Phase 1 · Three Weeks to Build the Routine

Part of the 8 Week Yoga Program for Menopause Sleep and Stress

20 Minute Evening Yoga Sequence for Menopause Sleep

An hour before bed, every week of the program. Forward bends, the wall, and a long rest.

This is the sleep session and it runs the whole eight weeks. Nothing in it asks for effort: seated forward bends held long enough to become restful, the legs supported, and a proper ending. Sleep is the outcome with the most consistent evidence in this area, and this is the sequence aimed directly at it.

20 min · Level 1

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When it helps

Once a week throughout, and any evening the night before was a bad one. About an hour before bed. Twenty minutes. A wall, cushions and a blanket. For perimenopause and after, alongside whatever else you are doing about it. The sleep and mood effects are the ones with the evidence behind them: the strongest single trial found no difference in hot flushes against ordinary daily activity, and a clear improvement in insomnia. If you have or may have osteoporosis, keep twists gentle and leave out deep backbends, and get bone density checked before starting if you have risk factors. Any bleeding after the menopause needs a doctor regardless of anything on this page.

Sleep

Insomnia severity improved consistently across trials. Objective sleep laboratory measures did not, which is worth knowing and does not make the first part less real.

Effort

None. Every position here is held rather than worked.

Night sweats

The cooling breath is available here too, at the point in the day when it is most often needed.

Winding down

Twenty minutes, all of it low to the ground, an hour before bed.

Sukhasana

2 min

Easy Pose

Sitting on a cushion, lights low. The cooling breath here if the evening has been warm: in slowly through a narrowed mouth, out through the nose. Eight rounds.

Starting seated with the breath sets the pace for the next twenty minutes. Everything after this gets slower.

Learn more about Sukhasana

Marjaryasana

2 min

Cat Pose

Hands and knees, rounding on the out breath, unhurried.

The one movement in this session, so the body has done something before being asked to stop.

Learn more about Marjaryasana

Bitilasana

1 min

Cow Pose

Chest forward on the in breath, moderate range.

The other half, kept small.

Learn more about Bitilasana

Janu Shirsana

3 min each side

Head-to-Knee Forward Bend

One leg out, one foot in, folding forward with your forehead on a bolster or a stack of cushions. Three minutes each side is long, and long is the point.

A supported forward bend held for three minutes stops being a stretch and becomes somewhere to be. That is the shift the sleep research relies on.

Learn more about Janu Shirsana

Supta Hasta Padangusthasana

90 sec each side

Reclining Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose

On your back, a strap around one foot, knee as bent as you want.

The last thing that asks for anything at all.

Learn more about Supta Hasta Padangusthasana

Viparita Karani

4 min

Legs Up the Wall

Legs up the wall, or knees bent with the feet down and a cushion under the hips.

Four minutes with nothing to hold. If you do only one thing on a bad night, do this.

Learn more about Viparita Karani

Apanasana

1 min

Knees to Chest Pose

Knees towards the chest, arms loose.

A small shape on the way to the end.

Learn more about Apanasana

Savasana

4 min

Corpse Pose

Flat, covered, cushion under the knees. Then go straight to bed rather than back to a screen.

What happens after the session decides whether it helps. Going to bed from here is part of the sequence.

Learn more about Savasana

Phase 1 · Weeks 1 to 3

This practice is part of a program

It belongs to Three Weeks to Build the Routine, the first phase of the 8 Week Yoga Program for Menopause Sleep and Stress. The program says how often to practise it, what comes before and after, and when to move on.

See the whole program →

Integration

Once a week throughout the program, and afterwards for as long as it is useful. It works on a bed. If you wake at three, the wall position and the cooling breath are the two things worth getting up for.

The teacher behind this sequence

Gründer & Autor

Manish Rana

Gründer von Asanaverse.de. Manish schreibt über Yoga, Ayurveda und Meditation und verdankt seine tiefe Verbindung zum Yoga seinen indischen Wurzeln. Mit über 1000 Stunden Yoga Alliance Teacher Training gibt er sein Wissen an die Community weiter.

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Go deeper into the poses

Every asana in this practice has a page of its own. You will find alignment cues, what the shape actually works on, and the energetics behind it.

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