Non-Sleep Deep Rest
Also Known as "Yoga Nidra"
or "Yogic Sleep"
In our effortless sleep course, you’ll see how learning what scientists have discovered regarding the stages of sleep can be utilized to help you get a better sense of what it means to get to sleep “without trying.”
In studying the research on sleep, I’ve noticed that sleep researchers often aren’t very familiar with the research on dreams. Dream researchers may not be familiar with lucid dreams (dreams in which you’re aware that you’re dreaming). And in many cases, neither sleep nor dream researchers are familiar with much of the research on meditation and mindfulness.
One of the main skills needed for working with dreams is the ability to dip into profound states of relaxation. Such profound states are rarely achieved through popular relaxation practices - including those such as Yoga Nidra which are commonly taught in yoga and mindfulness classes, as well as those which are included in stress management and cognitive behavioral therapy sessions.
So let’s look at the research in these different fields and see how it can be used to help you get an even deeper, more restorative sleep.
Why It’s Helpful to Know About Sleep Stages
It has been known since the 1920s, when Nathaniel Kleitman and Eugene Aserinsky developed the first sleep laboratory, that rapid eye movements are associated with dreaming. In 1955, Dr. William Dement, one of Kleitman’s students, identified various stages of sleep. Since then, lucid dream researchers have discovered that by timing your sleep to make optimal use of these sleep stages, you can both remember more dreams and develop the ability to have lucid dreams.
Well, it turns out that when you learn to pay attention to the various stages of sleep as they unfold, you also discover a profound level of effortless relaxation that emerges spontaneously as you fall asleep. You can develop the ability to recognize when this effortless state of profound relaxation shows up, and learn to use it as one of the most powerful means of falling asleep without effort.
In our sleep course, you’ll learn to identify very specific experiences associated with Stage 1 and the transition to Stage 2 sleep, and how to notice when they emerge. With consistent practice, over time, this can both dramatically reduce the time it takes you to fall sleep and increase your overall sleep quality.
A further benefit of becoming more acquainted with sleep stages is that you develop an ability, any time of day or night, to relax in such a way that your body automatically shifts into this deeply relaxed state. It's a truly marvelous discovery when you realize how easy it can be to shift into that state no matter what you have been doing, what you’ve eaten, or what time you’ve gone to bed.
Becoming Mindful of the Transition from
Stage 1 to Stage 2 Sleep
Richard Miller has developed a profoundly restful practice he calls “iRest.” It combines mindfulness, deep relaxation and a practice known as “yoga nidra” – or “yogic sleep.” He's conducted extensive research at several veterans’ hospitals showing the effectiveness of iRest in helping veterans overcome trauma. Uma Dinsmore-Tuli founder of the International Yoga Nidra Network, who has been teaching yoga nidra for over 25 years, describes the practice as essentially the same as learning to “become mindful of the transition from stage 1 to stage 2 sleep.”
Miller has also conducted research on insomnia at the Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, showing the value of yoga nidra for relieving insomnia, even in veterans suffering from PTSD.
My own research on lucid dreams in the early 1990s focused on the power of being mindful of the spontaneously arising images that occur during the transition from Stage 1 to Stage 2 sleep. The extensive work of dream expert Charley Morley, who has successfully helped thousands of insomniacs and trauma victims overcome their difficulties, confirms that becoming mindful of this transitional stage is a very powerful means of easing effortlessly into sleep.
In our course, "From Sleepless Nights to Effortless Sleep," you will be listening, each night, to a 20-30 minute guided Yoga Nidra practice with music I've composed especially to help you learn to effortlessly fall asleep and fall back to sleep when you wake up during the night.