Everyone knows that a relaxing wind-down routine is central to getting – and staying – asleep, but hands up who actually takes that advice on board. Anyone?

I’ve got the best intentions and tools to help me: a cupboard full of soothing herbal teas, books piled up on my bedside table and the Headspace app downloaded on my phone. But in reality, come 10pm most nights, you’ll find me scrolling mindlessly through Instagram, reading the news or watching ‘just one more’ episode of my favourite Netflix show.

The truth is, it’s tricky to change ingrained habits and behaviours without a clear path to follow, and sometimes we need a new approach.

And here’s where saucha could help. According to the experts, incorporating some of the ideas behind this ancient yogic principle into our bedtime regime could help us bid goodnight to bad habits and those hours spent tossing and turning.  

Essentially saucha relates to the idea of ‘purity’ or ‘cleanliness’ in our heart, body and mind, but to understand it fully, it’s useful to delve into the history of yoga and realise that this practice is much more than just the asanas (or movement) we associate it with.

“The Eight Limbs of Yoga refers to an eight-part path towards living an ideal yogic life,” yoga teacher Sarah Highfield tells Stylist. “Each limb is a step towards living a meaningful and healthy lifestyle, as well as achieving a higher state of consciousness. The niyamas, which are centred around self-discipline, are the second limb, and saucha, which means purity and cleanliness, is the first of the niyamas.”  

Saucha takes a broad approach to the idea of cleanliness and explores it from an external, internal, physical and spiritual standpoint. As well as encouraging us to wash our hair, brush our teeth and wear clean clothes (all important things!), it also promotes purity of thoughts and a clear head.

And its benefits are far-reaching. As Donna Noble, yoga teacher and founder of Curvesomeyoga, explains: “Saucha can bring about clarity and happiness within us, and it also provides us with great self-care guidance.”

It’s this idea of self-care which makes it so relatable when it comes to our bedtime habits. Laura Pearce, a yoga teacher and the founder of Yoga Collective London, agrees there are lots of parallels that can be drawn between saucha and a good bedtime routine.

“If you look at the eight limbs of yoga, they come before your asana – so they are things you should do before coming to your physical practice,” she says. “You need to prepare your mind and body before stepping onto your mat. There’s this idea that if you come onto your mat with loads of ego, or feelings of stress, anxiety or laziness, that energy can get in the way of your practice. It’s the same thing for sleep – you have to prepare for it.”

We often talk of encouraging good sleep hygiene – whether that’s through lifestyle habits or preparing the space where we lay our heads – and saucha promotes exactly that.

Intrigued? Read on for how you can use it for a more restful night’s slumber. 

Cleanse your space

First, we need a tidy bedroom. And, yes, that means putting away the pile of clothes in the corner of your room and sorting through the mass of beauty products spilling out from your make-up bag.

“Respecting your yoga area is a big part of saucha – everything is kept clean and there’s a sense of reverence for your space, and this can be applied to your sleeping area,” says Pearce. “It could be things like making sure your bed is made, your room is tidy and you have a comfy pair of PJs ready.” 

Research suggests this offers more than just a feel-good bonus, too. In fact, one study published in the journal Sleep found that decluttering and tidying improved sleep quality as much as regular self-care.

Cleanse your body

In general terms, this means taking care of your body and can relate to everything from eating well and moving regularly to bathing before bed – all of which have been scientifically proven to help support shut-eye.

“Look at what you are putting in your body – start with eating healthy and drinking lots of water,” advises Noble. Reducing our intake of highly processed foods is important within saucha – but it’s also something that nutritionists have been extolling the virtues of for years, especially as scientific research has linked refined carbohydrates and added sugar to poor sleep quality.  

Cleanse your mind

Sorry, but watching the latest episode of The Crown before bed isn’t going to help you sleep better. According to saucha, importance lies in being able to clear our mind and reduce its whir of activity.

“Monitor what goes into your mind and when,” Noble suggests. “This can be accomplished by limiting social media – experiment with only checking it a few hours a day and switching off all technology two hours before you intend to sleep.”   

Meditation can help here too. Pearce recommends opting for single-pointed focus meditation techniques in particular before bed. “Something like a breath-centric meditation or transcendental meditation where you’re focusing on one thing to get rid of the clutter in your mind,” she suggests. “In saucha, they talk a lot about keeping it simple, and this style of meditation suits that idea.”

Cleanse your thoughts

Does your inner critic pipe up when you crawl into bed? Perhaps it’s at this time of the day that you start obsessing over a comment someone made earlier, or you start telling yourself that tomorrow’s big event is going to be a failure. Either way, it’s not conducive to sleep.

“One main goal of saucha is to free your mind of negative thoughts,” says Noble. “One way to do this is to have a ‘go-to’ mantra. When a negative thought pops into your mind, repeat your mantra of choice to yourself either silently or out loud.”  

Cleanse your breath

It’s often at night-time, when you start to relax, that you realise how tightly strung you’ve been all day – almost as if you’ve been holding your breath. And it’s now, just before bed, that your body can benefit from some key saucha-inspired breathing techniques.

“Pranayama, yogic breathing exercises, are believed to help clean, purify and rebalance our nervous systems,” says Highfield. “Bedtime breathing exercises such as nadi shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) are thought to be an effective way to calm our nervous system, infuse our body with fresh air, clear out toxins and balance out hormones.” 

So there you have it – a clear path to a clean body and mind, ready for sleep. Now you just need to provide the fresh sheets. 

Images: Getty