y / N My bedroom is completely dark at night, including no small lights from electronics.

Y / N My bedroom is completely quiet at night, including from outside traffic or neighbours.

Y / N I love my bedroom and feel deeply at ease when I enter.

Y / N If my mind is chatty I journal out any ‘sticky’ thoughts from the day to clear my mind & return to loving kindness.

Y / N When I can’t sleep for more then 20 minutes I get up & put my legs up the wall until I’m tired again.

Y / N I follow my sleep plan if I can’t sleep.

Y / N I feel proud of myself for investing in my sleep- I know if impacts all other areas of my life and is important.

Set yourself up for sleep success:

Take Home the “Just Listen & Sleep” Yoga Nidra + Binaural Beats

Guided Meditations

Plus over 50 sleep-supporting videos for: morning energy

daytime stress-reliefevening wind-down3am sleep solutions

The Online Sleep Package Includes:

*30-day trial membership: Yoga Sleep Solutions Video Site

4 Just Listen & Fall Asleep: Guided Meditation Audios

71 Page Step-By-StepYoga for Insomnia E-Book

+Simple Stop Sleeping Pills Guide

Complete 6-Part Yoga for Insomnia Video Training

Regular Price 159.95$ Get It Today for $0.99$

*30 day 100% Money Back Guarantee.

If you’re not satisfied for any reason, just email me at: sarah@InnerTruthYoga.org within 30 days

and I’ll refund your money in full, no questions asked.*Regular Membership: $19.95/m

To take Home the Yoga for Sleep Solutions Package Today& access all the support tools you need

bring the card above to Sarah or email her at: sarah@innertruthyoga.org