The Yoga Therapy Toolbox #23: Helping Your Clients Sleep Better

Sleep difficulties may be the reason a client comes to you, or they may be part of another health condition they’re seeking support with. Either way, questions about sleep often find their way into Yoga Therapy sessions. What can you suggest, and how might you adapt the practices you offer?

Yoga Nidra may immediately come to mind, but its timing and duration deserve consideration too. In this Toolbox video, I share three tips, including sleep guidance from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, that can inform your conversations with clients and your approach to supporting them.

1. Help your client establish a consistent sleep routine

When asking about sleep, look beyond how many hours your client gets. Do they go to bed and wake up at roughly the same times each day, or does their schedule vary considerably?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, including regular bedtimes and waking times on weekdays and weekends. This helps support the body’s internal clock. Getting enough sleep still matters, but duration is only part of the picture.

You can explain this to your client and explore what a more regular routine might look like within their circumstances. Rather than adding another demanding rule, help them identify a manageable change, such as a more consistent waking time. Their work, caring responsibilities and symptoms will all influence what is possible.

2. Explain why a warm bath or shower may help

A warm bath or shower is a practical suggestion you can discuss with clients, but explaining why it may help makes it more useful than simply recommending something relaxing.

As the body prepares for sleep, core temperature falls. A warm bath or shower can encourage heat loss through the skin afterwards, supporting that cooling process. Research suggests that bathing or showering around one to two hours before bedtime may help people fall asleep more quickly.

If this is comfortable and accessible for your client, it could become part of their evening routine. The important point to share is that the benefit comes partly from cooling down afterwards, rather than staying hot in bed.

3. Adapt Yoga Nidra to the client’s sleep pattern

Before offering Yoga Nidra to support sleep, ask how your client responds to it. Do they remain awake and aware, or do they tend to fall asleep? When do they practise, and what happens to their sleep that night?

Sleep pressure builds during waking hours. Sleeping during the day can reduce that pressure, particularly when naps are long or happen late in the day. Guidance from the National Institutes of Health therefore recommends limiting naps or taking them earlier in the afternoon if someone has difficulty falling asleep at night.

In the video, I recommend a short daytime Yoga Nidra practice of around six to ten minutes, with a maximum of 15 minutes, in the early afternoon. For a client who tends to fall asleep during the practice, this offers a way to explore rest without allowing it to become a lengthy or late daytime nap.

If you see the client during the day, explain the reasoning behind keeping the practice brief and ask them to notice its effect on their night-time sleep. If you see them in the evening, consider a shorter practice and whether it is helping them prepare for bedtime or encouraging a nap before they go home.

This is not a blanket rule against evening relaxation. The timing, the client’s response and their usual bedtime all matter. Use their feedback to guide your choices, rather than assuming that more time in deep relaxation will always support better sleep.