Yoga nidra is the answer to burnout, stress, anxiety, and our body’s need for rest. Just 45 minutes will take you to a blissful state of relaxation and allow you to feel as though you’ve had hours of deep sleep.
Have you ever gone to a yoga class just for those five delicious minutes of Savasana at the end? Where you get to feel your muscles sink into the floor as you rest in a sublime state of relaxation?
(Hint: The answer is yes and there is absolutely no shame in it.)
Now, how does 45 straight minutes of that relaxation sound?
Enter yoga nidra.
Whether you’re new to yoga or have been doing Downward Dogs for decades, yoga nidra is a powerful practice to incorporate into your routine. Touted for its restorative health benefits, yoga nidra — also referred to as “yogic sleep” or “conscious sleep” — allows the body to go into a deep state of relaxation. All it requires is a willingness to lie down, let go, rest, and be guided by a yoga nidra instructor.
What Is Yoga Nidra?
Yoga nidra is a type of meditation that can be traced as far back as 1000 B.C., when the Sankhya philosophy emerged, says Kim Trimmer, a yoga instructor for over 20 years and the owner of InsideOut Yoga Studio in Seattle. Then, in the 1960s, yoga nidra was formally introduced as a yoga practice to the public, based on the writings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati.
According to Sankhya philosophy, the key to happiness is to become aware of the distinction between the observer and what is being observed, such as thoughts, feelings, sensations, objects, and other beings.
By fully relaxing the physical body with yoga nidra, “the body and mind come to a deeply relaxed state with the intention of staying awake. In some [yoga nidra practices], you actually contemplate thoughts and feelings, holding them while in this state,” Trimmer explains to DailyOM. “Other [yoga nidra practices] provide images to hold or long periods of silence.”
Interested in learning more? Check out Awaken Your Chakra Energy
What Can You Expect From a Yoga Nidra Class?
A yoga nidra class, which typically runs about 45 minutes, starts with you lying supine on the floor, supported in whatever way you wish, whether it be with bolsters, blankets, or blocks. Over the course of about 40 minutes, a yoga nidra instructor will provide a guided meditation, usually starting with an inventory of your physical body and mind in that moment.
“You may start with deep breathing [and work] on remaining still. You will go through steps to help clear your mind,” Brandt Passalacqua, founder, director, and lead teacher at Breathing Deeply Yoga Therapy, tells DailyOM. “Then you may move to focusing your consciousness on different parts of the body, breath, and thoughts, as led by your guide, until you gain the necessary awareness of your body and relaxed state of being.”
As your body sinks deeper into relaxation with the yoga nidra meditation, you will find yourself in a state between wakefulness and sleep. The objective is to remain in this state of not fully asleep but not fully awake.
The key to happiness is to become aware of the distinction between the observer and what is being observed, such as thoughts, feelings, sensations, objects, and other beings.
“If possible, [you] shouldn’t move an inch once the practice begins,” says Jessica Crow, a yoga nidra teaching instructor, founder of CNTRD Wellness in New York City, host of the Mindscaping podcast, and author of The Power of Guided Meditation: Simple Practices to Promote Wellbeing.
“One of the goals of this practice is to begin to lose the conscious awareness and sensations of the physical body so your full awareness can reunite with the heart center, the intuition, the life essence, or the spirit,” Crow tells DailyOM.
In other words, as you allow yourself to relax, you will begin to let go of any physical tension so that you can be fully still and present in the meditation, following along mentally as your yoga nidra instructor guides you. A qualified teacher will know how to use correct timing and intuition to help you through the practice, says Crow.
This will help you reach a heightened sense of tranquility, or a “seventh sense,” says Kimberly Snyder, a spiritual and meditation teacher for celebs like Reese Witherspoon and Channing Tatum and the author of You Are More Than You Think You Are: Practical Enlightenment for Everyday Life.
“In yoga nidra, we restore our body, senses, and mind to their natural function and awaken a seventh sense that allows us to feel no separation,” she tells DailyOM. “That [seventh sense] only sees wholeness, tranquility, and well-being.”
When the session concludes, your instructor will gently lead you to a state of wakefulness once again. And one thing is for sure: The rest you will experience in less than an hour will rival any nap you’ve ever taken!
While not a replacement for sleep, yoga nidra can supplement the deep sleep that many of us, unfortunately, don’t get.
“[Yoga nidra allows] the body to enter into a state of consciousness that is almost in a deep sleep. And in this place, healing, reconstruction, repair, and reorganization take place at a cellular level,” Crow explains to DailyOM. “This healing and transformation occurs naturally when we’re in a particular part of our nightly sleep cycle, but many people don’t reach that state or don’t stay there for long because of insomnia or other disturbances.”
Health Benefits of Yoga Nidra
Scientific evidence is just beginning to scratch the surface of the benefits of yoga nidra, although plenty of anecdotal research and personal accounts from yoga experts have been validating yoga nidra’s effectiveness for years.
