Yoga Nidra Practice
Yoga Nidra translates as “Yogic Sleep”. This is a 20 minute journey to take you through your body and help your brain activity drop to delta wave patterns (the state your brain is in when you’re in stage 3 deep sleep and REM sleep. Therefore, the studies suggest 20 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to approximately 2.5 hours of sleep, and can be beneficial for people suffering insomnia or sleep disturbances.
I recommend doing this meditation lying down on your couch or bed, with a cushion under your needs and head, a blanket over your body (a lightly weighted blanket would be best.
Despite the name, the goal here is not to fall asleep (although don’t think of it as failure if this does happen). You’re meant to maintain a kind of lucid state, where you’re conscious of my voice and you’re softly being guided through your body, but the process begins to feel automates (similar to as if you were to go into autopilot and let go of the steering wheel).
Enjoy!
