Yoga Nidra For Deep Sleep

Fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer with this 15-minute Yoga Nidra meditation. If your mind is running a mile a minute, or you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, likely your nervous system is in need of a little support to calm down. Yoga Nidra is one of the most effective, non-drug-induced, ways to lower your heart rate, calm your nervous system, and help quiet down those pesky to-do lists that keep running through your head.

Transcript

Hello friend,

Welcome.

This is a 10-minute yoga nidra or non-sleep deep rest meditation that will help quiet your mind,

Lower your heart rate,

Calm your nervous system,

And prepare your body to drift off to sleep faster and to stay asleep longer.

As such,

I recommend that you get into bed.

Turn the lights off or down very low and prepare yourself as if you're going to sleep.

If you need,

You can pause the recording right now.

Go brush your teeth or take care of anything else that you might need so that right after the meditation you're able to drift right into sleep.

If you're all ready for bed,

Go ahead and get comfortable.

On your next inhale,

Reach your arms up overhead taking a full body stretch.

Then hold here for a couple breaths.

Maybe take some wrist circles and ankle circles.

Then on your next exhale,

Hug your knees into your chest.

Slightly press your tailbone down into your mattress and try to lift your chest up a bit to help lengthen your spine.

Go ahead and take three slow breaths in and out through your nose here.

Now relax your body into a comfortable position.

If they're not already closed,

Go ahead and close your eyes now.

We're going to take five controlled breaths all together just to help begin to calm our nervous system.

We're going to be inhaling for a count of four.

We'll then hold at the top for a count of three.

Then we'll exhale for a count of six.

Then we'll hold again after the exhale for a count of two.

Then we'll repeat.

Whenever you're ready,

Go ahead and completely empty your lungs.

Now begin to inhale for a count of four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold at the top for a count of three,

Two,

One.

Exhale for six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold at the bottom for two,

One.

Inhale for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold at the top for three,

Two,

One.

Exhale for six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold for two,

One.

Inhale for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold at the top for three,

Two,

One.

Exhale six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold for two,

One.

Inhale for three,

Two,

One.

Hold at the top for three,

Two,

One.

Exhale six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold at the bottom for two,

One.

Last round.

Inhale for three,

Two,

One.

Hold at the top for three,

Two,

One.

Exhale six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Hold for two,

One.

Go ahead and let your breath return to normal.

Now I'm going to ask you to begin to visualize some things.

If you've never done meditations with visualization,

Just know it is totally normal for it to feel a little challenging at first.

Do your best not to judge yourself on how clearly you're able to visualize what I'm guiding you through.

Judgment and self-criticism are probably the fastest way to break a meditative state.

So if you're not able to visualize clearly or if you notice that images or other thoughts begin to cloud the image I'm guiding you through,

Do your best to simply notice that your mind has drifted and then try to bring it back to the image without judgment.

Or if that's not working,

Try to bring your attention to your breath and do your best to be an observer of your breath pattern.

Again,

Without judgment.

Ideally your breath will make a wave like pattern in your body.

Let's try that now.

Go ahead and place one hand on your lower abdomen,

One hand on your chest,

Allowing your arms and shoulders to completely relax.

On your next inhale,

Let your lower abdomen rise first and your breath expands up into your chest,

Going all the way to the crown of your head.

As you exhale,

Your lower abdomen falls first,

Pulls the everything else down with it.

Let's do that again.

Inhale,

Your belly rises,

Expands up into your chest,

Going all the way to the crown of your head.

Exhale,

Your belly falls,

Pulling everything else down with it.

Alright,

See if you can maintain this pattern of breath throughout the rest of this meditation.

And remember,

You can always use your breath as a point of focus if the visualization becomes too challenging.

Now I want you to imagine that your body is a skyscraper in a city at night,

All lit up from the inside,

Shining out.

You might not have all your windows lit up,

But for the moment,

Most of your windows are shining light outwards.

And as a whole building,

You are mostly lit up.

Don't worry about the windows that are dark.

Those parts have just already gone to sleep.

