Restorative Yoga for Women Over 40: Poses for Stress, Sleep & Balance

For women, the 40s can be a hectic time. During the fourth decade, women have their plates full of successful careers, motherhood, or menopause. This not only leaves little time to train but also energy to push through an intense gym workout.

If this is you, then we have the solution. Restorative yoga! A gentle, supportive, and healing practice designed to help slow down, practice mindfulness, and restore balance to the body.

In this article, we discuss restorative yoga, including the key benefits, common symptoms it addresses, how to start, and a sample program to help you begin.

What Is Restorative Yoga and Why Women Over 40 Need It

Restorative yoga is a gentle, supportive, and healing form of yoga that prioritizes relaxation and calming of the nervous system to reduce stress, anxiety, and hormonal shifts.

This type of yoga can be highly beneficial for women over 40 experiencing menopause which can manifest with symptoms such as stress, anxiety, mood changes, and sleep disturbances.

As mentioned, the 40s contain significant life stressors such as motherhood, family commitments, and work. Scheduling restorative yoga sessions provides women over 40 with a supportive environment to remove external stressors and decompress.

Key Benefits of Restorative Yoga for Women in Midlife

Below we take a closer look at the key benefits of restorative yoga, exploring how it calms the nervous system, supports hormone balance, and improves sleep.

Calming the Nervous System and Reducing Cortisol

Restorative yoga’s focus on relaxation and mindfulness can help reduce cortisol and several related illnesses. Studies show that when we experience high levels of stress, cortisol can lead to weight gain, fatty deposits, diabetes, hypertension, muscle weakness, and osteoporosis.

Sources show that yoga’s relaxing nature is beneficial for stress-related illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and atherosclerosis while improving metabolic risk factors including body mass index (BMI), insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and lipid profile (fats in blood).

This is bolstered by further research which describes how yoga and meditation can reduce stress and anxiety, highlighting how restorative yoga can be a stress circuit breaker or reset.

Supporting Hormonal Balance and Emotional Health

Yoga has a powerful effect on the hormones and emotional health. During the 40s, women begin to experience fluctuation in estrogen levels which bring on several symptoms including impacts to mood and mental health. Sources show that low estrogen may increase psychological stressors, trigger depression, and increase stress.

Restoration yoga mindfulness and meditative state can alleviate these symptoms.

A 2023 meta-analysis explores the effects of mindfulness yoga exercise on depression, revealing that depression scores were lower in the yoga treatment group that practiced meditation, mindfulness, and complete yoga compared to the non-yoga treatment group. It illustrated how postural control, breathing, can improve blood circulation and sleep, while breathing stabilizes the autonomic nervous system, reducing stress and mental tension.

Restorative yoga’s foundation of mindfulness and meditation illustrates its ability to calm the nervous system.

Enhancing Sleep, Recovery, and Longevity

Yoga can improve sleep, enhance recovery, and improve longevity. Evidence suggests that yoga can induce a relaxed and balanced mental state, improving sleep quality and insomnia. This includes a significant decrease in the time taken to fall asleep, sleep duration, and feeling of restfulness in the morning.

Clinical studies show that poor sleep not only impacts mood and mental health, it also is associated with obesity, metabolic syndromes, and eating disorders. Better sleep can regulate hormones such as cortisol, alleviate stress, improve mood, and mental state, and reduce the risk of chronic illness.

Therefore, practicing restorative yoga will not only improve sleep but greatly reduce the risk of chronic illness, and improve longevity and quality of life.

Common Symptoms Restorative Yoga Can Help Address

Restorative yoga’s key benefits can alleviate common symptoms for women in their 40s. Below we discuss each area to show you how powerful it can be for women’s health.

Anxiety, Irritability, and Mood Swings

Restorative yoga has a profound impact on anxiety, irritability, and mood swings. As mentioned, relaxation and mindfulness in yoga can help stabilize the autonomic nervous system and reduce and alleviate stress and mental tension which typically results in irritability and mood swings. Furthermore, it ability to improve sleep reduce cortisol, and improve mood.

Fatigue and Burnout Recovery

For women, life’s happenings have always made getting downtime difficult, which can lead to fatigue and burnout. Sadly, when women do get their break, feelings of guilt, mental load, and stress make it difficult to relax.

Restorative yoga schedules and encourages switch-off time in a supportive, mindful, and relaxing space, teaching women how to disconnect from the outside world and be present.

A 2022 research paper explored the effects of a 20-minute yoga module for reducing burnout among healthcare workers and discovered that even a short duration significantly reduces burnout and improves mental health.

Practicing restorative yoga in a group setting or at home provides a circuit breaker from stressors, helping women constructively rest and recover.

Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

Menopause symptoms are some of the biggest challenges women face during their 40s. Two of these most troublesome are hot flashes and night sweats, with 64–80% of women experiencing them, which dramatically impacts their quality of life.

Sources show that yoga can alleviate stress, anxiety, and vasomotor (constriction and dilation of blood vessels) which contribute to hot flashes and night sweats. It should be noted that this may not be as effective as other interventions, however, it can be used in conjunction with other methods to alleviate symptoms.

Getting Started with Restorative Yoga

Restorative yoga can be performed almost anywhere, however, there are several things you can do to enrich your experience. Below, we discuss how to get started, including essential props, creating a calm space, and the best times to practice.

