Benefits of Bedtime Stretching

Finding energy when we first wake up is quite possibly one of the hardest tasks of the day, but incorporating stretches into this routine can be beneficial to your body and to your sleeping in many ways.

1. Allows you to move more

The human body has a range of movements that should be explored to their fullest potential. Stretching in your most relaxed state is the easiest way to improve flexibility, so what better time than when you have the world’s comfiest yoga mat underneath you?

2. Improve quality of sleep

Working on a series of stretches that you can use before bed will help you to stay asleep, therefore increasing the amount of energy you have the next day. Targeting areas such as our neck, shoulders and chest releases built-up tension before we enter slumber.

3. Reduces stress

Life can be stressful at times, we all know that. But one of the greatest skills we have is the ability to relieve those stresses through stretching. Before sleep, and even as we wake up, stretching will allow us to physically let go of stress, rather than hold onto it.

4. Help prevent injury

Before and after rest stretching can do more than just improve flexibility; it ensures we are moving within our normal range of motion without any pain. When we do experience pain, this links to injury, therefore stretching during down-times can improve that ability to move.

5. Get to know your body

 Body awareness is important in ensuring we do not continually perform the same movements over and over again, with little thought. Our bodies can become accustomed to limited mobility, hence why stretching before sleeping is a way to remind ourselves of further ranges of movement.