Our can practice yoga mudras to help you fall asleep. Research also suggests mudras can help with asthma, inflammation, and high blood pressure.
Before the advent of modern medicine, ancient practices, such as yoga, meditation, and tai chi, offered stress-reducing techniques that also indirectly aided sleep.
These practices included mudras, or hand gestures meant to stimulate certain energies in the body, mind, and spirit.
What is a mudra?
“Mudra” is a Sanskrit term that means “gesture.”
In yogic practices, this word refers to particular hand positions, often involving gentle pressure between the fingertips. This gesture or pose is held in place for a length of time, from a few seconds to long-form meditation.
The term mudra is also commonly used in Indian classical dance, which is considered a form of yoga known as Bhakti or devotional yoga.
In Hindi, the word mudra can also mean token, currency, or seal. Each hand pose, or mudra, represents a closed loop that’s believed to energetically seal the spiritual energy within the body.
The term “Hastha yoga” is also used to refer to hand-based yoga techniques, like mudras.
What do mudras do?
Our hands have a network of nerves and nerve endings. Practitioners believe that mudras stimulate these nerves, which in turn communicate with the brain.
“The practice of yoga mudra facilitates the flow of energy in the body,” says Elizabeth Huber, a yoga therapist, yoga nidra teacher training facilitator, and yoga health coach. “The specific mudras affect certain states of mind and create and maintain equilibrium in the five elemental energies in the body that help in a healthy life.”
Huber also believes that mudras act as physical representations of mental phenomena.
“Mudras act as pathways to rewire the brain. By curling and touching the fingers, we can access a mind-body connection, as each area of the hand corresponds to a certain part of the mind or body,” she says.
Superna Yamuna Chopra, a yoga acharya and holistic life coach, believes that mudras can be a pathway to self-realization.
What does the science on mudras say?
There isn’t a lot of peer-reviewed scientific research around mudras for sleep.
Mudras are believed to have been used in ancient times to help relieve stress. Many Indian studies mention mudras as a culturally relevant practice that is believed to help with a number of ailments, such as:
- asthma
- inflammation
- blood pressure
While mudras may be a helpful complementary practice when it comes to sleeping more soundly, more research is needed to confirm this.
Yoga and yoga mudras represent a form of ancient wisdom that can serve as complementary therapy. While they may offer support for sleep, they shouldn’t replace medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
NDIZEYE Amani