How to Start A Morning Yoga Routine

Any time of day, yoga offers physical activity, reduces stress, and may help you sleep better at night. Practiced in the morning, yoga can be particularly beneficial, offering you a calming start to your day that can help you feel well centered throughout the day.

Why You Should Practice Early Morning Yoga

Early morning yoga can be energizing, helping you work out stiffness, pain, and grogginess from sleeping at night. It can offer relaxation and physical activity, alleviating anxiety, stress, and tension first thing in the morning.

Yoga can help you trigger the relaxation response. Your body responds with slowed brain wave patterns, lower blood pressure, decreased heart rate, and reduced muscle tension. This can reduce anxiety, depression, and insomnia, and promote an overall improved sense of well being.

Early Morning Yoga and Sleep

Although early morning yoga can be beneficial for energy during the day and sleep at night, it’s not always easy to get up early enough to practice yoga in the morning. You shouldn’t sacrifice sleep so that you can get up early enough for yoga, as sleep is more important for health and well being than yoga.

While waking up for early morning yoga can be a challenge, it is possible to practice early morning yoga without losing out on sleep. You can have both good sleep and early morning yoga with commitment, good sleep hygiene, and planning ahead.

1. Start your session in bed. Stay in bed for yoga, and it will be easier to get started. You can practice simple poses as you’re waking up in bed, then transition to more difficult ones once you’re up and out of bed.
2. Go to bed on time. Often easier said than done, but getting to bed early enough that you can wake up early for yoga is the key to making an early morning yoga routine work. You can’t expect yourself to get up early if you’re not going to bed early.
3. Practice good sleep hygiene. Make sure you get quality sleep at night by practicing good sleeping habits. Keep a regular sleep schedule and bedtime routine, and avoid practices that can keep you up at night, such as screen time before bed, and intense exercise, caffeine, or alcohol at night. Make sure that your sleep environment is comfortable and soothing, so you aren’t kept awake by too much light in your room, loud noises, or an unsupportive old mattress.
4. Make yoga part of your morning routine. Don’t try to do early morning yoga on an occasional basis. Instead, commit to waking up with yoga most mornings. That way, it’s not a question of whether or not you feel like getting up to do it, you just do.
5. Set out supplies the night before. As you’re preparing for bed, gather what you need to practice yoga in the morning. It will help you mentally prepare to wake up ready for yoga, and you’ll be a few steps closer to actually practicing yoga rather than spending precious early morning time preparing.

This is a Guest Post by Heather Viera (A lifestyle expert and researcher for FamilyLivingToday.com) for YogawithV Blog Section. Heather is dedicated to achieving a balanced lifestyle, even with two small children and a full-time career. In the little free time she has, she enjoys hiking with her partner and taking her dog to the beach.