Yoga Nidra: Why we need it now more than ever

Yoga Nidra:

Why we need it now more than ever

Sleepless & Anxious in America 

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This article was originally written in 2019 for Soma Yoga Institute about the need to unplug and tap into the practice of Yoga Nidra. Nidra is the opposite of adrenal fatigue, and in our modern world, adrenal fatigue has become common language and a common affliction. However, since 2019 the levels of stress, depression, and anxiety have only increased on a global level. While Yoga Nidra is not a solution for modern life, when done as a practice, it is a vehicle to come home to the self, beyond all the chaos taking place; both outside the body, and in the mind and in the heart. This article is research based, both scientific and personal. My hope is that you give Yoga Nidra a try, more than once, because anything worth doing bares repeating.

Yoga is not just meant for the mat. The benefits of mindfulness and meditation transcend our individual bodies, experiences, and deeply impact the world around us. Meditation is needed now in the wake of our current divisive political atmosphere and polarity amongst genders, races, and classes. Our ‘always on’ lifestyle with email on our wrists, and comparison at our fingertips, keeps us in constant connection, but at what cost? Our world is getting faster and faster; thus, we are having to split ourselves into smaller and smaller parts to take it all in, and get everything done. This frenetic lifestyle disrupts our physiology as we process more sensory input (Apple watch, cell phone, tablet, computer) than we ever have before. Both the acceleration and distraction in today’s world causes us to be anxious, fearful, depressed, and scatterbrained (Hardy, 2019.)

Due to tech overload, more than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, according to study in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC.) Sleeping less than seven hours per day is associated with an increased risk of developing chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, and frequent mental distress (CDC,2016.) “As a nation we are not getting enough sleep,” said Wayne Giles, M.D., director of CDC’s Division of Population Health. Yoga Nidra, or yogic sleep, just might be part of a mindfulness cocktail needed to help balance our stressed-out, sleepless nation. 

Tangential to studies reporting Americans sleeping less are those reporting anxiety on the rise.  Around 2.6 million American children and adolescents had diagnosed anxiety and/or depression in 2011-12( Wolters, 2018). According to the Wolters study, the number of children suffering from anxiety and NOT depression has increased in the years since the study was first published (as has our dependency on tech and screen time.) With statistics this alarming, it’s clear we are an anxious nation raising another anxious generation. Perhaps, instead of heading to the doctor and resorting right away to medication, Yoga Nidra just might be the tool to select from one’s psychological toolbox as a natural-holistic alternative. 

Yoga Nidra is a practice that works in contrast with our scattered brains and stressed-out sleepless bodies. In Yoga Nidra, the body sleeps, the mind rests, and the consciousness is awake. While the practice offers restoration the aspiration of the practice is much greater. Yoga Nidra aims to tap into deeper layers of the mind and explore the subconscious in a meaningful way which relates to how one processes the world during waking life. Rod Stryker (2019) an expert in the field of yoga and Yoga Nidra, was quoted on the Yoga Healer podcast earlier this year, “The practice [of yoga Nidra] allows us to slow down internally while making us more unified both individually and collectively.”

But really, Just What is Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is meditation practiced while in a reclining position which stills the waves of the mind through conscious entry into a sleeping state. The method includes a body scan with breath awareness, and adds a visual and sense component (Reis, 2019.) There are between 7-10 stages of Yoga Nidra depending on which method one practices, IREST and Divine Sleep to name just a few. As the practitioner moves through the stages, she’s also moving through the five koshas, or layers, of being. Each stage opens the doorway to the next stage, as the practitioner moves deeper into relaxation.  The process is guided, structured, and methodical. The best way to start getting into Yoga Nidra is to attend a public class where teacher offers the practice as a knowledgeable guide.  If this is not an available option, it is possible to start a practice with a recording such as this Rod Stryker Yoga Nidra from YouTube.  To get a sense of the true potential of the practice, it is helpful to start by doing it every single day for at least 3 months and then reflect on your experience to decide on frequency going forward (Sastray, 2019.)

The Practice 

The Methodology of Yoga Nidra is the intersection of sleep and meditation (Stryker, 2019.) The practitioner begins by lying on the floor, sensing her body, and breathing with equanimity to elicit the relaxation response. The relaxation response balances the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, as well as, the left and right brain. In the process, the brain shifts from beta wave production, an awakened state with lots of brain activity, to alpha, a more relaxed state. In alpha, the mood-regulating hormone serotonin is released and the practitioner relaxes (Brody,2018.) The practice is a progressive relaxation throughout the entire body. The brain moves from alpha to theta brain-wave state, the dream state or REM sleep. Theta is the desired state in Yoga Nidra. Deep and raw emotions are processed here. In this state one improves intuition, creativity, and gains capacity for restorative sleep (Gilbert,2018.) 

From theta state, one enters delta or deep sleep.  This is the most restorative state, in which one’s organs regenerate, and the stress hormone cortisol is removed from the system. We can witness this state most easily in infants; peacefully sleeping in precarious positions, through all kinds of noise. This is where the potential for deep rest, relaxation, and relief for an over-taxed nervous system takes place. When one consciously relaxes, the brain switches off the sympathetic nervous system (fight/flight/freeze) and switches on the healing qualities of the parasympathetic nervous system. Modern humans predominantly spend time in active (sympathetic) mode, and not enough in relaxation mode, which can lead to chronic conditions like insomnia, allergies, asthma, and digestive issues.  Technology creates infinite distractions and we lose our elemental connections to the natural world around us. “Instead of coffee breaks we need awareness breaks,” (Stillman, 2019). These breaks can do more than rest the body and mind from a typical taxing day; they begin to restore collective fatigue. Restoring ourselves as a practice allows us as individuals, and as a society, to remember that peak levels of performance come from optimal brain function. Optimal brain function results from the ability to rest and restore on a regular basis (Hardy,2019.)

