Yoga Nidra For Deeper Sleep

This 45-minute classical Yoga Nidra practice is designed to help you drift into deep, restful sleep—or guide you back to sleep if you awaken during the night. By simply lying down and allowing yourself to follow the gentle guidance through your breath and body, you’ll access a profoundly restorative state.

In our fast-paced world, where restful sleep is increasingly elusive, this ancient practice offers a vital refuge. Sleep is essential, not just for your well-being, but for your ability to show up fully in the world. You are essential. Allow yourself to rest deeply. Sweet dreams.

Transcript

Welcome to this yoga nidra,

This yoga sleep,

Which will help you fall off to sleep in the most beautiful and restful and healing way.

Or if you awaken the night and have problems getting back to sleep,

And hopefully it will help you return to sleep,

Or at the very least be good company for you and bring you into a state of restful healing presence as the night goes on.

Yoga nidra means yogic sleep.

It's one of the most healing,

Restful and restorative practices in the whole tradition of meditation and yoga.

It's practice lying down,

So I invite you to get yourself comfortable in your bed and over the course of the next 40 minutes or so,

You're going to be gently guided into a state of greater presence and an embodied state of being,

And you'll be led into a relaxed,

Hypnagogic state.

And from there,

If you fall asleep,

Then that's just absolutely wonderful.

This is a yoga nidra for sleep,

And so there are no bells and no surprising moments.

It's a full yoga nidra going through all of the stages.

And so during this meditation,

You'll be asked to move your awareness around in your body and just be with various bodily sensations.

You'll be guided to reflect on states of opposition.

We'll move through the chakras very,

Very gently.

And we'll end with a few beautiful visualizations to hopefully bring freshness and inspiration into your rest and into your sleep.

During this practice,

Please just use and absorb whatever you need to and let everything else go.

And if at any point your mind becomes overactive,

Thoughts or fears or worries,

Just bring awareness to that.

Notice that you notice that you've moved into that state and allow yourself to come back to your body,

To the sound of my voice,

To the breath moving in your body,

To the feeling of your own heart.

It's important to know that you are safe.

So look around the room,

Make sure you're comfortable.

And for this nidra,

I'm going to invite you to lie in a slightly different way.

Most yoga nidras are done lying on the back in shavasana or resting pose.

For this yoga nidra,

I invite you to lie any way that feels comfortable for you and allow yourself to turn off the lights,

To begin resting into the healing darkness.

And whichever way you've decided to lie,

Whether on your back or on one side or curled up with a pillow between your legs,

Whatever works for you.

I invite you to place your dominant hand on your abdomen where you can feel your breath moving there and your non-dominant hand on your heart where you can feel a more subtle but definite breath moving there.

Or just lie in whichever way feels most comfortable for you,

But hand on heart,

Hand on belly.

It's so comforting and healing and we can do this for ourselves at any moment,

At any time of the day.

So in a moment,

Yoga nidra will begin.

Allowing yourself just to shrug down into the bed,

To make any last movements that you need to make and then just let everything go.

Resting with your hand on your abdomen,

You're aware of your breath naturally moving in your body.

Notice if there's any judgment or criticism in your mind towards how your breath is.

Notice the feedback from your breath through your hand.

And if there is any judgment or criticism from yourself towards yourself,

Just notice that and see if you can allow it to go.

And over the next five or six breaths,

The movement of your body,

The movement of your belly.

You can imagine that each breath is just a stepping down more and more into relaxation,

As if you're walking down a short flight of steps into a beautiful space where you can just rest.

And you can feel the back of your body resting against the mattress,

Sheets,

Your night clothes against your skin or the duvet over you.

And you can hear any far away sounds,

Letting your sense of hearing radiate outwards,

Not straining,

But just allowing yourself.

And notice whatever sounds you can hear from outside in the distance or closer by.

You can also hear the space in between them.

And notice when we listen to the space in between the sounds,

How things can seem friendlier,

Just more natural,

More normal.

Gently listening to sounds that are closer.

The sound of my voice,

The sound in between the words,

The sound of your own breath.

Eyes lightly closed.

You're aware of the feeling of the walls of the room,

The feeling of the ceiling,

The feeling of the floor,

Your own body lying in the bed.

And you can see yourself lying there in the healing darkness,

Resting with your own breath.

The feeling of your skin,

The feeling of your hair,

Allowing your face to be soft,

Aware of the existence of your own body.

Perhaps you can feel the feeling of life in your own body as warmth,

As vibration,

As movement,

As life itself.

So just noticing your breath.

You can feel the breath of your abdomen,

Breath of your heart,

Your body moving without you doing anything,

Moving with the breath and the breath.

Moving with the life inside you.

And notice the sense of your out-breath.

