Mark Stephens - 13 Aug

With an in-depth presentation of the nature of sleep, Stephens orients the avid reader to what lies behind getting, or not getting, a good nights sleep, offering yoga practicesincluding yoga nidrathat are an exquisite means of self-enquiry and awakening. I hope this book find its way into the hands of many.

Richard Miller, author of Yoga Nidra and cofounder of International Association of Yoga Therapists

Finally, a yogic approach to insomnia that integrates yoga and science! Mark Stephens distills the essential insights of neuroscience, psychology, and the yoga tradition to better understand the nature of sleep and how to improve sleep using yoga rather than pharmaceutical drugs and narrow behaviorist techniques. With chapters on yoga for specific conditionsincluding stress, anxiety, and depressionand for different ages, this book offers an invaluable resource for anyone interested in better sleep and a healthier life.

Diana Alstad, coauthor, with Joel Kramer, of The Passionate Mind Revisited

Copyright 2019 by Mark Stephens. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by

North Atlantic Books
Berkeley, California
Cover design by Deborah Berne
Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in the United States of America

Yoga for Better Sleep: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Stephens, Mark, 1958- author.

Title: Yoga for better sleep : ancient wisdom meets modern science / Mark
Stephens.
Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2019] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018060951 (print) | LCCN 2019001675 (ebook) | ISBN
9781623173647 (e-book) | ISBN 9781623173630 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Sleep disordersAlternative treatment. | Hatha yoga. | Mind
and body. | BISAC: HEALTH & FITNESS / Sleep & Sleep Disorders. | HEALTH &
FITNESS / Yoga. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Meditation.
Classification: LCC RC547 (ebook) | LCC RC547 .S734 2019 (print) | DDC
613.7/046dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018060951

This book includes recycled material and material from well-managed forests. North Atlantic Books is committed to the protection of our environment. We print on recycled paper whenever possible and partner with printers who strive to use environmentally responsible practices.

For the sleepless: May you have sweet dreams filled with magic.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

By Sally Kempton

E ver since Ive known Mark Stephens, Ive been impressed by the breadth of his knowledge of yoga. Not only is he a skillful and wise teacher, hes a true yoga adept, with deep knowledge of a range of practices, techniques, and philosophical approaches. So when he told me that he had written a book on yoga and sleep, I got excited. Why? Because Ive been a longtime skeptic about whether yoga can help you sleep. I once spent ten years as a hard-core insomniac, a period when I rarely slept more than three or four hours a night. During those years I did a lot of yoga and meditation, and found that they could in many ways substitute for sleep. I could rest in Savasana, slipping in and out of yoga nidra and meditation, for five or six hours at a time, and get up with enough energy to get through a day. But I never found a posture or a series of postures or an approach to meditation that actually improved my ability to get into a normal sleep state, and stay there for seven or eight hours.

Thats why Im so grateful for what Mark has done in this book. Not only does he give us a clear, well-researched, and highly readable discourse on sleep science, he unpacks all the major varieties of insomnia and its causes. Most helpfully, he draws distinctions between the sleep issues of childhood and adolescence, the sleep issues of adulthood, and the problems of getting good sleep as we age.

But the real gold in this book is the fact that the practices and sequences Mark gives us really work, especially when you combine them with the other interventions he recommends. Mark never claims that one practice is the key. Instead, he shows you how to work with a range of techniques and ways to set up your sleeping situation, so that you gradually create a truly relaxing approach to bedtime.

Im particularly grateful that he has organized the practice chapters according to the different categories of sleep disorder. There are asanas and breathing exercises that soothe hyperarousal, and practices for working with depression. There are sequences for teenagers and sequences for older people. Every chapter has a different balance of techniques and attitudes, aimed at helping individuals work with specific sleep issues. As Ive been exploring them, Ive been especially impressed by the ways they can be combinedand by Marks expert understanding of how to combine them.

Yoga for Better Sleep is a sleep-resources library in itself. Youll find a full range of recommendations, from medical advice to meditation practices to asana and pranayama, to lifestyle hacks. Marks instructions are clear and easy to followand granular enough so that you feel fully supported in both the techniques and the subtle attitudes that help the techniques take hold. I was particularly impacted by the sections on pranayama, which may inspire you to start experimenting with the range of breathing practices that can be adapted for both relaxing and self-energizing.

This is a book to keep by your bed, to practice with daily, and to use as a practice guide. I hope Marks steady, comforting wisdom helps you create a sleep protocol you can live with. May it revolutionize your bedtime hours, and help you experience more and more deeply the true rest that we all need and deserve.

Sally Kempton is a meditation teacher, a contributing editor for Yoga Journal, and the author of Meditation for the Love of It,Awakening Shakti, and Awakening to Kali.

S leep issues are among the greatest health and well-being concerns throughout the world. Often thought to be a problem largely isolated to the more industrialized Northern Hemisphere, sleep problems today are a global epidemic that extends to the underdeveloped nations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We find similar rates of sleeping pill use in Europe, Japan, and other advanced industrialized societies.