Yoga in Bed for Deep Sleep to Calm Your Nervous System & Counted Breathwork

You don't have to get out of bed for this one.

This 14-minute guided practice is designed to bring your body all the way down — from the tension and stimulation of the day into the deep, quiet rest your nervous system actually needs to sleep.

We move through slow shoulder and neck rolls, gentle cat-cow and spinal twists, child's pose, and leg stretches, then close with cyclic sighing breathwork — one of the most effective techniques for activating the parasympathetic nervous system (your rest and digest state). Every movement is intentionally slow, because slow is what signals safety to your body.

If you've ever laid in bed tired but wired — this is for you.

💤 No mat. No effort. Just show up and let your body lead.

About Kassandra:
Kassandra is a trauma-informed yoga teacher, breathwork guide, and Harvard-certified lifestyle & wellness coach who blends nervous system education with accessible mind–body practices to help people sleep better, ease anxiety, and feel grounded.

Links:

Rewire Your Nervous System in 7 Days (Free Guide)

The 14-Day Nervous System Reset 

YouTube

Pinterest

Instagram

The Calm Lab

Substack

My Apple Music Playlist

LinkedIn

If The Calm Lab is helping your nervous system, the best way to support is to:

★ Rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 

★ Share an episode with someone who needs it 

★ Subscribe so you don't miss the next one

Thank you for being here. — Kassandra 🌿

The Calm Lab by Namasté Your Life, LLC recommends that you consult your physician regarding the applicability of any recomme...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let's get your nervous system unstuck and get you ready for bed. Begin in a comfortable seated position. Start rolling your shoulders up, back, and down. Make sure your lights are nice and dim or off. One more big circle. Switch directions here. Inhaling as you move up. Exhaling as you move down. Come to center. Drop your chin to your chest. Left ear to left shoulder. Chin to chest, right ear to right shoulder, chin to chest. Keep going back and forth nice and slowly. Or you can do full circles, dropping the head back. I'll tell you when to switch directions. So we're moving nice and slowly. So our heart rate drops. And our nervous system switches from the sympathetic into the parasympathetic, the rest and digest. Pause with your chin to your chest. Take a breath. Switch directions here. Just notice where your thoughts are going right now. See if you can stay in the present moment. Feel the parts of your body that are touching the bed. And then move to the different feeling on the parts of the body that are not touching the bed. Gorgeous. Coming back to center, dropping the chin to the chest one last time, stretching the back of the neck. Beautiful. Go ahead and come back up to seated. Let's move into hands and knees here. Drop the belly. Really exaggerate this movement, lifting the hips, lifting the chin, and then exhale. We're going to look over the right shoulder, bumping the hips to the left. Inhale back to center, dropping the belly, looking up, and then exhaling, looking over the left shoulder, bumping the hips to the right. So moving back and forth here. We are in this cow position with our spine really arched. And then coming back to center, we're going to switch that, coming into cat pose. So tucking the pelvis, pulling the belly button up toward the spine, tucking the chin into the chest. And then we're going to bump the hips to the right. Press into the heel of the left hand. Maybe feeling a stretch in the right side body. Close your eyes if that feels safe. And then opposite sides, really bumping the hips to the left, pressing into the heel of the right hand. We still have that arch in our spine. Cat pose. And then coming back to center. You can take some cat cows if that feels good. You can do um, I want to call it a screwdriver. I don't know what the correct terminology is. Drawing circles with the spine. Beautiful. And then coming to sit back on your heels, rest your hands on your thighs for just a moment here. I want you to feel your heart rate really slowing down. So when we move, our heart rate increases, and then we move into the sympathetic nervous system. We want to keep the movements really methodical and slow so we stay in the parasympathetic. So by taking pauses, just focusing on the breath, the heart rate comes back down. We stay in the present moment. You can use your anchor of feeling your body parts on the bed. Gorgeous. Alright, let's go ahead and come back to hands and knees, and then we're going to drop the hips down. Look over