Not taking any extra breath,

But just allowing your attention to gently rest a little more on the out-breath than on the in-breath.

You're aware of the breath coming in,

Aware of the space,

Aware of the breath going out,

Aware of that space.

You're aware of the breath in the heart in the same way,

Space in your heart,

Space in the breath,

Space in your body,

Comfortable in the bed,

Comfortable in yourself.

Notice how the breath gets slower and slower as you're resting down.

And so now we use your sankalpa.

The sankalpa is a verse or a line said in first person and in present tense,

Which we plant deeply at this level of our consciousness,

So that it may flower and bring us abundance and wonderfulness into our lives.

If you already have a sankalpa,

Then just use the sankalpa that you would normally use for this situation,

For resting.

If you don't have a sankalpa,

Perhaps you could use a phrase like,

I am resting deeply within myself,

Or I am at home within myself,

Or I feel my heart,

I feel my breath,

I am present and I am whole.

Saying your sankalpa gently,

As if placing a flower on still water,

And a few little ripples go out from the flower and fade.

To the darkness.

We say our sankalpa three times,

And then we let it go.

I am resting deep.

I am practicing yogic sleep.

And so,

The rotation of consciousness.

Your awareness will now be systematically brought to many different points in your body,

Which match nerve areas in the brain.

And by moving around our body in this way as gently as possible,

It helps the body relax into a light,

Hypnagogic state.

And if you fall asleep from here,

That's absolutely fine.

Just simply move your awareness to each part of the body.

This goes a little bit quicker than you might expect,

But it's to help us switch off and come more into being.

Just let yourself feel that part of the body that is named.

There's no need to move it,

No need to concentrate your mind on it.

Simply rest your awareness there for a brief moment.

And so we begin with the right hand side.

Your right hand thumb.

First finger.

Second finger.

Third finger.

Little finger.

Palm of the right hand.

Back of the right hand.

The whole hand.

The wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Upper arm.

Shoulder.

Armpit.

Right waist.

Right hip.

Right thigh.

Right knee.

Right calf.

Right ankle.

Right heel.

Sole of the right foot.

The top of the right foot.

Right big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Little toe.

The left hand thumb.

First finger.

Second finger.

Ring finger.

Little finger.

The palm of the left hand.

The back of the left hand.

The whole hand.

The wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Upper arm.

Shoulder.

Left armpit.

Left waist.

Left hip.

Thigh.

Knee.

Car.

Ankle.

The left heel.

Sole of the left foot.

The top of the left foot.

Left big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Little toe.

Now we move to the back of the body.

The right heel.

The left heel.

The right calf.

The left calf.

The right thigh.

The left thigh.

Your right buttock.

Your left buttock.

The lower back.

The middle of your back.

Your upper back.

The whole spine.

Your right shoulder blade.

Your left shoulder blade.

The back of your neck.

The back of your head.

The top of your head.

Forehead.

Right temple.

Left temple.

Right ear.

Left ear.

Right eyebrow.

Left eyebrow.

The middle of your eyebrows.

The right eye.

The left eye.

The right nostril.

The left nostril.

Your right cheek.

Left cheek.

Upper lip.

Lower lip.

Both lips together.

Chin.

Jaw.

Throat.

Your right collarbone.

Your left collarbone.

The right side of your chest.

The left side of your chest.

The upper abdomen.

The navel.

The lower abdomen.

Your right groin.

Your left groin.

Your pelvic floor.

Your whole right leg.

Your whole left leg.

The whole right arm.

The whole left arm.

Your whole face.

Your whole head.

Your whole torso.

Your whole body.

Your whole body.

Your whole body.

I am resting in presence.

I am practicing yogic sleep.

Awareness of the inner space of the body and the inner life.

So here you just meet yourself and recognize yourself at the level of your own life energy.

You experience the space inside you in which all of your life,

Your love,

Your imagination,

Your creativity,

Everything that you are is held.

And so you just allow yourself to experience the space in front of your closed eyelids.

You're aware of the feeling of the transparent screen of your mind.

Just feel your mind as energy.

And just notice how that energy moves as your thoughts move.

And notice that you notice this feeling of energy,

This feeling of movement.

Rather than judging or criticizing or getting caught up,

You just rest into yourself and simply allow that feeling of energy and movement to be there.

We don't enter the thoughts,

We just notice them coming and going.

And if any images arise,

We just simply notice them too,

Without getting into directing the images,

Without pushing them into a certain direction.

And we just begin to feel the space between our consciousness and our thoughts.

The space between our thoughts and the space between our awareness.

And that energy field of thought.

You can feel the space inside your own body.

Aware of the solid feeling of your body.

And aware of the space within.

Space between yourselves.

The space within your body.

The space within yourselves.

And the light and the life is simply there.

You're aware of that sense of life that occupies all the space within you.

