Bedtime Face Yoga Routine

Place your fingertips on your jaw joints, just in front of your ears. Open your mouth slowly and widely, feeling the joints open under your fingers. Hold the open position for three seconds, then close slowly. Repeat five times. Next, with your mouth slightly open, move your jaw gently to the right, hold for two seconds, then to the left and hold. Repeat four times each side. This releases the masseter muscle, which is the strongest muscle in the body by weight and stores enormous amounts of daily stress.

Place your fingertips on your temples and make slow, firm circles. Do ten circles in a clockwise direction, then ten counterclockwise. Gradually increase the size of the circles to cover the entire temple area. Then press firmly on the temples and hold for five seconds. Release slowly. This relieves headache-causing tension in the temporalis muscle and calms the nervous system before sleep.

Place your thumbs at the inner corners of your eyebrows, pressing into the small indentation you find there. Hold with medium pressure for five seconds, then slide your thumbs along the brow bone to the outer edge. Repeat three times. Then use your index and middle fingers to pinch along the entire length of each eyebrow, holding each pinch for two seconds. This releases the corrugator muscle responsible for frown lines and the tension that builds from screen time.

Using your ring fingers, which apply the lightest pressure naturally, place them at the inner corner of each eye on the bridge of the nose. With feather-light pressure, sweep outward along the under-eye area following the orbital bone, ending at the temples. Repeat seven times. Then sweep from the temples down the sides of the face to the lymph nodes below the ears. This movement drains accumulated fluid from the under-eye area so you wake up without puffiness or dark circles.

Puff your cheeks with air and move the air slowly from one cheek to the other, holding on each side for three seconds. Repeat four full cycles. Then open your mouth wide and stretch your tongue out toward your chin. Hold for five seconds, feeling the deep stretch in your cheeks and tongue root. This relaxes the buccinator and masseter muscles that tighten from speaking and eating throughout the day.

Drop your right ear toward your right shoulder without raising the shoulder. Hold for five seconds. Use your right hand to gently increase the stretch by resting it lightly on the left side of your head. Hold for five more seconds. Slowly roll your chin across your chest to the other side and repeat. Then tilt your head back and slowly rotate it in a half circle from shoulder to shoulder, never dropping it fully backward. This releases the sternocleidomastoid and trapezius muscles where stress accumulates all day.

Lie down or recline comfortably. Close your eyes. Starting from your forehead, consciously relax every muscle in your face, moving downward: release your forehead, soften around your eyes, let your cheeks go slack, unclench your jaw so your teeth separate slightly, let your tongue rest on the floor of your mouth, and relax your lips so they part slightly. Breathe slowly and deeply. Hold this state of total facial relaxation for the full sixty seconds. This progressive relaxation ensures no residual tension is carried into sleep.