Yoga Nidra for Sleep: Guided Meditations for Relaxation and Rest

Yoga nidra not only improves the quality of your sleep, it can also help you feel happier, healthier, more relaxed and more energetic.

Can I Fit Yoga Nidra Into My Life?

Yoga nidra is a very straightforward practice, and can fit into even the busiest of schedules. (Looking at you moms with screaming kids!) Even if your work week is 60 hours, (feel free to include time spent making your kids’ meals!) Yoga nidra is accessible to everyone. You do not need any specialized equipment or prior experience. Just grab your device, find a class that interests you, lie down and press play (We recommend headphones to give you that immersive feel). Heck, on DoYogaWithMe you don’t even need to give us your email address!

A great example to begin with is Jennifer Piercy’s Yoga Nidra for Sleep. It’s one of our most popular guided meditations because of how effectively it relaxes your body and calms your mind, setting you up for good night’s sleep. I will link to more of our yoga nidra guided meditations at the end of this article so you can try them out as well.

What is Yoga Nidra?

The experience of Yoga Nidra is best summarized as experiencing a conscious shift into a sleep state. While you are not actually sleeping (sometimes people do fall asleep!); it feels like you’re somewhere between being awake and asleep. This deeply restful state aides the body’s systems of regeneration and repair, as well as improving memory, mood, and alertness. Yoga nidra can also help you manage anxiety and depression, promoting a sense of vitality and general well being. I regularly practice Yoga Nidra as it keeps me feeling grounded and enables me to be more present in my life and with my friends and family.

How Do I Do Yoga Nidra?

To begin a guided yoga nidra meditation, start by lying in savasana (corpse pose, lying on your back) on a comfortable surface. Make sure that you are warm enough and that you won’t be disturbed for the duration of the guided meditation. I highly recommend that you listen with headphones on - the experience will feel much more intimate and you will find it easier to follow. Choose the recording you would like to listen to and press play. It’s as simple as that. You need do nothing more.

What Are The Benefits Of Yoga Nidra?

The benefits of yoga nidra are many. It is believed to take you through the five layers of self (pancha maya kosha), guiding you through a slow, gradual deepening of sensory experience within your body. It can induce a sense of deep inner peace and equanimity, even within a short period of time. For many, it’s an incredibly powerful practice that and shift you out of periods of insomnia, heightened stress and tension and into a state that is restful, calm and ready for sleep.

Guided Audio Meditations

If you would like to experience the benefits of Yoga Nidra for yourself, we have 9 free yoga nidra audio recordings available. These recordings easy to listen to, include short and long ones and are easy to fit into your schedule. You can either stream them from the site or download them to your mobile device (they aren’t expensive to purchase).

Here is the list:

Free Guided Yoga Nidra with Jennifer Piercy:

Yoga Nidra for Sleep

Yoga Nidra: Sleep Sessions

Yoga Nidra with Jennifer Piercy

Once you begin, you’ll notice almost immediately how much better they are helping you feel.

I’m certain that once you have experienced the deep, healing relaxation of Yoga nidra practice, you too will make it a regular part of your life.
 

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