Savasana (Corpse Yoga Pose) – 18 Powerful Benefits and Contraindications

• Savasana, also known as Corpse Pose, is a foundational relaxation pose practiced at the end of a yoga session.
• It involves lying flat on your back in a relaxed and still position, allowing the body and mind to enter a state of deep relaxation.
• Despite its seemingly simple appearance, Savasana is considered one of the most important and beneficial yoga poses.

What does the term Savasana means in Sanskrit?

• In Sanskrit, the word sava means ”corpse”, Asana means the Yoga Pose
• In Savasana, the body is kept as motionless as a corpse and the mind is alert, yet calm.

Interesting Facts of Savasana

• This Yoga Pose makes you experience the oneness that is the body, the mind and soul thereby you experience the inner silence.
• When you practice this asana, your organs of perception which are the eyes, ears, and tongue withdraw from the outside world.

Benefits of Savasana

1. Stress reduction: By calming the nervous system and activating the relaxation response, Savasana reduces stress, anxiety, and fatigue.
2. Helps alleviate nervous tension
3. This Savasana Yoga Pose helps to get rid of the sleeplessness (insomnia)
4. Relaxes the body, provides rest and eases breathing. Savasana promotes a state of profound relaxation, helping to release physical, mental, and emotional tension.
5. Soothes the sympathetic nervous system
6. Restoration and rejuvenation: Savasana allows the body and mind to recharge, restoring energy levels and promoting overall well-being.
7. Enhances recovery from all long term or serious illnesses
8. Removes physical and mental fatigue
9. Helps treat high blood pressure
10. Integration of the yoga practice: Savasana provides an opportunity to integrate the physical, mental, and energetic benefits of the yoga practice.
11. This Savasana is the best Yoga Pose which brings the peace of mind
12. Alleviates the symptoms of respiratory diseases and eases breathing
13. Speeds recuperation after an illness
14. The best Yoga Asana to relieve migraine
15. Helps toward refreshing, dreamless sleep, especially for those with sleep disorders
16. This Yoga Pose helps to cure the stress-related headaches
17. The best one to get rid of severe and disabling tiredness / fatigue (chronic fatigue syndrome)
18. Mindfulness and self-awareness: The stillness of Savasana enhances mindfulness, self-awareness, and the ability to observe sensations, thoughts, and emotions without judgment.

Shavasana reduces all muscle tension, improves venous circulation, tones the whole nervous system and relieves fatigue. In addition, the heart is rested and the distribution of blood is uniform. The breathing becomes slow, deep and rhythmic. Shavasana in conjunction with certain breathing techniques has beneficially influenced hypertension, heart ailments and other imbalances of the body and mind (Swami Rama, 1998).

Contraindications and Cautions

• If you are pregnant, have arespiratory ailment, or experience anxiety, practice savasana with your head and chest raised on a bolster .
• if you have a backache, lie with your back on the floor, and rest your calves on the seat of a chair, with your thighs perpendicular to the floor.
• Do not practice savasana between other asanas.

How to do Savasana – Step by step Instructions

Step 1

• Spread the mat on the floor.
• Place a bolster on the mat, with its long sides parallel to the long sides of the mat.
• Sit in Dandasana with the short end of the bolster against your buttocks, and place the folded blanket on the far end.
• If you have osteoarthritis of the knees or if your legs are feeling tired, place a bolster under your knees

Step 2

• Bend your knees and bring your heels closer to the buttocks.
• Hold the tops of your shins and press your buttock bones down on the floor.
• Check that your back is straight.

Step 3

• To lower your torso toward the floor, place your forearms and palms on the floor and lean back on your elbows.
• Do not move your feet, knees, or buttocks.

Step 4

• Lower your torso to the floor, vertebra by vertebra, until the back of your head rests on the floor.
• Turn your palms to face the ceiling.
• Close your eyes, then straighten your legs, one by one.

Step 4 for Intermediates

• Stretch your torso away from your hips to straighten the spine.
• Extend the spine fully and keep it flat on the floor.
• Make sure that the stretch along the legs and the torso is equal on both sides of the body.

Step 5

• Relax your legs, allowing them to drop gently to the sides.
• Ensure that your kneecaps drop to the sides equally.
• Move your arms away from your torso without raising your shoulders off the floor.
• Push your collar bones out to the sides.
• Keep your eyes closed and focus on your breathing.
• Stay in this pose for 5-7 minutes.

Step 5 for Intermediates

• Visualize your spine.
• Rest the outer edge of your spine comfortably on the floor.
• Expand your chest out to the sides and relax your sternum.
• Focus on your diaphragm it should be absolutely free of tension.
• As you push your collar bones out to the sides, allow your neck to dip to the floor.
• Relax the muscles of your neck.

Coming out of the Pose

• Slowly bring your awareness back into contact with your surroundings.
• Open your eyes.
• Bend your right knee and roll on to your right side.
• Push yourself up on your right arm and come to a cross-legged sitting position.

