Want to crush it on the gymnasium, within the workplace, and at residence? Start with a superb night time’s sleep. Rest is essential for general well being and well-being in any respect levels of life. With one in three adults reporting “poor” or “fair” sleep, many are exploring yoga nidra to have extra restful nights.
Having been recorded way back to the seventh century AD, “yogic sleep” has loads of advantages — like doubtlessly higher relaxation, stress administration, and a wholesome temper. But “yoga nidra is not a substitute for sleep,” says yoga nidra teacher Karen Brody.
It’s additionally not yoga. “Yoga nidra is a sleep-based meditation practice and a form of awareness,” she explains.
Read on to study guided meditation for sleep, the way to get began, what it may do for you — and why you continue to want at the very least seven hours of shuteye.
What Is Yoga Nidra?
Yoga nidra is a yogic meditation apply whose objective is a steadiness between leisure and consciousness that brings you to the third of 4 ranges of consciousness. In the context of sleep, that is the deepest stage of non-REM (speedy eye motion) sleep.
“Yoga nidra is a technique to access a state of deep relaxation for both the mind and body, where consciousness remains awake and aware,” says Tracee Stanley, writer of Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity and a yoga nidra facilitator and practitioner for over 20 years.
In a typical yoga nidra apply, you lie in your again in savasana whereas an teacher guides you thru a visualization designed to maintain you hovering between sleep and wakefulness. While you may drift off, that’s not the objective.
“The biggest misconception is that yoga nidra is a yoga nap,” provides Stanley. “During sleep, you are not aware. You do not remember what happened when you were asleep. In the state of yoga nidra, you remain conscious in the liminal spaces between sleep and wakefulness.”
How Does Yoga Nidra Work?
Yoga nidra helps you decelerate and loosen up, shifting your physique into “rest and digest” mode and turning on the parasympathetic nervous system.
The apply shifts you into “a peaceful and blissful state known as samadhi,” Stanley says. “Yoga nidra is the nurturing aspect of nature that welcomes repose, rest, and being held unconditionally,” she explains.
That sounds, properly, blissful, however does yoga nidra actually work? Research has confirmed important variations in delta mind waves after solely two weeks of a yoga nidra apply. Delta waves are related to the deepest ranges of leisure.
We’ll dive into different advantages in a while.
But as for claims that yoga nidra can offset a poor night time’s sleep or by some means exchange sleep? No manner, says psychotherapist Niloufar Esmaeilpour, who holds a grasp’s in medical psychology.
“Assuming that practices like yoga nidra can replace sleep is risky because sleep involves critical biological processes, including cellular repair, toxin clearance from the brain, and memory consolidation, which cannot be replicated by meditation or relaxation techniques,” she says.
Brody provides, “it can help people who have sleep issues fall asleep or get back to sleep. A good night’s sleep takes you from waking to dreams to deep sleep.” Yoga nidra does all that and takes you right into a “state of consciousness that cannot be accessed by conventional sleep.”
How Does Yoga Nidra Differ From Meditation?
While each yoga nidra and meditation supply guided routes to leisure, they differ in a variety of methods. For starters, you’re usually seated throughout typical meditation, whereas the customary physique place for yoga nidra is corpse pose (savasana).
The two practices additionally emphasize totally different levels of consciousness. In meditation, “you either follow your breath or a mantra while you are awake,” Brody explains, not like the sleep-wake-dream-bliss journey of yoga nidra, which reaches deeper ranges of leisure.
But it’s positively not a contest: Both yoga nidra and meditation supply ample advantages for thoughts and physique. And who couldn’t use some down time away from screens and work?
How to Do Yoga Nidra
Practicing yoga nidra for sleep is easy. You can discover an in-person or on-line class, or obtain a yoga nidra meditation on-line. (BODi’s Sound Meditation program consists of practices particularly for sleep.)
Find a snug spot to lie down — on a yoga mat, in mattress, on the sofa, and even in your automobile. If want be, you may even sit.
Once you’re cozy, flip in your guided meditation. You may need to cowl your physique with a blanket, placed on a watch masks, and/or put on headphones. Then, tune out the true world as you tune in to yoga nidra. You can apply yoga nidra any time of day or night time, and classes can final from quarter-hour to an hour or extra.
Yoga Nidra Benefits
Here are a few of the science-backed advantages of yoga nidra:
1. A lift of mindfulness
Health employees experiencing each bodily and psychological exhaustion underwent an eight-week guided yoga nidra program and confirmed “significant improvement” in mindfulness.
2. Less stress, improved vanity
A gaggle of college college students was administered one other eight-week yoga nidra routine consisting of twice-weekly, one-hour classes. The end result was a big lower in stress depth ranges and elevated vanity scores in contrast with a management group.
3. Better REM and non-REM sleep
Among sufferers with persistent insomnia who underwent a yoga nidra intervention, sleep high quality and effectivity improved considerably, even when put next with cognitive behavioral remedy.
What’s not on the record of advantages? Swapping in yoga nidra for sleep, regardless of what you may see on social media. Make yoga nidra a part of your leisure routine — however you should definitely prioritize the remaining you deserve each night time, too.