Those who love yoga already know it supports health. Yoga Nidra, a type of yoga performed lying down, can actually significantly impact sleep quality. In this article, we will explore how Yoga Nidra can support health and well-being and what studies say about its effects on sleep.
We’ll explore this type of yoga, its effects on the body, and its impact on sleep. We’ll show that it can improve sleep and provide a host of other benefits. Let’s start with the first topic:
What is Yoga Nidra?
If you’re new to yoga, you might not know the difference between Yoga Nidra and other yoga practices. In most cases, yoga involves moving through various positions while deep breathing and exercising muscle control. However, where Yoga Nidra differs is that it is generally done lying down. This type of yoga can guide you into conscious relaxation while you’re flat on your back on the yoga mat (Source: International Journal of Yoga Therapy).
Yoga Nidra is also known as “yoga sleep” because it is meant to bring about a state of relaxation while you’re also aware of your surroundings. While lying in Shavasana—or corpse pose—you’ll keep your body still and likely experience a guided meditation. It is during this state that your body benefits significantly, often improving blood glucose levels, your hormone levels, and more!
Even doing as little as an 11-minute Yoga Nidra meditation can help people get short, quick breaks for their mental health, leading to improved well-being and less stress over time. As you might expect, it can also positively impact your sleep, which we will explore in detail next.
How Yoga Nidra Affects Sleep Quality
With so many benefits already apparent when practicing Yoga Nidra, it’s no wonder it also benefits your sleep. With dozens of studies available discussing the impact of this type of yoga on sleep, let’s discuss the four main ways it impacts your sleep: guiding you to a deep meditative state, reducing stress and anxiety, enhancing sleep quality and duration, and helping to manage insomnia.
1. It Guides You to a Deep Meditative State
One of the main benefits of practicing Yoga Nidra before bed is the fact that it can guide you through all of the sleep stages even while you’re completely aware of both your internal and external surroundings.
One study showed that with practice, people who used this meditative practice were able to enter a natural hypnotic state without any hypnotic drugs or even being hypnotized, leading to them experiencing conscious and unconscious transformations within their minds (Source: PubMed).
This deep meditative state is beneficial not only for relaxing but also for encouraging better sleep. Due to Yoga Nidra's nature, the more relaxed you are, the more likely you are to sleep better and experience all of the necessary sleep stages.
2. Yoga Nidra Can Reduce Stress and Anxiety
Another important reason why many people turn to Yoga Nidra is because it has been touted by experts as an effective stress management tool. When you’re in this state of relaxation, you’re giving your brain and body a moment to regulate and simply be. This “calm inner stillness” that you experience because of this yoga practice can help you enhance your creativity, learning, and even achieve self-transformation over time.
Part of this is also related to how Yoga Nidra affects your body. As we previously discussed, you can experience physiological changes, like improved hormone balance and cardiovascular health, which also can contribute to your lessened anxiety and stress.
In some cases, Yoga Nidra can also impact dopamine, an important chemical that affects your mental health (Source: ResearchGate). So, if you struggle with anxiety and stress, Yoga Nidra can help you alleviate these symptoms so you get better rest over time.
3. It Enhances Overall Sleep Quality and Duration
Yoga Nidra is so spectacular because it can enhance your current sleep quality and duration. Over the years, many experts have studied this to determine that this type of yoga has a unique impact on the sleep stages.
With a Yoga Nidra intervention, participants in one study showed an improvement in the N2 and N3 stages of sleep. Additionally, the same study proved that total wake length and subjective sleep quality improved for most participants (Source: PubMed).
Thus, with such improvements noted by many scholars, it’s clear this unique type of yoga can be helpful for our sleep. Another study on men conducting Yoga Nidra for two weeks also demonstrated that they improved their quality and duration of sleep, specifically deep sleep. That goes to show that even short-term interventions can be helpful to our sleep!
4. Yoga Nidra Can Help with Insomnia
Because of the way that Yoga Nidra helps with deep sleep and subjective sleep quality, researchers also believe it can help with insomnia, a common sleep disorder. One study on 41 different patients showed that it can be used as an effective treatment for managing insomnia after supervised sessions to ensure the practice is used appropriately.
This is because of how Yoga Nidra improves sleep quality and Sleep Stage N3 (Source: ResearchGate). Over time, if you use this and have anxiety, you’ll begin to notice a difference in how restorative your sleep is and how rested you genuinely feel.
Try Yoga Nidra for Improved Sleep
Yoga Nidra is a fantastic practice that allows you to feel more relaxed and can also help you encourage better sleep. Even if you have insomnia, this can be a practical method for relaxing, unwinding, and enjoying restorative once again.
We hope this information helped you learn more about how to enjoy better rest and the power of Yoga Nidra! For more articles just like this one, visit our website today to read the latest insights from experts on sleep health.