Creating a Calm Home Practice Space

Creating a calm space within your home can help you disengage and escape from the outside world. We recommend using a soft, warm light source such as lamps and salt lamps. This combined with calming scents can help relax your body from the moment you walk into the room.

Essential Props and Setup Tips

Setting up your practice can also benefit from props such as blankets, yoga blocks, yoga bolsters, and eye pillows which can help support your body and enhance relaxation.

When and How Often to Practice

As you’d suspect, the best time to perform restorative yoga is to disengage from external stressors or before winding down for the day. Practicing restorative yoga following stressful moments can help you equalize, reduce stress, and decrease mental tension. This is not always feasible, so we recommend practicing when you have sufficient time and are not stressed immediately after. This will help you completely relax.

However, arguably the best time is before bed. This can help you decompress once the day is done and reduce the chances of interruption, helping your body relax before bed.

Sample Restorative Yoga Poses and Sequences

Now that you have created your space, it’s time to decompress with your restorative yoga poses. Below are sample poses listed with step-by-step instructions to help you begin relaxing into your routine.

Supported Child’s Pose for Grounding

The supported child’s poses take a popular yoga pose and utilize bolsters. This pose allows you to deepen relaxation, reduce stress, and pain, and improve flexibility.

How To Do Supported Child’s Pose

1. Place your mat on the floor and position your yoga bolster lengthways in the middle of the mat.
2. Stand over the bolster with one foot on each side.
3. Kneel, placing your hands and forearm on either side of the bolster.
4. From here, lower your body to bolster so your chest, abdomen, and pelvis.
5. Hold for the desired duration.

Reclining Bound Angle Pose for Hormonal Relief

The reclining bound angle pose is a popular restorative yoga pose where you lie on your back with your feet together and knees apart. This position helps to open the hips, stretch the groin and alleviate the menopause discomfort.

How To Do Reclining Bound Angle Pose

1. Set up your mat, placing your pillow at one end of your mat and a pillow on each side.
2. Lie on your back on the mat and place your head on the pillow, with your feet together and knees bent at 90 degrees.
3. Keeping your feet together, allowed your knees to drop outward toward the floor, using the pillows on the side for support.
4. Rest your arms out to your sides.
5. Hold this position for your desired duration

Legs-Up-the-Wall Pose for Circulation and Calm

The legs-up-the-wall pose is a simple and effective restoration yoga pose that can help alleviate stress, improve relaxation, and decrease meals.

How To Do Legs-Up-The-Wall Pose

1. Place your mat on the floor perpendicular to a wall.
2. Place a towel or padding on the end closest to the wall.
3. Lie on your back and position your hips on the padding and your leg vertically against the wall.
4. Hold this position for your chosen duration.

Integrating Breathwork and Meditation

Breathwork is an essential component of restorative yoga, helping to calm the nervous system. Below, we discuss how to integrate breathwork, meditation, and relaxation practice to improve results.

Gentle Pranayama to Activate the Relaxation Response

Pranayama is an ancient Bharatiya (Indian) yogic breathing technique that helps relax the mind and body. Prana means ‘vital energy’ or ‘life force’ and Ayama translates to ‘extension’ or ‘expansion’, defining it as an expansion of life force.

Practiced as mindful, concentrated, and repeated breaths, studies show it can change psychophysiological function. Practicing pranayama during restorative yoga can help you become present and deepen your relaxation.

Body Scan and Guided Relaxation

A part of restorative yoga sessions to perform body scans and guide relaxation to decompress and reduce stress. Body scans as the name suggests is a practice of scanning the body for tension, or pain. This can work alongside guided relaxation which involves target muscle relaxation to release tension.

Pairing Meditation with Evening Practice

Pairing meditation with evening practice can help you unwind after the day. Research indicates that practicing mindfulness meditation improves sleep quality, which may be able to treat aspects of sleep disturbance.

As mentioned, we recommend making your restorative yoga a part of your evening and pre-sleep routine. While there are many recommendations online for reduced screen time before sleep, the addition of restorative yoga could allow you to decompress completely, increasing your chances of a restful and undisrupted night’s sleep.

Recap: Restorative Yoga as a Lifelong Wellness Tool

For women over 40, hormonal changes, life stressors, and menopause can make for a challenging decade, which can take its toll on their health. Fortunately, the world is beginning to understand the struggle most women face and is dedicated to finding remedies and solutions to deal with these challenges.

Restorative yoga is just one, powerful, cost-effective intervention that can provide women a safe space to destress and decompress. This reduces stress, which not only helps address immediate struggles but also can support health for lifelong wellness.

Why Rest Is Productive in Midlife

During a busy schedule, the idea of sitting down can feel unproductive, however, this is actually untrue. Rest in midlife and life in general is essential for our body and mind to recover. Regular, scheduled rest from exercise and daily life allows the body to restore energy levels and reduce cortisol levels, decreasing stress.

For women over 40, this is essential for restoring equilibrium during menopause, which can stabilize mood, rescue stress, and improve energy levels.

Building a Gentle, Supportive Routine

A major factor in the success of your health is following a routine. While performing restorative yoga is far from strenuous, it does require time which can deter people from starting. Scheduling your restorative yoga sessions ensures there are no clashing commitments, meaning you can get to your session and develop a solid routine.

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