Yoga Nidra for Troubled Sleep
/I am not a great sleeper. For various reasons; large furry dog in my face, snoring husband, night sweats-thank you menopause-and life events that make my mind tell me stories long after I close my eyes.
Having studied the importance of sleep, I know how much trouble lack of sleep or chronic poor sleep can cause. But I can tell you this: Yoga Nidra is, bar none, the best solution I have come across in the 30 plus years I have worked in the health and fitness industry.
Yoga Nidra, literally translated from Sanskrit means Yogic sleep. It is a form of guided meditation. It is a helpful way to get to sleep and also a life saver if you’ve had a crappy sleep and still have to function the next day. All you do is lay down, get comfortable and listen. The more effortless you are, the better it is. What’s not to like?!
How Yoga Nidra Helps
Yoga Nidra is deeply relaxing at the physical, mental and emotional level so helps to combat anxiety, high blood pressure and other stress related conditions. It has been recommended by many psychotherapists and physicians and is often used for people suffering from PTSD.
Yoga Nidra slows stress related aging. In a study published in 2012 and other more recent studies since, found that meditation increased telomerase activity. Telomerase is an enzyme that prevents cells from aging.
Yoga Nidra allows you to restore your mind and body if you have not gotten the sleep you need. It does this by giving you extra time in slow wave brain patterns (alpha, theta, delta) where the body sorts out your experiences, files them away for future reference and repairs and regenerates the entire mind and body. It is said that 1 hour of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to about 3 hours of sleep.
Yoga Nidra helps to rewire neural networks. We humans are prone to be on the lookout for danger while dismissing positive things that make us feel good. This negativity bias creates automatic thinking that can limit our potential. Yoga Nidra helps form new neural networks that can make it easier to see past obstacles.
Yoga Nidra can help us think more clearly and creatively so we can problem solve more easily.
Anatomy of a Yoga Nidra Class
Yoga Nidra is a step-by-step guided meditation that has anywhere from 6-8 sections. This structure relaxes the entire mind-body system from the physical body to the unconscious mind. The general sections are listed below and each one has a purpose which I won’t go into here but, trust me, Yoga Nidra has a very purposeful design!
Initial relaxation
Intention setting
Rotation of awareness
Breath awareness
Body perception and working with opposites
Subtle body and energetic awareness via visualization
Repeat intention
Return to awake
I can tell you first hand that Yoga Nidra has saved my sanity. I use it regularly when my sleep is less than ideal. Not being able to sleep well usually stresses people out and creates a vicious cycle. Having Yoga Nidra as a tool helps break that cycle. I never get stressed about lack of sleep because I know that the majority of times, Yoga Nidra will help me get to sleep or at the very least provide me with some very deep rest. I mean, if you’re laying there awake anyway, why not do Yoga Nidra?
I have recorded a few short free Yoga Nidra demos on my You Tube channel and you can purchase the full length versions of these from my store.
You can also do live Yoga Nidra sessions with me in-person or online. These are personalized depending on what you happen to need in that particular moment.
I highly recommend this powerful Yoga-based meditation technique for anyone who has low energy or fatigue from poor sleep, or anything else for that matter. From a yoga perspective it is one of the best ways to restore your vitality.
Wishing you many restful sleeps!
=)
Lori
