Yoga Moves to Beat Insomnia, Ease Stress, and Relieve Pain

Magic moves for more z's
The next time you find yourself lying awake at night, grab your yoga mat: Research suggests this ancient form of exercise can help combat insomnia, relieve stress, and ward off aches and pains that can keep you tossing and turning. Closing your eyes and breathing long, slow breaths can have a sedating effect on the body, says Sara Ivanhoe, featured instructor on VH1's Celebrity Rehab. "I've had trouble sleeping since I was an infant," she says. "One of the reasons I got into yoga is because I wanted to learn to relax on command.

Here are some of Ivanhoe's favorite calming and comforting moves. For best results, put on your pj's first and do them right before you turn in for the night.

Combat insomnia
Easy-to-hold Iyengar yoga inversions, which send blood to the head, can help send you off to dreamland. The gentle Supported Standing Wide Leg Forward Bend is easy to relax into and will help still your thoughts.

How-to: Stand with hands on hips and feet approximately four feet apart, toes slightly turned in. Place a block or short stack of books on the floor in front of you. Breathe deeply; exhale, fold forward, and place hands on floor shoulder-distance apart with fingers spread. Lengthen spine forward and place crown of head on block so both head and neck are fully supported. Draw shoulders away from ears and hug elbows in. (If you feel a hamstring stretch, widen legs and raise block.) Close eyes; breathe slowly in and out through nose. Hold up to five minutes, then come out of pose slowly.

Cure a headache
A pounding head can keep you from falling asleep at night, but you don't always have to pop a pill. This move, called Legs up the Wall, gently stretches the muscles in your neck (often the culprit of tension headaches) and relaxes you at the same time—a combo that can ease your ache in just a few minutes.

How-to: Sit on one end of a mat with your right hip touching a wall. Lean back, turn to lie flat on the mat, and extend your legs up the wall; your butt should be nearly touching the wall and your legs should be together. Put your hands on your belly or rest them on the mat above your head. Close your eyes, relax your jaw, and drop your chin slightly. Breathe deeply and slowly in this position for 3 to 10 minutes.

Ease back pain
Slipping into bed should be a peaceful experience, but many Americans suffer from chronic back pain that prevents them from relaxing comfortably. This reclined twist will give you on-the-spot relief and ward off future trouble by stretching and strengthening muscles and ligaments near your spine.

How-to: Lie on your back on a mat, bend your legs, and squeeze your knees to your chest. Keeping your legs bent and knees together, lower both knees toward the mat on the left side. Hold your knees in place with your left hand and gently twist to the right. Extend your right arm and look right; hold for 5 to 15 breaths. Bring knees and hands back to the center, then repeat to the right. Stretch to both sides three times whenever you feel tightness in your back.

Soothe stress
Relaxing for one minute in Child’s Pose gives your mind and muscles a chance to escape everyday madness.

How-to: Sit back on heels with the insides of legs and feet touching. Lean forward, bowing torso over thighs and lowering forehead to mat. Extend arms forward, palms down. Relax into pose, widening knees or bending elbows a bit, as desired. Focus on breathing, taking four to eight counts for each inhale and exhale and relaxing deeper into pose with each exhale.

Before you rush to the drugstore to buy an over-the-counter (OTC) sleep medication, try one of the following natural sleep remedies. Many of these can not only help you fall asleep and stay asleep, but they may also promote muscle relaxation.

The Best Cures for Insomnia

Insomnia is the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep. Insomnia can occur in both males and females and in people of all ages. If insomnia is not cured, it will affect the sufferer's job or school performance. Eventually, it can even affect the individual's health. There are some things you can do to take action.

Milk or Tea
Both milk and tea are great for helping a person get ready for sleep. Milk contains calcium, which is known for its calming effect. In fact, it is recommended that if you take a calcium supplement that you do so at night. Just warm up a glass of milk and drink it before you go to bed. Another remedy is to prepare a cup of chamomile tea. This tea will promote sleep.You can bring the tea with you to bed and drink it while you are reading a book. The tea will get your body sleepy and the book will get your eyes sleepy.

Exercise and Diet
Exercising daily and eating right will keep your body healthy so that sleep will come naturally. The trick is to exercise in the morning or afternoon. If you wait until nighttime, your heart rate will increase, which will make it hard for you to fall asleep. As for your diet, eating too much food, or food that is high in fat or sugar, will make it difficult for you to fall asleep. There are also some healthy foods you can use as a snack that will help make you sleepy. They include turkey, soy nuts and pumpkin seeds.

Herbs
There are some all-natural substances you can take to help you get to sleep at night: valerian root and melatonin. You can buy either of these at a health store such as GNC. Valerian root is an herb that has a calming effect and is often used for individuals suffering from stress. Since stress is often the cause of insomnia, it makes sense to take valerian root. The other choice is melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone produced by your body. Its levels begin to rise at night to cause you to become tired and fall asleep. If your body isn't producing enough (you will know if you aren't tired or can't fall asleep), you can take a melatonin supplement.

