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Difference Between Yoga Nidra & Traditional Sleep

Before attempting the pose of Yoga Nidra, let us understand the concept of traditional sleep. Traditional sleep is, what you might call, normal, unaided sleep. This kind of sleep varies from individual to individual but, in most people today it is disturbed sleep. The few who live stress free lives and in a healthy unpolluted environment may achieve true relaxation, but most of us, have disturbed sleep.

Yoga Nidra, on the other hand, is Yogic sleep, a deep conscious sleep like the wakeful peace you enjoy in meditation. The difference between this form of sleep and traditional sleep is that in this form you are completely conscious and aware. Though not a technique that can be mastered easily, initially you start by focusing your mind gently on your breath, without letting your normal emotions, thought patterns, mental images and sensations to disturb you. You just let this flow carry you forward. You then learn to move from wakefulness, directly to deep sleep bypassing the dream state. Yoga Nidra is an extremely relaxing form of yoga that has long been used by Yoga practitioners.

The result of the Yoga Nidra is eventually amazing quietness, calmness and mental clarity. Yoga Nidra is among the most profound of meditation practices, leading the individual through different layers of mental consciousness up to a state of enormous tranquility and peace. Though this state is not easily achievable, people have reported that with thorough understanding, patience and practice, it is well worth the effort. Best of all the protracted practice of Yoga Nidra gives you profound insights into the depths of your mind that are well beyond the realm of other means of introspection.

While there are quite a few traditions of Yoga Nidra techniques almost all of them necessarily include disciplines and practices of meditation in sleep. Essentially, Yoga Nidra is a means of attaining deep sleep so that the sadhaka (spiritual aspirant) is – physically, mentally and emotionally – calmed, quietened and refined in preparation for the higher, more sublime levels of awareness and consciousness that can be attained through meditation and other sadhans (spiritual practices).

People who have long practiced Yoga Nidra as a guided meditation technique reported that an hour spent in Yoga Nidra is like the equivalent of four hours of normal, traditional sleep. The other advantage is that unlike traditional sleep there is no likelihood of waking up with feelings of tiredness and dissatisfaction.

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