The Wellness Journal · Yoga & Ritual
What is Savasana and Why Does It Matter More Than the Rest of Your Practice?
Most people think of Savasana as the reward at the end of class — a few minutes of lying still before they roll up their mat and get on with their day. They are missing the point entirely. Savasana is not rest. It is the most neurologically important pose in the entire practice.
What It Is
What is Savasana?
Savasana — pronounced sha-VAH-sah-nah — translates from Sanskrit as Corpse Pose. You lie flat on your back, arms slightly away from the body, palms facing upward, eyes closed. Nothing moves. It is the final posture of almost every yoga class, held for anywhere from two to fifteen minutes.
On the surface, it looks like nothing. That is precisely why it is so misunderstood — and so frequently skipped, shortened or spent planning dinner rather than actually done.
As a yoga teacher with over fifteen years of practice and teaching experience — based in London and West Sussex — Savasana is the pose I talk about most. It is also the one students find hardest — not physically, but neurologically.
"Savasana is not the end of yoga. It is where yoga actually happens — where the nervous system integrates everything the practice has built."
The Neuroscience
What Savasana Does to Your Nervous System
Throughout a yoga practice — particularly in dynamic styles like Vinyasa or Ashtanga — the body is in a state of controlled activation. The sympathetic nervous system, often called fight-or-flight, is engaged. Heart rate is elevated. Cortisol and adrenaline are in circulation. Muscles are contracting and releasing under load.
Savasana is the transition point. It is the moment the body shifts from sympathetic dominance to parasympathetic — the rest-and-digest mode that governs recovery, repair and deep relaxation. This shift is mediated by the vagus nerve, the longest nerve in the body, which runs from the brainstem through the heart, lungs and digestive system.
When you lie still in Savasana, heart rate slows, breathing deepens, blood pressure drops and the brain begins producing alpha waves — the same brainwave state associated with meditation, creativity and the moments just before sleep. This is not metaphor. It is measurable physiology.
What this means practically is that Savasana is when the body consolidates the benefits of everything that came before it. The flexibility gains, the strength adaptations, the nervous system reset — all of it is integrated during those minutes of stillness. Skipping Savasana is like doing the work and refusing the payment.
The Spritz Wellness Aromatherapy Eye Pillow — designed to deepen Savasana through gentle weight and calming scent
The Benefits
The Benefits of Savasana — Backed by Science
Research into yoga and the relaxation response has documented a consistent set of benefits associated with regular, properly held Savasana practice.
Reduces Cortisol
Even five minutes of conscious relaxation in Savasana has been shown to reduce salivary cortisol — the primary stress hormone — measurably. Over time, regular practice lowers the baseline cortisol level throughout the day.
Lowers Blood Pressure
The parasympathetic activation of Savasana has a direct effect on cardiovascular function. Blood pressure drops during the pose, and studies have found that regular yoga — including Savasana — produces lasting reductions in resting blood pressure.
Improves Sleep Quality
The alpha brainwave state induced during Savasana is the same state the brain enters in the transition from wakefulness to sleep. Regular practice trains the nervous system to make this transition more efficiently, improving both sleep onset and sleep depth.
Reduces Anxiety
Vagal nerve activation — the mechanism behind Savasana's relaxation effect — directly counteracts anxiety. The vagus nerve acts as a brake on the fight-or-flight response, and strengthening vagal tone through practices like Savasana builds a more resilient stress response over time.
Integrates the Practice
Motor learning research shows that rest periods following physical practice are essential for consolidating new movement patterns. Savasana gives the neuromuscular system time to encode what it has just learned — making your practice more effective over time.
Why People Struggle
Why Savasana is Harder Than It Looks
Most students find Savasana genuinely difficult — not because of any physical demand, but because of what it asks of the mind. To lie still, in silence, with eyes closed, and do nothing, is an unusual and increasingly rare experience for most people.
The mind wanders. Planning begins. Discomfort with stillness emerges. The urge to check a phone is almost physical. This restlessness is not failure — it is simply what happens when a nervous system accustomed to constant stimulation is asked to be still. It gets easier with practice, and the tools that support it make a significant difference.
"The difficulty of Savasana is not physical. It is the challenge of allowing the body to receive what the practice has given — without immediately reaching for the next thing."
How to Deepen It
How to Get More From Savasana
The single most effective tool I use — both in my own practice and in every class I teach — is an aromatherapy eye pillow. The reasons are both sensory and neurological.
The gentle weight of an eye pillow placed over the eyes activates pressure receptors in the eyelids and around the orbital bone, triggering what is known as the oculocardiac reflex — a measurable slowing of the heart rate. This alone accelerates the shift into parasympathetic mode that Savasana is designed to produce.
The darkness the eye pillow creates eliminates visual stimulation, reducing the brain's processing load and making it significantly easier to settle. And the lavender and chamomile infused into the Spritz Wellness eye pillow act directly on the limbic system — the brain's stress-regulation centre — through the olfactory pathway, the fastest route to calm in the body.
I also encourage students to mist their mat before practice with the Spritz Wellness Yoga Mat Spray — the Clarity blend in particular, with its tea tree, lemongrass and sandalwood, creates an olfactory anchor for the practice. By the time Savasana arrives, the scent is already associated with stillness and focus.
For evening practice or yin sessions, I light the Spritz Wellness Clarity Candle or mist the space with the Relax Atmosphere Mist. Scent and flame together signal to the nervous system that this is dedicated time — not a gap between tasks, but a deliberate moment of stillness.
How Long
How Long Should Savasana Be?
The traditional guidance is one minute of Savasana for every five minutes of active practice. A one-hour class should include ten to twelve minutes of Savasana. In practice, most studio classes offer two to five — which is better than nothing, but not enough time for the full parasympathetic shift to occur.
If you practise at home, give yourself the time. Set a gentle timer if you need to. Five minutes feels long when you first begin. After a few weeks of consistent practice, it will feel like the most natural thing in the world — and leaving it out will feel like leaving the most important thing undone.
Deepen Your Savasana
The Spritz Wellness Aromatherapy Eye Pillow is the tool I use in every practice and every class I teach — filled with buckwheat and linseed, infused with lavender and chamomile, and weighted to activate the oculocardiac reflex and deepen the parasympathetic response.
Shop Eye Pillows Shop Yoga Mat Sprays Shop Yoga RangeIn Summary
Savasana is Not Optional
Savasana is where the practice lands. It is where cortisol falls, where the nervous system shifts, where the body integrates what movement has built. It is not a reward for getting through the hard part — it is the hard part, done differently.
Give it the time it deserves. Use the tools that support it. And the next time someone rolls up their mat early, you will understand exactly what they are leaving behind.
Laura Colucci is a yoga teacher based in London and West Sussex, with over 15 years of teaching experience. She is the founder of The Nook yoga studio and teaches across both locations, as well as the creator of the Spritz Wellness range.