So bright,

So beautiful.

Resting in your bed,

In yourself,

In your wonderful room.

The breath moving of its own accord,

At both abdomen and at your heart.

The space in the breath.

Space behind the breath.

The space at your heart.

Space between the emotions.

Space behind the emotions.

Space within your whole being.

And your whole being in space.

Resting in the space of your own life.

Gently aware of the feeling of wholeness that is your own life.

Fatality.

Peace.

Kindness.

Love.

I'm resting in presence.

I am practicing yogic sleep.

And so now the sensation of opposites.

And for this nidra,

We're going to feel the sensations of lightness and heaviness.

So allow yourself to feel your whole body becoming light.

Almost as if your body can float up from the bed and away towards the ceiling.

Your head is light and weightless.

Your limbs are light and weightless.

Your torso floating.

Whole body.

Notice there is no feeling of gravity operating on you.

Space in the bones.

Space between your bones.

Full of space and light.

Rising higher.

Higher.

And higher.

And then just gently letting that go.

And feeling yourself in the bed.

And you can feel the sense of heaviness.

Heaviness in the legs.

Heaviness in the hands.

Perhaps one hand more than the other.

Heaviness in your arms.

Heaviness in your head.

And this heaviness is coming from within you.

The solidity and denseness of your body.

Heavier and heavier.

All your limbs heavier.

Pressing down into the bed.

So heavy.

So heavy.

As if you are just complete and utter solidity itself.

Pure gravity.

But from within.

And then just letting this go.

Letting this go.

Letting this go.

I am resting in presence.

I am practicing yogic sleep.

And so now the chakra sequence.

Here you are going to be guided to meet the seven main energy centres in your body.

This wonderful part of the practice brings energy and balance and the deepest rest into your life.

And it helps remove physical,

Emotional and spiritual blockages.

Perhaps you can think of the chakras as being the centres of life.

Where life actually moves into physical form from the unmanifested within you.

So just as when we moved around your body.

We simply just touch each chakra point as it is named.

We are going to go through the chakras a couple of times.

Moving from the bottom to the top and then back down again.

And then we are going to move through one time using the traditional bija mantras.

Which are seed syllable sounds from ancient Sanskrit.

Which help unlock the energy at each point.

And so bring your awareness to your perineum.

And then move from your perineum an inch inside your body and here we have Muladhara chakra.

And then we move our attention to your pubis.

And then moving back through your body to the inside side of your spine.

Swadhisthana chakra.

And then to the navel.

And moving back to the inside side of the spine.

Manipura chakra.

To the heart.

To the spine behind your heart.

Anahata chakra.

To the centre of your throat.

And back into the spine.

And there Vishuddhi chakra.

The third eye.

And then moving back into the middle of your brain.

Ajna chakra.

And then the very crown of your head.

Sarasaha.

And so coming down.

Crown chakra.

Middle of the brain.

Throat.

Heart.

Navel.

Pubis.

The pubis.

Back to the spine.

The navel.

Back to the spine.

The heart.

Heart.

Back to the spine.

Throat.

Third eye.

And into the middle of the brain.

And the crown.

Moving down.

Third eye.

Throat.

The heart.

Pubis.

The perineum.

And one final time we're going to move through the chakras.

And I'm going to gently intone the bija mantras.

Just simply allow the sound of the mantra to touch the chakra point and then just let it go.

So at Muladhara at the perineum.

At the pubis and moving back to the lowest point of the spine.

Swadhisthana.

Vam.

Back.

Back.

To the inside side of the spine.

Manipura chakra.

At the throat.

Vashidhi chakra.

And at the third eye and the crown simultaneously.

The one sound.

Aum.

I am resting in presence.

I am practicing yogic sleep.

And so are the visualizations.

These will help you engage with your inspiration and your imagination.

It will take you deeper into rest and help you communicate with your deeper mythic self.

I am going to place before your awareness a number of images.

Just allow yourself to meet them on the level of emotion or image or memory.

Not holding on to the image.

Not even trying to visualize them.

Just allowing them to light into the mind and then just move forward.

Walk away with kindness.

A green light in the space of your heart.

You can feel your breath moving at your heart.

Space within your heart.

There.

A gentle and perfect green light.

You notice outside of your window a large moth flying away towards the woods.

It's as if you're flying next to the moth and you can see the patterns of its wings,

Its scales.

You're aware of the starlight,

The darkness,

The moon,

The other people asleep in nearby houses.

You fly with the moth into the night.

A crescent moon above two tall trees in the night.

The night is always mysterious.

Sometimes we mistake the mystery for fear.

But you allow yourself in your flight to fly towards the two trees.

Pulled on by the mystery,

By your own curiosity.

You see the moonlight on the branches,

The space between the branches,

The space between the trees.

