Asanaverse

Cannabis Withdrawal

4 Week Yoga Program for Cannabis Withdrawal

The decision was the easy part. What nobody warns you about is the first week: lying awake at two in the morning, irritable with people who did not do anything, and a body that will not settle in a way that has no obvious thing to do about it.

Our yoga teachers built this four week program around the symptoms that actually show up when you stop, and around the one that lasts longest, which is sleep. Twenty minutes a day for the first ten days, then a shorter evening practice, and something to do at three in the morning.

Daily for the first ten days, then most evenings. Four sequences, four weeks. Daily is not ambition here: both trials of acute withdrawal ran daily sessions over one to two weeks.

Length

4 weeks

Practices

24 in total

Rhythm

Daily for the first ten days, then most evenings

Made for

Adults stopping or cutting down after regular use

What the research says

There is no trial of yoga for cannabis withdrawal, and it is worth saying so plainly. What there is, is a clear picture of the problem and good evidence from adjacent ground. Withdrawal symptoms start within a day and peak around day two or three. Most settle within one to two weeks. Sleep does not: it affects up to three quarters of people who stop abruptly and can run for a month or more.

The strongest relevant trial is a study of yoga added to inpatient opioid withdrawal: 59 people, 45 minutes daily for two weeks. Withdrawal stabilised more than four times faster than with usual care, anxiety improved substantially, and the time it took people to fall asleep dropped by around an hour. A meta-analysis of 22 exercise trials with 1,537 people across several substances found improvements in craving, mood, anxiety, irritability and restlessness.

Two studies looked at cannabis directly, and both are worth knowing about. A brief mindfulness intervention did not reduce how much people used. And in an inpatient trial, daily cycling did not reduce withdrawal severity more than stretching did. The one thing it did improve was sleep, measured objectively. That is the finding this program is built on.

See every study and guideline behind this program →

How the program works

3 phases, and you stay with the same practices for the whole of each one. That repetition is the plan rather than a shortage of ideas. A body changes when the same ask comes back often enough, and the trials this program follows repeated for weeks before they made anything harder.

Weeks 1 to 2MoveGet through the worst of it with something specific to do.Weeks 3 to 3BuildA proper evening practice for the symptom that outlasts the others.Weeks 4 to 4IntegrateA shorter daily practice for after the withdrawal is over.

Daily for the first ten days, then most evenings, with a ten minute sequence available at any hour. Open a session below to see every pose and its timing. One thing runs through all four weeks: every session ends lying down for several minutes, because sleep is the symptom this is aimed at.

Who this is for

  • ·You have used regularly for months or years and you are stopping or cutting down.
  • ·You are in the first days or weeks of that and the symptoms have arrived.
  • ·Sleep, restlessness and irritability are the parts you want help with.
  • ·You are not also withdrawing from alcohol or benzodiazepines, which needs medical supervision.
  • ·You can find twenty minutes a day for a week and a half.

Before you start

This helps with the symptoms of stopping. It is not addiction treatment, it does not replace specialist support, and it makes no claim about whether you stay stopped. Coming off alcohol or benzodiazepines at the same time can be medically dangerous and needs a doctor rather than a practice.

Read the full safety notes in the practice guide →

The practice

Two practices per phase. Open one to see every pose, its timing and the reason it sits where it does.

Move · Weeks 1 to 2

The First Ten Days

Get through the worst of it with something specific to do.

Symptoms usually start within a day and peak around day two or three. This phase matches that: twenty minutes daily, short enough to manage while feeling bad, aimed at sleep and restlessness rather than at anything more ambitious. Daily is the shape both trials of acute withdrawal used, and it is also the shape that fills the slot that used to be filled another way.

  1. 1.Easy Pose3 min
  2. 2.Cat Pose1 min
  3. 3.Cow Pose1 min
  4. 4.Bharadvaja's Twist1 min each side
  5. 5.Head-to-Knee Forward Bend1 min each side
  6. 6.Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose1 min each side
  7. 7.Legs Up the Wall4 min
  8. 8.Knees to Chest Pose1 min
  9. 9.Corpse Pose3 min
Open the full sequence →

Week by week

Week 1Days two and three are the worstThat is not a bad sign, it is the documented pattern. Knowing it in advance makes it considerably easier to sit through.
Week 2Notice which symptoms have goneMost of them settle within one to two weeks. Sleep usually has not, and that is the one the next phase is for.
← Back to the cannabis withdrawal practice guide

Build · Weeks 3 to 3

The Sleep Problem That Stays

A proper evening practice for the symptom that outlasts the others.

