Yawning Yoga: Bedtime Yoga for a Good Night’s Sleep
Sleep problems are very common among children. In fact, most kids aren’t getting enough sleep at night. With their busy schedules and increased social demands, kids are under more pressure than ever before. When a kid becomes sleep deprived, they are likely to have a hard time controlling their emotions. This can lead to potential behavioral problems at home and at school, and it can be exhausting for parents!
So what happens when our kids don’t get a healthy 10 hours of sleep each night?
They become:
Clumsy and Cranky
Easily annoyed and angered
Less able to concentrate and follow directions
Less energetic
More susceptible to illness
Restless
Hyperactive
Less successful in school
As if parenting weren’t hard enough, having a child with sleep problems can make your job even more difficult.
But why are our kids having such a hard time getting to sleep?
Worry and Stress: It’s easy for kids to feel overwhelmed with busy schedules, academics, hectic home lives, and increased social pressures. For many kids, it’s hard to refocus their mind away from worrisome thought patterns, especially when they are trying to fall asleep.
External stimuli and distractions: Kids are constantly plugged into social media. This continuous outward focus makes it increasingly more difficult for children to establish an inner sense of calm.
Separation Anxiety: Youngsters often feel anxiety when separated from their parents. A child is likely to become anxious if their parent’s aren’t there or may become preoccupied by the thought of missing out on something. This makes it hard for them to relax and fall asleep.
Major Life Changes: Moving, divorce, death, etc. If adults have a hard time handling such monumental periods of transition, imagine how difficult they must be for our kids! They learn how to cope by watching us.
Bedtime Fears: Kids have active imaginations. Remember the monster under the bed?
Nightmares: Kids are more likely to have bad dreams if they watch violent or scary movies before bed.
This is where YAWNING YOGA can help. By combining mindfulness techniques, breathing exercises and yoga postures children learn to manage their emotions, handle stress, control impulses, and develop self confidence. Yawning Yoga’s unique sequencing helps create a balance between body, mind and spirit and produce an overall sense of well-being by giving children the tools to self- care, self-regulate, feel good about themselves, and ultimately, enjoy a restful sleep.
The Top Ten benefits of Yawning Yoga
10. Develops coordination and balance, strengthens breathing, and massages internal organs.
9. Stimulates the imagination and entertains children.
8. Lays the foundation for a lifetime of health and well-being.
7. Reduces irritability, crankiness, and hyperactivity.
6. Empowers kids to be less reactive and more at peace with themselves by providing tools for stress management.
5. Enables kids to fall asleep faster and achieve a higher quality of sleep.
4. Parents can get their kids to sleep with greater ease.
3. Parents can achieve a higher quality of sleep in addition to reaping all of the rewards that their children will receive from making Yawning Yoga a part of their bedtime routine.
2. Enables parents to interact and bond with their children in a positive and healthy way that they will enjoy.
1. Poses help release excess energy, tension, and stress while calming the child’s body and mind and helping her move towards stillness.
Census of the Heart
Receive, Keep, Release
What is left to learn?