A beautiful barn owl sitting in the branches of one of the trees.

You see the stars behind the owl almost as if they're a halo.

You see the incandescence of the night.

The owl looks at you and you look at the owl and there's a sense of beingness and peace between you.

A sense of your own wisdom.

You notice how the tree branches lead up like a ladder to the owl.

A ladder of wisdom.

The bird of yourself surrounded by the space of the night.

Haloed by the moon.

The beauty of the scene.

All taking place within yourself.

The silhouette of another tree.

Seemingly lit up from within itself.

Reddish,

Pinkish,

Light.

Touching around the edges of the leaves like an aura.

Is it the moon?

Is it the tree itself?

And you find yourself standing on the ground as yourself.

In front of the tree.

You're not cold.

You see the space between the branches.

Space between the leaves.

Space between yourself and the tree.

The space within yourself.

The same as the space within the tree.

The light around the tree.

The light around yourself.

Your beautiful stag standing in the night.

His antlers rainbow coloured.

The strength and beauty and the stillness.

And you are not afraid of him.

And he is not afraid of you.

You walk over to the stag.

You place your hand on his head.

You feel the warmth of his life.

You put your hand on your own heart.

You feel the warmth of your own life.

You feel your roots going down into the ground.

As if you were a tree.

You in your incredible individuality.

Fully part of the world.

Your roots going down into the earth.

Your branches rising up into the night sky.

Separate but part of everything.

Part of everything yet fully yourself.

You feel that you are surrounded by love.

And you notice a single star.

Just a single point of light.

Brighter than all the other stars.

You feel that starlight within your heart.

Within your being.

Illuminating your whole self.

The space of your life.

Within yourself.

Lit up by starlight.

And within the space of yourself.

An image of the whole world.

The earth from space.

And the earth itself as part of the totality of the universe.

And all of this inside yourself.

I am resting in presence.

I am practicing yogic sleep.

And so now at this deep deep level.

Allow yourself to repeat your sankalpa three times.

Your present verse.

Just dropping it into your consciousness.

Where the seed will break open and surely bloom into your life.

And letting go into the night.

Letting go into yourself.

You may have slipped into sleep by now.

And so there will be no ending bell.

Nothing to disturb you.

Just the feeling of your body.

Feet.

Leg.

Back.

Shoulders.

Back of your head.

Right leg and left leg.

Right arm and left arm.

Your torso.

Your whole head.

Your face.

Your whole body.

Your whole body.

In deep awareness.

And restful sleep.

Good night.

Sweet dreams.

Reviews

I absolutely love this track!!!!

My only complaints are that, I listen on loop and the start of the track is wayyyyy louder than the beginning, so it's jarring, and the intro is a bit long. Aside from that, it's perfect

Thank you!!

Wonderful, like the pacing, love the voice, the warmth- thank you John!

Thank you for helping me get back to sleep in the wee hours. Namaste
🌺🙏🌺

Such supportive guidance. I especially loved the visualisations and the feeling of connection that they brought. I didn’t fall back to sleep (I’d woken early) but it was a beautiful way to rest then begin my day. Thank you so much ✨🙏🏻.

Compassionate and restful soothing being in the present. I feel peaceful with joy in my heart like I am in a forest with the beautiful green foliage and a breeze that’s gently blowing from my window. Thank you for being compassionate and offering this present moment. Namaste🙏

I went to sleep - 😴 thank you so much, that was wonderful xx

If I have a hard time falling asleep, this is my go to meditation.
Since goal is to fall asleep, I can gladly say, I have no idea how this meditation ends.

I don’t even remember the first 10 minutes! Fell asleep so quickly and slept deeply!

I love this yoga nidra! It’s my favorite one, my husband likes this one best too!!

Perfect. I fell asleep fast. Thank you for your soothing voice ✨❤️🙏🏻

Love your soothing voice. Always helps me fall asleep. Thank you!

many nights I've needed this meditation and it always comes through for me.

I had a very relaxing and letting go of energy I no longer need.💫✨🧡

Thank you, John. This finally got me to sleep. (Difficult times for me as my son is missing, so sleeping for hours rather than minutes at a time is a great blessing.)

Pleasant voice. Got off to sleep quite quickly. Thanks. Will use again.

I loved this - it didn’t quite put me to sleep but it was pretty fantastic nonetheless. Thank you!

Love the length, pacing and voice. I got a solid 20 minutes of rest. For some reason I jolted up in the middle of the body scan 🤷‍♀️. Will try again.

Well I went back to sleep for 3 hours, so it's a definite yes for me, thank you 😊

Love this calming & soothing meditation. I drift peacefully off to sleep 😴

Thank you for sharing this Nidra. I have listened a few times when I've awakened in the night and it gets me right back into deep sleep. 🙏🦋