Trouble Sleeping? Best Exercises For Better Quality Sleep

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 proper sleep can adversely affect your health, work life, and personal life.

Our lifestyle and diet directly affect our quality of sleep. Exercising regularly has been proven to instantly better our sleep cycle. Some exercises may be even more helpful in providing improved sleep. In this article, we discuss some easy-to-do exercises that can significantly better our quality of sleep.

Exercises that better our quality of sleep:

Sitting twists

This exercise is easy-to-follow and can be practiced by sitting in a chair. You can also perform this on your bed right before going to sleep. Here's how you can try sitting twists:

• Sit straight in a chair
• Now, turn to your right and use the chair's handle as a hold and stretch your back far as you can looking back
• Stretch for like 10 seconds and release
• Now repeat on the other side
• Perform these 10 on each side into 1-2 sets

Child pose

Child pose also known as ‘balasana' is a yoga pose known for relaxing the mind and the body.

This is how you can perform the ‘child pose':

• Sit straight with your legs folded under your hips
• At this point, your feet are supposed to be facing upwards
• Now, slowly bend your torso forward on the floor
• At this point, your arms should be extending forward as well, as far as possible
• Your face should also be facing the floor as well as your palms
• Your calves, forehead, and palms should all be touching the ground in this position
• As it only stretches your body and is a resting pose, it provides comfort and relaxation
• Hold this position for 10-15 seconds and perform 4-5 sets daily.

Upward facing

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

• Lay flat on the ground facing the floor
• Slowly place your arms forward and try to lift your upper body
• Your legs are supposed to be laying next to each other, however, your arms need to be farther apart (in comparison to your shoulders)
• At this point, the body parts touching the ground would be your legs and palms of your hands
• In this position, you need to be facing the sky looking upwards
• 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 bending position:

• Stand straight
• Now, slowly bend forward
• The goal is to place your palms on the floor (folding your body in half)
• Touching your toes may also be enough if you are unable to bend far enough. As discussed above, this position can be modified. Hence, taking your hands as far toward the floor as they can is adequate and helpful.
• At this point, your face is supposed to be facing your legs (top of your head facing the floor)
• Repeat this a few times in small intervals

Breathing exercises

Pranayamas are breathing exercises that come under yoga. As it is a breathing exercise you can perform it anywhere. One of the most easy Pranayamas are Nadi Shodhan Pranayamas. This is how you can perform Nadi Shodhan Pranayamas:

• Sit with your back straight and your legs folded
• Place your right hand's tips of the index and middle finger on your forehead, between your eyebrows
• Now, gently place the thumb over your right nostril
• Place your ring finger on the left nostril
• Lift your thumb and inhale from your right nostril and place your hand back on your right nostril
• Exhale from your left nostril and then inhale from the same nostril
• Repeat this a few times
• Make sure to not force the breathing, this exercise is supposed to be gentle and relaxing

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

Disclaimer: This content including advice 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 does not claim responsibility for this information.