Now we're going to start to turn our lights off,

One part at a time.

So bring your attention to your right toes.

See if you can just notice how many lights are on in your toes without trying to change anything.

And start to turn the lights out,

Beginning with your pinky toe,

Moving all the way over to your big toe.

As all the lights in your right toes turn off,

Start to shift your focus into the ball and arch of your right foot.

Pausing again for a moment just to notice the lights that are on.

And then when you're ready,

Start to turn each of them off,

Making your way down your foot all the way to your heel.

Once you have all the lights out in your right foot,

Bring your attention over to your left toes.

Again,

Start to shut all the lights off in your left toes,

Beginning with your pinky toe and moving over to your big toe.

And then continue down into the ball and arch of your left foot,

Going all the way down to your left heel.

Once both of your feet are completely dark,

Bring your attention to your right lower leg,

From your ankle to just below your knee.

Pausing again to notice all the lights that are still on in this area.

And beginning at your right ankle,

Start to turn your lights out,

Moving all the way up to just below your knee.

If you notice that there are some windows where the lights just don't want to turn off,

Try using your breath to help blow out the light,

Almost like you're blowing out a candle.

And if that doesn't work,

Don't worry.

Just keep moving up your leg,

Turning off all the lights that you can.

Once your right lower leg is turned off,

Bring your attention over to your left lower leg.

And just like before,

Beginning at your ankle and moving up,

Start to turn your lights out.

Now notice your right knee,

Dense with lots of lights turned on.

Start to turn them all off,

Beginning below your knee and moving to the back of your knee,

Then to the center,

And then to the top of your knee.

As your right knee turns off,

Bring your attention over to your left knee.

And start to do the same thing,

Shutting all the lights off below your knee,

Then behind,

Then at center,

And finally at the top of your knee.

Now moving your attention to your right thigh.

Notice how many lights are on,

All the way around your thigh and up into your glutes.

Begin turning all the lights out in your right thigh,

Moving from the top of your knee all the way up to the top of your right glute,

Making your way around your right hip and even into your groin.

And then when you're ready,

Your attention can shift over to your left thigh.

And you start to do the same thing,

Turning the lights out from the top of your left knee,

Moving all the way up to the top of your left glute,

Around your left hip.

Now bring your focus to your lower back and around to your lower abdomen,

Continuing to shut your lights off.

Your focus slowly moves up your torso to just below your ribcage,

Making sure all the lights go out in the front,

Sides,

And back of your lower abdomen.

At this point,

All or at least the majority of your lights,

From the bottom of your ribcage down to the tops of your toes,

Should be turned off.

If some of the lights have come back on,

Take a couple moments to help turn them back off.

And then bring your attention to your middle and upper back,

Continuing to turn lights off as you move up and continuing around to your chest,

All the way to your shoulders.

Keep turning the lights out.

Then bring your focus to your right hand,

Starting at your fingertips.

Continue turning the lights out,

Moving down to your knuckles and into the palm of your right hand,

Past your wrist,

And up into your forearm.

As you reach your elbow,

Keep turning lights out as you move up your arm,

Going all the way to your shoulder.

As your right arm goes dark,

Start to shift your attention over to your left hand.

Again,

Turning the lights out,

Starting at your fingertips,

Moving down into your hand,

And then up into your forearm,

And all the way up to your shoulder.

And start to notice the lights turning off at the same time on both shoulders as it moves up towards your neck.

As you reach your neck,

The lights continue to go off,

Up your neck,

To the back of your head,

Stretching up to the crown of your head,

Around your ears,

Towards your temples,

Up your lower jaw,

Towards your nose,

And coming down your forehead.

And at the very last,

Your eyes go dark.

The lights in your body have gone out.

All the cells,

From the tips of your toes,

All the way to the crown of your head,

Have gone quiet as they begin to restore and regenerate for the day to come.

There's nothing left to do for this day but to drift off to sleep.

Sleep well,

My friend.

Reviews

Thanks so much. Will save this for doing it again.

Beautiful silent background. Fell asleep as lights are going off around the body. 7/7/24