Perfect for winding down before bed – or anytime you need a reset in your mind and body – our Yoga Nidra classes can help you achieve total physical, mental, and emotional relaxation.
What is Yoga Nidra?
Yoga Nidra, also known as yogic sleep, is a conscious relaxation practice focused entirely on one pose – Savasana (Corpse Pose). The practice draws your attention inwards to find the balance between wakefulness and sleep, consciousness and unconsciousness.
What is Yoga Nidra in practice? While lying comfortably in Savasana, your teacher will guide you through your five layers of self (Pancha Maya Kosha) to achieve a deep sense of wholeness and contentedness.
Why You’ll Love Yoga Nidra
If heated rooms and flowing poses aren’t your speed, Yoga Nidra can give you a refreshing break from your day. A Yoga Nidra class can help you achieve:
- Blissful moments of relaxation in your day
- A zen-like calm in mind and body
- Reduced stress and anxiety
- More restful and restorative sleep
What to Expect
When you join a Yoga Nidra class at YogaWorks, you can expect your class to be a calm and relaxing experience. Your 30-60 minute class could leave you feeling like you had a deeply refreshing nap!
During class, your teacher will have you lie down on a mat, blanket, or bed. You will rest in Savasana, and enjoy a soothing, guided meditative journey inwards. If you fall asleep during class, that’s okay! Your unconscious mind will still absorb the benefits of this practice.
Yoga Nidra Benefits
Yoga Nidra has been shown to work deeply with our autonomic nervous system. This system includes your heartbeat, digestion, breathing, and sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
Traveling deep into your Koshas (your inner layers) can help to calm your fight-or-flight response, and improve your stress management. It can also increase your melatonin levels, which helps to regulate your immune system, blood pressure, and quality of sleep.
Studies have shown that Yoga Nidra is more effective in reducing anxiety than meditation or other styles of yoga, and it may even help people work through trauma – making the benefits of Yoga Nidra benefits powerful indeed.
Get Started Today
Ready to experience the soothing effects of Yoga Nidra? Members get unlimited access to all classes with our highly trained yoga teachers – try free for 14 days!
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FAQs About Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra is a wonderfully restorative practice for absolutely anyone. Since you can do it from the comfort of your bed, it doesn’t require prior experience. Yoga Nidra is a great meditative practice for all ages and abilities.
In particular, Yoga Nidra benefits people who struggle to let go of daily stresses, have difficulty meditating, or suffer from sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression, or PTSD. It is also perfect for anyone looking to connect with themselves on a deeper level and experience bliss in their body.
The practice of Yoga Nidra originated in ancient India. Its roots can be traced to Sankhya philosophy, and the state of “yoga-nidra” was mentioned in both the Upanishads and the Mahabharata. Yoga Nidra was seen as the “deep sleep under the spell of spiritual meditation.”
Of course, the Yoga Nidra we know today is very different than in ancient times, and modern practice was popularized by Swami Satyananda Saraswati in the mid-20th century.
Satyananda Saraswati explained that you could open your mind in the state between wakefulness and dream – and he constructed a clear, 8-stage system to help practitioners get there.
Yoga Nidra and meditation may seem very similar at first glance. They are both about slowing down, turning the gaze inward, and relieving stress. But in reality, they are two different practices.
The most obvious difference is in your body position. During Yoga Nidra, you are lying down in Savasana. During meditation, you are usually seated.
Another difference is in the intention of the practice. Yoga Nidra is a yogic “sleep” which promotes self-awareness through relaxation of the mind and body. Meditation, on the other hand, is practiced with the goal of self-awareness and spiritual growth.
To truly understand what Yoga Nidra is, you need to have a deeper understanding of the Koshas – the five layers of self. These layers are deeply interconnected, and if there is an issue with one Kosha, it affects all the others.
- Physical body (Annamaya Kosha) – This is the outermost layer of your self, made up of your physical bones, muscles, organs, and skin.
- Energetic body (Pranamaya Kosha) – This layer is composed of your body’s life-force energy, sometimes referred to as “prana” or “chi.” The Pranamaya Kosha is the animating force behind your heartbeat, your breath, and your energy.
- Mental/emotional body (Manomaya Kosha) – This third layer deals with your emotions, senses, and your nervous system. People who struggle with anxiety often have an overactive Manomaya Kosha, which yogic practice can help soothe.
- Wisdom body (Vijnanamaya Kosha) – This layer is your inner knowing, the higher intelligence you carry inside of you. It shows up when your intuition gives you a gut feeling, and helps you understand who you are and how you relate to the world.
- Bliss body (Anandamaya Kosha) – This is the deepest layer at the core of your being. It is a state where you experience pure joy, peace, and freedom. When in Anandamaya Kosha, your consciousness expands beyond your body, and time ceases to exist or matter.
Yoga Nidra helps you to draw attention to each of your Koshas, to peel them away until you reach your true essence – the blissful body. This practice can help you to process your emotions and achieve deep relaxation and peace.