the right shoulder. So you're really pressing again into the hands, twisting the spine, inhaling back to center, and then look over the left shoulder. Just do this a few times at your own pace. Remembering to keep the movements super slow, like you're moving through honey. When you're ready, go ahead and press back into a child's pose. Your knees are wide, your big toes touch. Stretch your hands out in front of you, or stack palms on top of one another, and then rest your forehead down on your little hand pillow. Looking left and right, massaging your forehead. Noticing the parts of the body that are touching the bed and the parts that aren't. Feeling the pressure and then the absence of pressure. Gorgeous. Let's walk the hands forward, come back to dropping the hips down, and then very slowly reaching through the chin, roll your body down onto the bed. We're going to bend the knees here. So you can either kind of stay in this sphinx pose with your forearms down on the bed, spread your fingers nice and wide, press into your palms. Okay, point the toes, bend at the knee, flex the feet, just move back and forth. You can draw circles with the feet. And if you're feeling quite tired already, just go ahead and come down, stack the hands on top of one another, rest your forehead down on your little hand pillow. Then we're going to windshield wiper the legs, just dropping them left and right, releasing the hips, massaging the belly. Nice long, slow, deep breathing. If you're still feeling a bit anxious or um perked up, go ahead and make the exhale longer than the inhale, maybe inhaling for a count of four, exhaling for a count of six. And then let's roll over onto our backs. However, you get there is perfection. Alright, so let's begin by hugging the knees into the chest, kind of pulling and releasing here. So find a little rhythm, a little tummy massage. Inhaling for a count of four. Exhaling for a count of six. Gorgeous. All right, take the legs up toward the ceiling again, pointing and flexing the feet, hands come up to the ceiling as well. So just stick with this pointing and flexing for a moment. Move into drawing circles. Always taking really good care of our joints here. Hug the right knee into the chest. You can place the left foot on the bed or go ahead and send it out nice and long. Hug the right knee in. To deepen this stretch, you're going to flex your right foot or play with pointing and flexing. So as you point, you can feel that stretch in your shin in the front of your leg. And then as you flex, you can feel it in your calf, your hamstring. And then we're going to bend this right leg, reach for the outer edge of the leg or the foot into half happy baby. Nice long, slow, deep breaths. Beautiful. Release the leg down. Pull that left knee into the chest. Really hug it in. You can send the right leg out long or keep the right foot on the bed. Slow the breathing down even more. Maybe inhaling for a count of five and exhaling for a count of seven now. Left leg comes up. Feel that stretch in the back of the left leg. Draw circles with your left toes. Point and flex. And just notice all those different parts of your body where you feel the stretch. When you're ready, move into half happy baby, grabbing the outer edge of the left foot or the left leg, bending deeply at the left knee. Stretching and releasing the hip. And let's move into a constructive position of rest. Bring the soles of the feet to the bed. Heels are wide, toes are in, knees rest against one another. Let's rest our hands on our belly. We're going to take a few rounds of cyclic sighing. So we do a deep double inhale, two separate inhale breaths, back to back, and then a very long slow exhale through your mouth, through pursed lips, kind of like you're making a straw with your lips. So it looks and sounds like this. Inhale fully, sip in a little bit more air. Exhale. Let's do that a few times. Inhale deeply. Inhale completely. Exhale through pursed lips slowly and smoothly. Breathe out. Forceful inhale. One more. Breathe out slowly and gently. Again, inhale. Inhale. Exhale. Keep up that breathing pattern for another minute. You can keep your legs like this, stretch them out long, or bring the soles of the feet to touch in a butterfly pose. Rest your hands wherever feels best. Keep up the cyclic sighing breath work to really help relax your nervous system and get your body to a place. Get your nervous system into the parasympathetic so you can sleep quickly and deeply and hopefully for a very extended period of time. Let's do one last round together. Breathe in. And again, exhale. Thank you for joining me. I hope you have a really gorgeous rest tonight. Be well.