For when your body is tired and your mind won't stop

Why trying to sleep keeps you awake

Sleep is one of the few things effort makes worse. Lying awake and checking the clock tells your body there's a problem to solve, and a body solving problems stays alert. Yoga Nidra gives the mind something simple to follow, like moving attention through the body or counting the breath backward, so it stops circling. The body gets permission to let go.

Researchers have found that Yoga Nidra shifts activity away from the parts of the brain involved in planning and control^[1] and slows breathing.^[2] Those are the same changes your body makes on its own as you fall asleep.

What the research shows

The most direct evidence comes from a randomized trial of 41 adults with chronic insomnia. Half did Yoga Nidra and half received cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), the standard recommended treatment. Both groups slept better. The Yoga Nidra group also had more deep sleep and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.^[3]

A smaller 2023 sleep-lab study found Yoga Nidra was well tolerated by people with insomnia and slowed their breathing, but a single session didn't make them fall asleep faster.^[2] That fits what I see in practice: the benefit tends to build with regular use.

How to use it for sleep

• At bedtimeUse a practice with no wake-up at the end, so it hands you straight over to sleep.
• At 3amIf you wake and can't get back to sleep, a practice can replace lying there thinking. Keep the screen face down and the volume low.
• In the afternoonAfter a bad night, 10 to 20 minutes of daytime rest can take the edge off without the grogginess of a long nap.
• ConsistentlyA few times a week for a month tells you more than any single night.