Advanced Work in the Pose

• As your neck dips to the floor, you will feel a soothing sensation in the back of your brain.
• When this area of the brain relaxes, move on to the front of the brain.
• From the crown of the head, the energy should descend in a spiral action toward the bridge of the nose, and down to a point located at the sternum.
• When the energy reaches this point, the three layers and five sheaths that comprise your body come together and are integrated into a single, harmonious whole. This is the ultimate aim of Savasana.

Savasana is accessible to practitioners of all levels and can be adapted to suit individual needs.

It is often considered the final and most important posture of a yoga practice, allowing for integration and reflection.

Tips for Effective Śavāsana

• Lie flat on your back, legs slightly apart, arms relaxed, palms up.
• Use props: bolster under knees, eye pillow, or blanket if needed.
• Breathe naturally, remain aware.
• Stay for 5–15 minutes minimum for full benefit.
• Avoid falling asleep unconsciously unless using it as a sleep aid.

Why do we need Savasana?

1. Integrates the Effects of the Practice

• After physical asanas (poses), Savasana allows the body and nervous system to absorb the benefits.
• It gives time for muscle memory, energy flow, and alignment to settle.

2. Activates the Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Promotes the “rest and digest” response, countering stress and tension.
• Reduces heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels.

3. Relaxes Muscles and Releases Fatigue

• Muscles enter a deep state of rest, improving recovery and reducing fatigue or soreness.
• Allows micro-tensions to dissolve, especially in areas like the jaw, shoulders, and spine.

4. Calms the Mind

• Helps train the mind to remain still and present.
• A stepping stone to meditation by enhancing mindfulness and internal awareness.

5. Improves Body Awareness

• Encourages a deeper connection between body and mind.
• Teaches non-reactivity — observing sensations without judgment.

6. Reduces Stress and Anxiety

• Shown in studies to reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
• May enhance emotional regulation and mental clarity.

7. Promotes Spiritual Stillness and Inner Peace

• Symbolizes a mini-death and rebirth — letting go of ego, tension, and mental noise.
• Opens space for transcendence, gratitude, or spiritual reflection.

The Corpse pose, Savasana, gives some good clues about how to handle change: relax, don’t struggle, be in the moment, surrender, let go. This is renunciation.

The pose shows us how to practice so we are prepared to release and let ourselves be transformed.

But, as is true with all kinds of meditation (and savasana is meant to be a type of mediation practice), it’s almost impossible to not think.

The challenge is to turn off active thinking and simply observe these sensations without letting yourself get caught up in the stories that might accompany them.

On the mental level, savasana provides the opportunity to take a break from active thinking and be present in the moment with the sensations of the body: the sweat trickling down our foreheads and ribcages, the rise and fall of our bellies as we breathe, the support of our mats beneath us.

It is a time when our musculo-skeletal and nervous systems integrate the practice we just finished; a time when the fight-flight-or-freeze states that typify the majority of our daily lives take a back seat and the rest-and-digest mechanisms in our parasympathetic nervous systems take the driver’s seat; a time when our digestive and immune systems function best; and, a time when our minds become more calm and clear.

When to Use Savasana

• After any yoga session (especially active ones)
• As a standalone relaxation practice
• During stressful times or at bedtime to calm the system

Duration Tip

• Ideally held for 5–10 minutes, or even longer in restorative practices.

Research Findings on Savasana (Corpse Pose)

1. Modulation of Cardiac Autonomic Balance

A randomized controlled trial in 16 stage-I hypertensive and 14 normotensive subjects demonstrated that a single 10-minute supine Savasana session:

• Significantly reduced low-frequency normalized units (LFnu) and the LF/HF ratio, indicating decreased sympathetic drive and a shift toward parasympathetic dominance during and after relaxation.
• These reductions persisted for at least 35 minutes post-intervention before returning to baseline.

2. Improvements in Heart Rate Variability and Blood Pressure

• In patients with anxiety disorders, an 8-week program combining slow pranayama and Savasana led to marked increases in RMSSD, pNN50, and HF power, and decreases in LF power and LF/HF ratio, reflecting enhanced vagal tone and reduced sympathetic activity.
• Systolic and diastolic blood pressures also decreased significantly following Savasana, attributed to reduced peripheral vasomotor tone.

3. Reduction of Glycemic Fluctuations and Insomnia in Type 2 Diabetes

In a parallel-group trial of 120 controlled type 2 diabetic patients during COVID-19 lockdown:

• Daily 15-minute bedtime Savasana plus walking yielded only 12% incidence of blood-glucose fluctuations, versus 35% in the walk-only group.
• Insomnia rates were 13% versus 42%, and rises in systolic blood pressure >30 mmHg occurred in 16% versus 38% of participants.

4. Reversal of Autonomic Effects of Sleep Deprivation

In healthy young adults deprived of one night’s sleep, a short Savasana session:

• Reversed increases in LF and LF/HF ratio and restored decreases in HF, RMSSD, SDNN, and pNN50, mitigating sympathetic overactivity and perceived stress.

5. Comparative Effects on Memory and Anxiety

A crossover study in 57 healthy volunteers compared 22½ minutes of classical Savasana to a cyclic meditation practice:

• Both interventions improved attention, working memory, and reduced state anxiety, but Savasana alone showed smaller magnitudes of change than combined posture and relaxation practice.