By now the irritability and the restlessness have usually eased and sleep has not. This is the phase for that, with a longer evening practice built the way the sleep research builds them: anything with effort in it early, supported forward bends in the middle, and a long stretch at the end with nothing to do.

Week by week

Week 3Expect it to be unevenSleep after stopping comes back gradually and not in a straight line. A few better nights in a difficult fortnight is what progress looks like here.
← Back to the cannabis withdrawal practice guide

Integrate · Weeks 4 to 4

What Carries On

A shorter daily practice for after the withdrawal is over.

Four weeks covers the withdrawal. It does not cover what comes after, and the research is honest about that gap: the trials that looked at cravings and staying stopped ran eight weeks to several months, and in the largest of them the advantage disappeared once the programme ended. So the last week is about landing on something that keeps going without a program telling you to.

Week by week

Week 4Fill the slot on purposeThere is a time of day that used to be spent another way. Deciding deliberately what goes there is worth more than any pose in this program.
← Back to the cannabis withdrawal practice guide

The 11 poses in this program

Every pose has its own page with alignment, common mistakes and the energetic effect. Look one up when a shape does not make sense in your body.

Easy PoseCat PoseCow PoseBharadvaja's TwistHead-to-Knee Forward BendReclining Hand-to-Big-Toe PoseLegs Up the WallKnees to Chest PoseCorpse PoseBridge PoseReclining Belly Twist
Go to the Asana Lab →

The guide behind this program

Why these poses and not others

The Cannabis Withdrawal practice guide explains what each pose does and why it belongs to this goal. It also carries the safety notes and every study this program is built on. Read it if you want the reasoning rather than the plan.

Read the guide →

Frequently Asked Questions

Will this help me stop using?

That is not what it is for and we are not going to claim it. There is no trial of yoga for cannabis, and the one study that tested a brief mindfulness intervention found no reduction in use. What this program is aimed at is the symptoms that arrive when you do stop, particularly sleep and restlessness.

How long do the symptoms last?

Most start within a day, peak around day two or three, and settle within one to two weeks. Sleep is the exception. It affects up to three quarters of people who stop abruptly and can run for a month or more, which is why this program keeps going after the other symptoms have gone.

What is the evidence for this exactly?

Adjacent rather than direct, and worth being clear about. In an inpatient trial of yoga added to opioid withdrawal, withdrawal stabilised more than four times faster and the time to fall asleep dropped by around an hour. Across 22 exercise trials in various substances, craving, mood, anxiety and restlessness all improved. And in a cannabis trial specifically, daily cycling improved sleep objectively while not changing withdrawal severity.

Why daily rather than a few times a week?

Because both trials that looked at acute withdrawal ran daily sessions over one to two weeks, and because the withdrawal itself is daily. There is also a practical reason: there is a slot in the day that used to be filled another way, and filling it deliberately is part of what makes the first fortnight easier.

What if I am coming off other things too?

Then this is not the right first step. Coming off alcohol or benzodiazepines can be medically dangerous and needs supervision. So does a complicated withdrawal, and so does severe depression or anything psychotic. Get a person involved first and use this alongside.

What happens after four weeks?

Keep the shorter session, and treat that as the actual plan. The research on staying stopped runs eight weeks to several months, and in one trial the advantage from a yoga programme disappeared once the programme finished. What carries on matters more than what happened in the four weeks.

Creator of this program

Manish Rana

Manish Rana

Founder of Asanaverse.de. Manish writes about yoga, Ayurveda and meditation, and owes his deep connection to yoga to his Indian roots. With over 1,000 hours of Yoga Alliance Teacher Training, he shares his knowledge with the community.

More about Manish →
Registered Experienced Yoga Teacher, E-RYT 500

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