Snyder tells DailyOM that yoga nidra has been linked to helping with post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, stress, and depression. And Passalacqua adds that yoga nidra can transform negative thought patterns, bolster creativity, and even help people work through trauma.
In one study published in the International Journal of Yoga, people with menstrual irregularities who experience anxiety and depression who practiced yoga nidra saw improvements in their well-being.
Yoga Nidra for Stress Relief
According to the International Journal of Yoga, yoga nidra can aid those struggling with anxiety and insomnia. The reason for this, based on image studies of the brain, is that yoga nidra slows down the regions involved in executive control, emotion processing, and motor planning. When these functions slow down, it allows for physical and mental relaxation, which reduces anxiety levels. The same researchers also found that yoga nidra causes a release of dopamine to further encourage relaxation.
Since yoga nidra is a form of meditation (the main difference is that you’re lying down during yoga nidra instead of in an upright, meditative position), research backing meditation can also apply to yoga nidra. One study found that regulating brain waves through meditation can improve focus, memory, and mood, even in beginners. Meditation also has the ability to help with anxiety and depression, according to an analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Crow says that some people report that yoga nidra allows their mind to release and relax more than other types of meditation. “Since anxiety and other mood disorders are so prevalent in today’s society and rates are continuing to rise, the attraction to this type of practice has been growing.”
Yoga Nidra for Better Sleep
It’s hardly surprising that a practice referred to as “yogic sleep” can help with sleep concerns such as falling asleep or staying asleep. Multiple studies show yoga nidra offers a non-pharmacological approach for those with chronic insomnia that improves sleep quality.
Your Brain on Yoga Nidra
“Yoga nidra is a powerful and completely accessible tool with a myriad of benefits,” Trimmer tells DailyOM. “It serves as an unparalleled antidote to the fast-paced digital lifestyles that have so many stuck in sympathetic fight-flight nervous system response.”
As Trimmer explains, yoga nidra allows our brain waves to go from beta waves (the state of our brain during normal, daily activities) to an alpha state when brain waves begin to slow and serotonin is released.
“This helps you find inner calm,” Trimmer tells DailyOM. “As the fluctuations of the mind begin to subside, a feeling of deep tranquility and ease occurs.”
This causes the brain to emit delta waves, which are similar to brain waves emitted during deep sleep. Emitting delta waves in a conscious state during a yoga nidra practice provides tremendous benefits for your mental health.
“Having this occur while staying awake allows one to process subconscious thoughts and process deeply held beliefs and feelings in the present moment,” says Trimmer. “During delta waves we release melatonin and DHEA, which slow the aging process and possibly improve well-being and cognitive function. All of this leads to finding more freedom from detrimental mental habits and thought patterns.”
That said, don’t be dismayed if sleep does happen during yoga nidra.
“Although yoga nidra guidance is encouraging folks not to fall asleep, sometimes we’re in a phase of healing where the subconscious mind is processing trauma that might not be ready to process consciously, so yoga nidra gives a space that allows students to fall asleep,” says Greg Wieting, founder of PRISMA (a framework overlaying trauma, neuroscience and energy medicine with somatic and mindfulness-based practices), whom DailyOM spoke with for this article.
Wieting specializes in helping people heal anxiety, depression, and chronic pain rooted in trauma using yoga nidra. “Trust that if that level of deep rest is needed to support healing, then that’s the body’s innate wisdom getting it what it needs.”
While we could go on and on convincing you of yoga nidra’s benefits, the best way to be convinced is to experience it yourself. The yoga nidra experts whom DailyOM spoke with for this article suggest finding a qualified yoga nidra guide to lead you through the practice. It’s worth taking the time to find an instructor who is qualified to guide students with specific needs — like trauma, for instance, notes Wieting — so that you feel at ease in a safe space and have someone to assist you if any emotions arise during your practice. Wieting adds that some people may find a yoga nidra experience to be overwhelming or even threatening depending on the imprints of trauma they might be carrying.
“There isn’t a one-size-fits-all practice for everyone,” says Wieting to DailyOM. “It’s important to shop around. Different practices will resonate more than others, and not all practices are trauma informed. A [yoga nidra] practice that is absolutely brilliant or valuable for one person may not be the right practice for someone else in a particular phase of their healing.”
If you would prefer to try yoga nidra at home, that is also possible, but seek out an audio guide led by an experienced, trusted teacher.
To get started with yoga nidra, Crow suggests doing a full-length practice, typically about 45 minutes, once a week. When you feel you have a good understanding of the practice, you can transition to once or twice a month, or even on an as-needed basis. The important thing is to “keep the practice regular and fresh in your mind,” Crow says. Like all self-care activities, you’ll reap the benefits of it when you’re regularly practicing it.
Once you find the right online instructor or in-person class, and get a taste of that relaxation and sublime “seventh sense” that yoga nidra offers, you’ll be grateful you did.
