Yoga Nidra for Sleep

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I’m super happy to have an article published with Yogi Times about the benefits of Yoga Nidra for sleep.

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Click the photo to download this relaxing, 25-minute practice.

a zombie in class

One night a few years ago, a zombie showed up to my Yoga Nidra class. Haggard and vacant, she rolled out her mat on the back row and sat there trying to look like a normal, living person while other students were busy arranging their yoga mats, blankets, and eye pillows in preparation for our relaxing Yoga Nidra session.

As always, I asked the class if anybody needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra session. The zombie in the back row, trying her best to look normal, lifted a timid and tired hand, looked at me with dead, bloodshot eyes, and announced that her name was Suzie.

“Please,” she begged, “I haven’t slept—I mean really slept—for almost 6 months. I’m going crazy. Can Yoga Nidra help me?”

“Suzie, you’re in the right place,” I responded enthusiastically. I then explained to her and the rest of the class exactly how Yoga Nidra can help work its magic to promote excellent sleep. To prepare for Yoga Nidra, first I led the students in a few gentle asanas, then some relaxing pranayama, before instructing them to lie down, close their eyes, and relax.

Next, I led them through a 35-minute Yoga Nidra practice, and Awareness practice which acts like a guided meditation, where I focused on helping people achieve deep, peaceful, and nourishing sleep. I made an audio recording of the Yoga Nidra practice and sent it home with the students as homework. Suzie received the recording gratefully.

The next week, Suzie came back to class though I almost didn’t recognize her. The zombie that had come the week before had transformed into a vibrant human being with bright eyes, a warm face, and a wide smile.

Like normal, I asked if anyone in the class needed anything in particular from this Yoga Nidra practice. Suzie raised her hand again and excitedly reported to me and the entire class how the previous week’s Yoga Nidra practice helped her to relax more than she had been able to relax in a very long time. She also talked about how that night she went home and experienced an utterly fantastic night of deep sleep, and that she had been sleeping well ever since. 

(Drop the mic.)

Have you ever suffered from sleeplessness? Of course, you have. Everybody does. In the United States, 50–70 million adults of all ages and socio-economic classes suffer from regular sleep problems (Reference). Before you go get a prescription drug to help put you out, consider Yoga Nidra is an excellent, effective, and completely natural remedy for sleeplessness. Though it’s not addictive in the pharmaceutical kind of way, once you try it, you likely come back for more.

What? How?

I know what you’re thinking: what is Yoga Nidra and why is something like a guided meditation even called yoga? Also, how does lying down, closing your eyes, and listening to someone lead you through a guided meditation help you sleep better?

To understand what Yoga Nidra is, it’s best to start with the definition of yoga. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, (written between 500 BCE and 400 CE AD), says that the experience of yoga is to connect body, mind, and spirit to eliminate the disturbances of the mind and arrive at a state of Awareness called Samadhi, or Oneness. This state of Oneness is synonymous with wholeness. It’s rich. You might need a glass of milk to wash all of that down. And while Samadhi may sound quite lofty, ancient wisdom also says that it’s actually our most natural state because it’s our Source.

Be warned: the practice of yoga is different from the experience of yoga mostly in that the practice merely sets the conditions for the experience of yoga to occur. You can’t “make” Samadhi happen but regular practices of body, mind, and spirit connection can help us remember our Source and achieve regular glimpses of Samadhi. Then one day I guess you piece together all those glimpses to realize that you’re living Samadhi…