Yoga Nidra For Sleep : Complete Guide

‘Nidra,’ or slumber, is one of the four essential energy sources, along with food, sleep, breath, and meditation. Yoga Nidra is a combination of rest and meditation with the benefit of recharging us.

The purpose of Yoga Nidra is to progress into a profound state that entails transitioning from consciousness to dreaming and then from the unconscious to the conscious.

Yoga Nidra can be practiced at other times without being paired with other yoga practices, as long as one is on an empty stomach. It’s a rejuvenating tool for relieving everyday pressures in today’s frantic environment and getting a good night’s sleep.

Before Check out Yoga nidra for sleep check our other the YogaCurious blogs for more content like this: 6 Yoga Poses for the Crown Chakra.

Scientific Research about Yoga Nidra

Sages have been known to employ Yoga Nidra practice for better sleep.

It has become a viable treatment alternative for various disorders and has recently relieved menstruation irregularities, post-traumatic stress disorder, diabetes, anxiety, and depression. However, nothing is known regarding its impact on sleep or sleep disorders.

Although there are ample descriptions of it in literature, there’s no Yoga Nidra scientific research regarding sleep disorders.

Difference Between Yoga Nidra and Savasana:

Savasana is a kind of asana, or position. Yoga Nidra is a state of awareness that exists between sleep and wakefulness. The body is completely relaxed, and the mind remains alert simultaneously.

The proper application of Savasana may allow one to experience Yoga Nidra, but the two are distinct from each other. Savasana is not essential for Yoga Nidra, and practicing it does not guarantee that you will experience the effects of Yoga Nidra.

How Do You Practice Yoga Nidra For Sleep?

To induce Yoga Nidra, you must follow a series of instructions, similar to Yogic sleep meditation. It’s better to listen to a tape or attend a Yoga Nidra session to perform it in person.

Keep blankets, a soft mat, or any other comfortable surface available for you to lie on. Wear loose, comfortable clothes. Warm up your body and mind with some Yoga if you have time.

A quiet environment is another necessity because the most critical aspect is to focus.

Steps of a Yoga Nidra Practice

1. Connect to Your Heart’s Deepest Desire

To begin, lie down and relax into a comfortable posture, either on the ground or on a mat. After that, the guided meditation will begin. When your body has relaxed,You will set a good intention for your practice.

Connect to your heart’s deepest desire. This is referred to as a Sankalpa. You might want to consider what you wish for at the time or what you most desire to experience in your life.

2. Examine Your Body

The aim here is to pay close attention to the aforementioned bodily components. The entire surface of the brain will be activated as you move your awareness across your body. This will aid in the relaxation of the mind.

When you scan your body mentally, you forget about its materiality. This allows you to focus your attention inwards.

3. Become Aware of Your Breath

The next step will lead you through a series of opposing experiences while making you aware of your breath. This may involve sensations of heat and cold, as well as lightness and heaviness.

Experiencing opposites enables the conscious mind to assess how your body truly feels, rather than simply reacting to and depending on feelings from the outside environment.

4. Welcome Your Feelings and Witness Your Thoughts

The imagery component of Yoga Nidra practice reveals what is stored in the unconscious mind. You need to become one with your thoughts, which can be accomplished through various means.

It’s typical of imagery to utilize symbols and signs. Symbols are recognized as the mode of communication employed by the subconscious. They can lead to therapeutic healing and mental harmony as they can reignite suppressed ideas and emotions.

Reflect on Your Practices

As the session comes to a close, your mind will be open to lovely ideas and suggestions, that might assist in reinforcing the Sankalpa you made at the beginning.

Reflect on your practices while the instructor leads you back to the state of consciousness.

7 Benefits of Yoga Nidra

1. Reduces Stress

Yoga Nidra reduces physical and mental stressors by relaxing the entire nervous system. According to the current study’s findings, Yoga Nidra may be considered a very effective stress-reduction exercise since it relieves the tension of higher-level pupils.

2. Improves Concentration

Yoga Nidra, over time, makes more room for thoughts in your mind. It opens a window leading to your soul and allows you to learn about yourself via a contemplative and relaxing experience. This practice can also provide a road to liberation without increasing physiological tension.

3. Improves Cognitive Performance and Memory

Regular practice of Yoga Nidra increases cognitive performance by clearing up thoughts and tension in the brain. It accomplishes this by lowering stress.

Those who regularly practice Yoga Nidra have reported an improvement in their memory. It aids in preventing cognitive deterioration associated with ageing and increases attentiveness.

4. Helps With Creativity

It’s a somewhat helpful strategy for stimulating our creativity. Scientific evidence supports what many practitioners have previously discovered.

Yoga Nidra promotes creative energy by uniting our mind, body, and soul. In yoga, mindfulness is an intense meditation method.

5. Better Sleep and Improves Physical Health

As you reach a sleep-like condition, Yoga Nidra slows the waves in your mind. The experience frequently begins with sensing the body and breathing attentively to activate the relaxation response in your body.

Yoga Nidra prepares your mind and body for this relaxation process, thereby improving your sleep pattern.

6. Improved Self-esteem and Confidence

Concentrating on breathing exercises and deep breathing improves the amount of oxygen in your brain and your capacity to remain calm.

Being calm allows you to bring reason into your cognitive process and reduces stress, making you happier and more confident.

7. Helps Improve Autonomic Nervous System

Yoga Nidra helps us calm the autonomic nervous system, which is primarily responsible for our fight-or-flight response.

While both meditation and Yoga Nidra effectively lowered anxiety and stress, Yoga Nidra turned out to be more effective in reducing anxiety.

Conclusion

While practising yoga, Nidra may appear to be simpler than regular yoga. It requires effort, especially if you aren’t used to meditation or quieting your mind. She suggests training in a darkened place, away from distractions. If necessary, you can wear a sleep mask to filter out light.

And, like with most things, don’t give up if your first session seems complicated. Quieting your mind without doing anything is considerably more complex than you may have perceived. So, please give it a go and be patient for the benefits of Yoga Nidra to show eventually. You’ll get the hang of it quickly, especially when your mind and body want to rest and recover.

FAQs

1. How to overcome nightmares while practicing Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra tends to bring up one’s suppressed emotions which can often be reflected in nightmares. And so, it’s better to engage in a good session in the presence of an instructor instead of doing it alone. Then you won’t feel alone and be conscious of their fact despite being in a sleep-like state.

Nevertheless, the aim is to recover from one’s past trauma, so it’s recommended that you keep note of all the things you see during this period. This will allow you to connect with what’s hindering you from moving on.

2. What happens if you fall asleep during Yoga Nidra?

One’s intentions during Yoga Nidra should be to focus on bodily changes while staying relaxed.

Owing to the procedure of this particular yoga, one tends to stay more alert than one does during Savasana. Enough consciousness is generated that the practitioners wake up instantly when instructed to do so if they fall asleep.

However, yoga gurus will guide you to stay awake. Being unconscious in this case means you’re no longer aware of your surroundings or of yourself, which defeats the purpose of the practice.

3. Are there any side effects of Yoga Nidra?

There are no side effects of Yoga Nidra like any other yoga practice. However, there should be a significant gap between taking one’s meals and performing the yogic meditation.

The combined involvement of physical movements, breathing, and relaxation intervals are responsible for improving the practitioner’s mood, ultimately reducing anxiety-related issues. Therefore, there’s nothing to be afraid of while adopting this method into your lifestyle.