Scientific Observation on the Technique of Yoga Nidra

How can we actually know what is happening in the brain during a Yoga Nidra session? Yogis and scientists in Sweden got together to examine what happens to the brain on Yoga Nidra. Pictures of the brain were taken by a PET scanner, at The State University Hospital in Copenhagen. The researchers, Dr. Hans Lou and Dr. Troels Kjær from the Kennedy Institute in Copenhagen piloted the research. During the study, the subjects lay, one at a time, in the PET scanner and listened to a recording of the CD, Experience Yoga Nidra, guided by Swami Janakananda. While each subject was in the scanner, six pictures were produced from the scanned material of each subject. Each picture showed which area of the brain was active and when. One picture was taken before Yoga Nidra, four pictures are taken during Yoga Nidra , and one picture taken after Yoga Nidra.   The photos show specific regions of the brain activating sequentially in accordance with where the subject was in the Yoga Nidra sequence. The photos below include a sampling. 

The first picture taken before the Yoga Nidra practice shows the frontal part of the brain, responsible for the overall management, is active. The brain stem and the cerebellum are also active, indicating that one is ‘ready for action’.

The second picture shows the brain’s general state during the entire Yoga Nidra. The visual center at the back of the head and the somatosensory center at the top of the head are active and in contact with the limbic system. This implies an increased ability to visualize and, more importantly, that there is better contact with emotions.

The third picture was taken during the portion of the practice where one is guided from relaxation to a deep centering. During these ‘abstract experiences’ in Yoga Nidra, the center for speech and language was quite active.

The fourth image displays active visual and tactile centers which were active as the subjects went through the guided journey stage of the Nidra.

What the Results Mean

The measurements of the brain’s activity (EEG) indicated that the subjects were in a deeply relaxed state, like that of sleep, during the whole Yoga Nidra. The theta activity rose significantly (11%p) on all the twenty-one electrodes ( Nilson, 2019). This increased time in theta and out of a beta state allows the mind and body to relax and restore. With our current overly anxious society, Yoga Nidra might help people to live with a higher overall quality of well-being with less stress and more happiness (Vaishnav Bhalendu S, 2019).

Why this Matters

Yoga Nidra seeks to bring healing, improve concentration, create transformation, resolve, and a connection to spirituality to each practitioner (Sastray,2019.) Yoga Nidra allows us to incorporate these elements into our lives by creating time and space to ‘welcome our ourselves.’ Our authentic selves need time to be idle: to be bored and to daydream. When we are constantly jumping from one activity to the next and abate our boredom by mindlessly scrolling on our tech, we physiologically change our internal make-up (Stryker,2019.) When we are constantly numbing feelings of boredom or loneliness we can begin to live in a metaphorical state of sleeping, or not being fully awake and present in our own lives. Beyond profound rest in Yoga Nidra, we can explore levels of our subconsciousness that break our cycles and examine our habits. We are more than our bodies, more than our likes and dislikes, more than our disappointments and successes, more than good and bad, (Stryker, 2019.) Nidra is a gateway to deep healing not only on a physical level, but therapeutic to all five of our koshas or deeper layers. The meditation practice focuses on cultivating multiple levels of well-being. Practiced with consistency and awareness, one may find the route needed to foster more peace and balance at any stage in life. Beyond one’s own life, Yoga Nidra might be part of creating a more embodied and actualized nation and human race. This practice creates connection both between one person to another and with the universal assembly that exists within us all just below the surface. 

References

Brody.K. (November,2017.) How can Yoga Nidra Help You Get More Sleep. Retrieved from https://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/your-brain-on-yoga-nidra

CDC Newsroom (February, 2016.) 1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep. A good night’s sleep is critical for good health.Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0215-enough-sleep.html

Gilbert, A. (March, 2019). Yoga Nidra. (Pre-Practice Lector). Caribe Yoga Academy, Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. 

Hardy, B. (2019.) This Moring Routine will Save You 20+ Hours per Week.  Retrieved from http://benjaminhardy.com/this-morning-routine-will-save-you-20-hours-per-week-2/

Janakananda, S. (2019.) Tantra and Yoga Nidra. About Nyasa, Chakras, consciousness and the resolution in Yoga Nidra. Retrieved from : http://yogameditation.com

Nilsson, R. (2019). Pictures of the brain’s activity during Yoga Nidra. Retrieved from: https://www.yogameditation.com/reading-room/pictures-of-the-brains-activity-during-yoga-nidra/

Reis, J. (2019.)The Art and Science of Yoga Nidra: A Q&A. Retrieved from https://kripalu.org/resources/art-and-science-yoga-nidra-qa-jennifer-reis

Sang Dol, K. (May, 2019). Effects of a Yoga Nidra on the Life Stress and Self-Esteem in University Students. Complementary Theories in Clinical Practice. Vol.35.232-236. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1744388118308089

Sastry,D.  (2019.) Yoga Nidra: Everything You Wanted to Know about Yogic Sleep. Retrieved from https://lotsofyoga.com/blogs/yoga-styles/yoga-nidra-yogic-sleep. 

Stillman, C (Show Host). (2019, Feb, 21) Yoga Healer Podcast. Retrieved from https://yogahealer.com/how-to-heal-and-restore-with-yoga-nidra/

Stryker,R. (Interviewee). Yoga Healer Podcast [audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://yogahealer.com/how-to-heal-and-restore-with-yoga-nidra/

Wolters Kluwer Health. (April, 2018). "More than 1 in 20 US children and teens have anxiety or depression.". Science Daily. Retrieved from: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180424184119.htm