What is Yoga Nidra? Why do we need it?

What is Yoga Nidra? Why do we need it?

Are you exhausted? Not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. The bone-deep depletion that comes from months—maybe years—of running on stress hormones and sheer willpower. Is your nervous system stuck in overdrive? Perhaps the answer isn't another goal or strategy. Perhaps it's a reset. Start where you are. That's exactly where Yoga Nidra meets you. This is where the practice becomes not just helpful, but transformative.

The Science of Stress

Many of us live in chronic sympathetic activation—the fight-or-flight state. Our nervous systems can become wired for survival, constantly scanning for threat. This state, while useful in actual danger, can keep us trapped in cycles of anxiety, insomnia, digestive issues, and emotional dysregulation.For the body to begin repair and restoration, it requires a shift into the parasympathetic state—the rest-and-digest mode.

Yoga Nidra activates the parasympathetic nervous system—the rest-and-digest state that allows your body to calm, heal, and restore. But unlike other relaxation practices, it does this in a uniquely powerful way.

What Makes Yoga Nidra Different

Yoga Nidra—Sanskrit for "yogic sleep"—is a guided meditation that takes you into a state between waking and sleeping. You remain conscious while your brain enters a sleep state, producing theta and delta brain waves. This is the state where your body naturally heals and restores itself.

Research shows that 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra can provide the restorative benefits of 2-4 hours of sleep. But the benefits go far deeper than rest.

The Research: What Studies Show

A comprehensive meta-analysis of 73 studies involving 5,201 participants found that Yoga Nidra significantly reduces stress, anxiety, and depression. This wasn't a small study—it was a rigorous assessment of Yoga Nidra's clinical effectiveness on mental health.

Specifically for women, the research is remarkable:

A randomized controlled trial with 150 women experiencing menstrual irregularities found that six months of Yoga Nidra practice significantly reduced both anxiety and depression, while improving positive well-being, general health, and feelings of vitality.

Another study comparing Yoga Nidra to seated meditation found that while both practices reduced anxiety and stress, Yoga Nidra showed a greater effectiveness regarding anxiety, particularly in addressing both the cognitive and physiological symptoms.

Even short practices work: an 11-minute Yoga Nidra meditation practiced over 30 days showed lower stress, higher well-being, and improved sleep quality, with effects remaining stable six weeks after the study ended.

Research with sedentary women during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that just six weeks of virtual Yoga Nidra practice significantly improved depression, anxiety, and stress levels—proving this practice works even when we can't gather in person.

How Yoga Nidra Resets Your Nervous System

Here's what happens during practice:

Heart Rate Variability: Studies show Yoga Nidra produces favorable shifts in autonomic balance toward the parasympathetic branch, improving heart rate variability—a key marker of nervous system resilience and overall health.

Brainwave Changes: Your brain moves from beta waves (normal waking consciousness) into alpha, theta, and delta waves. Theta state is where you're deeply relaxed, like during REM sleep. Delta waves are experienced during dreamless, deep sleep—the level where your body restores and heals itself.

Hormonal Shifts: Yoga Nidra leads to a drop in cortisol (stress hormone) while boosting serotonin, GABA (calming neurotransmitter), and oxytocin (the bonding hormone).

Emotional Release: Increased theta activity during Yoga Nidra has been linked to the release of suppressed emotions, fears, and desires. This is how we begin to heal patterns we've been carrying for years. This isn't just relaxation. This is neurological rewiring.

The iRest Approach: Trauma-Informed Practice

iRest (Integrative Restoration) is a research-based adaptation of Yoga Nidra developed by clinical psychologist Richard Miller. It's been endorsed for treating PTSD, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances. What differentiates iRest is its application for helping people stop being over-identified with their emotions, thoughts, and beliefs. iRest teaches you to welcome everything just as it is—to practice nonjudgmental presence. Through this compassionate welcoming, you develop connection with all parts of yourself.

The Practice: What Actually Happens

You might lie down. Get comfortable with blankets, bolsters, whatever helps you feel supported. Then, through guided instruction, you're invited on a systematic journey:

Body awareness - Scanning through sensations, perhaps releasing held tension

Breath sensing - Noticing the natural rhythm without controlling it

Emotional awareness - Allowing feelings to arise and pass without attachment

Sankalpa - An invitation to plant a heartfelt intention in your deeply receptive subconscious state. The sankalpa can be especially powerful. Not a goal born from willpower or "should," but an intention that may arise naturally when you're deeply relaxed and connected to your inner wisdom. This is one way to work with the subconscious rather than against it.

What Women Share About Their Experience

When women practice Yoga Nidra, they often report:

"The mental chatter finally quieted."

"I'm sleeping more deeply."

"I feel at home in my body again."

"I accessed wisdom I didn't know I had."

"I remembered who I am beneath all the doing."

Your experience will be uniquely yours. There's no "right" way to feel during or after practice. Some people feel deeply relaxed. Others notice subtle shifts over time. Some experience emotional release. Some simply rest. All of it is welcome. All of it is valid.

The Invitation

Has your nervous system been in survival mode? Yoga Nidra may offer a way back. Not through effort or achievement. Not through one more thing on your list to get right. But through an invitation to rest—deeply, and at your own pace. What might it feel like to create space for your nervous system to experience safety? To plant intentions when you feel ready? To welcome whatever arises with compassion?

You choose what this practice means for you.

Ready to experience Yoga Nidra? See upcoming workshops or contact me to learn more.