After spending a long day at work, lying on your bed to watch movies on your favorite streaming sites is all you want to do for the rest of the day. While your bed is a great tool for relaxation, you need to prepare your body before calling it a day. Consider stretching at night as part of your habit before going to bed as their benefits are to improve the quality of your sleep and much more.
Why Stretch Before Going to Bed?
Before diving into what stretching exercises you can do before sleep, you might be wondering how exactly stretching can improve your sleep quality.
Reduces Stress
Stress is unavoidable. You will encounter numerous stressful days throughout your career. While watching Netflix or scrolling through social media can relax your body, they can also make you more alert. On the other hand, stretching exercises are great ways to relax and make you fall asleep faster.
Stretching before bed is an excellent method to relax and unwind. Moreover, stretching basically allows you to tell your body to unwind and stop worrying about today or tomorrow.
Improves Flexibility
When your daily routine doesn’t involve much muscle movement, it can make your muscles stiff and restricted. Over time, it can eventually make it difficult for you to perform your daily activities.
But don’t fret. Doing a couple of stretching exercises can improve your flexibility and make your movements more fluid. Making it a habit to stretch before bed will help you stay active and mobile in the long run. You won’t have to worry too much about muscle cramps.
Helps People With Insomnia
Have difficulty sleeping? You will be glad to know that stretching before going to bed can help individuals with insomnia. Spending at least an hour stretching your body can improve overall sleep quality.
Therefore, if you want to reach 8 hours worth of sleep, doing some stretching exercises every day or at least three times a week will help you get the rest you deserve.
Alleviates Lower Back Pain
When you’re stuck at a desk job, it can be difficult to maintain proper posture all the time. Unfortunately, it can lead to lower back pain, which is an incredibly uncomfortable condition to have. Moreover, it can also affect your sleep and prevent you from getting enough rest.
Fortunately, stretching may be an effective treatment for lower back pain. However, keep in mind to stretch gently to prevent muscle or tissue injuries.
Stretching Exercises to Do Before Sleep
Now that you know the benefits of stretching before sleep, it is time to dive into the exercises themselves and learn how to do each one.
Neck Stretch
Sitting for several hours every day can lead to several side effects. One of the downsides of this lifestyle is the build-up of tension in your neck and shoulder muscles. While getting a decent mattress and set of pillows can help alleviate tension in those muscles, doing neck stretches before bed ensures that you get a comfortable and relaxing rest.
How to do it:
1. Sit or stand with good posture.
2. While looking forward, tip your right ear towards your right shoulder while your left-hand tries to reach the floor.
3. Use your hand to gently guide your head towards your right shoulder.
4. Hold that position for 30 seconds.
5. Repeat previous steps two to three times, then switch to your left ear.
Cat-Cow
Whether you spend your days standing, walking or sitting, your lower back can get stiff after spending hours in those positions. Fortunately, the cat-cow exercise can help bring relief to your lower back pain.
How to do it:
1. Get on your hands and knees. Ensure that your hands are under your shoulders while your knees are directly under your hips.
2. Arch your back by tightening your abdominal muscles and squeezing your buttocks.
3. Hold it for 10 seconds.
4. Let your lower back sag towards the floor and stretch your neck.
5. Hold it for 10 seconds.
6. Return to step 1 and repeat the exercise 5 - 10 times.
Thread the Needle
You got your neck, shoulder, and lower back covered, but don’t forget about your spine. Thread the Needle aims to stretch your backbone and shoulders, making it effective for shoulder and back pain as well.
1. Get on your hands and knees. Ensure that your hands are under your shoulders while your knees are directly under your hips.
2. Open up your chest to the right as you extend your right hand towards the ceiling. Look at your hand while doing this step.
3. Move your right arm under your chest. Slide it into the mat and let your shoulders rest on the ground.
4. Extend your left-hand overhead until your fingertips touch the mat. Rest the right side of your head on the ground.
5. Shift your right fingertips to the left until you feel a stretch.
6. Hold the pose for 60 seconds and repeat on your left side.
Supine Spinal Twist Pose
Now that you got an exercise for your neck, shoulders, and lower back, this next activity covers your gluteus, chest and obliques. Ideally, the supine spinal twist pose should be your last one as it is more effective when your muscles are warm. Otherwise, you will find it a bit difficult to do the deep twists that are capable of combating the downsides of spending hours sitting on a chair.
1. Lie on your back.
2. Bring your arms out to the sides in a T position with your palms facing the ground.
3. Bend your right knee and place your right foot on top of your left knee.
4. Drop the right knee towards the left side of your body. Twist your spine and lower back.
5. Breathe and hold for 6-10 breaths.
6. Roll your hips back to the floor and return your leg back to its original position.
7. Repeat the previous step with your left leg.
While doing this exercise, never forget to relax and let gravity pull your knee down. Do this exercise right and you might end up falling asleep immediately afterwards.
Bonus Tip: You can use a massage gun before or after stretching.
If you have massage tools, particularly a massage gun, you can use them before or after doing these exercises to help loosen your muscles, promote blood circulation and assist in providing yourself a well-earned rest.
Use it on the muscle groups your exercises are aiming for to help these muscles relax and calm down. Moreover, it can also help in muscle relief.
Stretch for a Good Night’s Sleep
Making it a habit to stretch before lying in bed has its advantages. While it is tempting to just go straight to your bed and watch movies or play games, you will be glad for these simple stretching activities in the long run.
Speaking of exercising before bed, using a massage gun can help you fall asleep faster as it also helps reduce stress and tension. Check out the RENPHO R3 Active Massage Gun today!