Things to Avoid
There are a few things that can contribute to insomnia. Never drink beverages containing caffeine before bed, or even earlier in the day if your body is sensitive to caffeine's effects. Next, you want to skip naps and sleeping in on weekends. Any extra sleep during the day will keep you from becoming tired at night. Finally, don't watch TV before bed. It can keep your mind busy so that even if your body is ready for sleep, your mind won't be.

How to Choose Foods to Cure Insomnia

If you're struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep at night, but don't want to rely on drugs to fight insomnia, look no further than your pantry to find a natural remedy for sleeplessness. Many healthy foods contain ingredients that can act as sedatives or boost certain hormones to induce sleep. By altering your diet, particularly the foods you eat right in the hours before bedtime, these natural cures for insomnia will have you sleeping peacefully. Consider these tips to choose foods to cure insomnia.

Tips

1. Opt for items that are calcium-rich when you're trying to choose foods to cure insomnia. By drinking an eight-ounce glass of low fat milk a few hours before you go to bed, for example, you can increase serotonin levels in your system to help you get a sound night of sleep. Other foods in this group that cure insomnia include yogurt, cheeses or frozen yogurt. If you can't eat dairy, consider curing sleeplessness with items like tofu, salmon or calcium-fortified orange juice and cereal.

2. Eat foods that reduce stress levels that can lead to sleeplessness. Choose foods to cure insomnia like nuts (particularly cashews, pine nuts and almonds), wheat and oat bran, artichokes, spinach and black beans that are high in magnesium to help combat the anxiety that keeps you awake at night.

3. Add bananas to your diet to serve as natural remedies for insomnia. Featuring a high level of vitamin B6, bananas can also help generate serotonin to keep your internal clock functioning properly to both prevent fatigue during the day and help you fall asleep at night. Other foods that fit into this insomnia cure include bell peppers, tuna, chicken, spinach and halibut.

4. Consider items with a high glycemic index when you choose foods to cure insomnia. Eating items like potatoes, crackers, white bread, brown rice, pretzels and dates within five hours of bedtime has been shown to be a treatment for insomnia by having a sedative effect. Because of their affect on blood glucose and insulin levels, however, this insomnia cure should be used with caution if you have a medical condition like diabetes or are trying to reduce carbs to lose weight.

The Best Medication for Insomnia and Anxiety

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 18.1 percent of American adults suffer from an anxiety disorder each year. Approximately 30 percent of adults suffer from insomnia, a common symptom of anxiety disorders.

Types
Antidepressants and anxiolytics are most commonly used for treating anxiety. Anticonvulsants, alpha and beta blockers and atypical antipsychotics may also be used in the treatment of anxiety.

Function
Antidepressants increase levels of norepinephrine and/or serotonin, two neurotransmitters associated with depression and anxiety, in the brain. Benzodiazepines increase production of GABA, a neurotransmitter that induces calming effects at higher levels.

Sleep Aids
If a medication for anxiety does not treat insomnia, a sleep aid may be used. Non-benzodiazepine sedative hypnotics such as Lunesta, Ambien and Sonata, Rozerem, a medication that increases melatonin production and trazodone may be used in conjunction with antianxiety medications for treating insomnia.

Warning
Sedative/hypnotics such as Ambien, Lunesta and Sonata have been associated with memory lapses and performance of complex behaviors while sleeping, such as sleep driving or engaging in sexual intercourse while asleep.

Dependency
Benzodiazepines and sedative/hypnotics may lead to psychological and physical dependency, so long-term use is not advised.

How to Naturally Treat Insomnia

There are two different types of insomnia. The first is temporary insomnia, which is when you can't get to sleep easily for up to a few weeks. Chronic insomnia is worse, and something you should really see your doctor about. Both types of insomnia will leave you tired throughout the day and prevent you from getting a good night of sleep. This can be seriously detrimental to your health, especially if it is a continuous problem. Luckily, you can treat insomnia completely naturally.

Things You'll Need

• Valerian root Melatonin Tryptophan

Tips

1. Start by limiting the time you spend in bed to sleeping only. Many people use their bed to do other things, like watch TV, read a book or talk on the phone. If the bed is only used for sleeping, then the brain will begin to associate the two and you drift off easier when you get into bed at night.

2. Change your diet, especially at night. Eat light meals that aren't full of fat, and grease and make sure you eat it at a decent time. Eating right before bed will make it harder for your body to fall asleep because it needs to process all that food.

3. Take melatonin supplements if you have insomnia caused by jet lag or just an irregular work week, something that doesn't relate to chronic insomnia. This is a hormone that will help regulate your sleep cycles.

4. Take valerian root every day for at least a week in order to get the best effect. This is a natural herb that comes in pill form and is used regularly as a treatment for insomnia.

5. Take tryptophan dietary supplements as well. If you have ever eaten turkey and fallen into a food coma afterward, this is the hormone to blame. It increases serotonin, which will calm your nerves, and melatonin to help lull you to sleep.