Yoga Nidra For Better Sleep (With Background Music)

Yoga nidra (yogic sleep) is the powerful practice of conscious rest that systematically relaxes and unwinds physical, emotional, and mental tension. Yoga nidra helps break down these patterns through guided relaxation, breath awareness, and meditation to reach resting states usually only experienced in the deepest levels of sleep. Yoga nidra can help reduce stress on a visceral level, improve sleep cycles, and contribute to healing deep psychological wounds.

Transcript

It is time for yoga nidra.

Take a few moments to find a comfortable position,

Perhaps lying on your back with the knees slightly bent and supported in a traditional shavasana pose,

Or perhaps resting on the belly with a blanket wrapped around the torso right above the hip points below the chest,

Letting your ankles and feet be supported by a pillow or perhaps rolled up blanket,

And maybe using your forearms as a pillow to rest your head on,

Allowing your gaze to go whichever direction feels most natural in this moment.

Make sure you're warm enough and that the position that you chose to rest in is comfortable for you at this time.

We'll run to remain still during our yoga nidra practice,

Allowing the body to rest and the mind to rest.

However,

If you become uncomfortable,

Please feel free to change positions.

If you need to do this,

Try to be mindful what was uncomfortable and how you knew to reposition your body in a more comfortable and supported position.

Just let yourself observe the transitions that you need to take throughout the practice to feel truly supported and comfortable.

If you're comfortable at this point,

You can start to close your eyes,

Allowing the lids to grow heavy.

If it's not comfortable for you to close your eyes,

Feel free to keep them open throughout the meditation.

Just I invite you to find a soft gaze,

Letting your eyelids become heavy,

Perhaps resting your gaze on a soothing object in the room or taking it a few feet in front of you.

Our practice of yoga nidra is a practice of deep yogic sleep that will guide you to a relaxed state,

A state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleeping.

Try to remain awake by listening to the sound of my voice as you'll be asked to move your awareness to various bodily sensations,

Emotions,

And images.

Try to not concentrate too intensely.

Instead,

Welcome whatever arises and when your mind begins to wander or become overactive with thoughts,

Worries,

Perhaps judgments,

See if you can just kindly redirect your awareness back to the sound of my voice.

Moving into relaxation,

Become aware of any sounds you can hear in this moment.

No other sounds but what you can hear without any strain at all.

Begin to focus on the most distant sounds that you can hear,

Allowing your sense of hearing to radiate outward,

Searching out these distant sounds and following them for a few moments.

Just allow your attention to naturally move from sound to sound.

Try not to direct the attention.

Create a story or narrative about it.

Just simply observe the sounds.

Simply begin to bring your attention to closer sounds,

Perhaps sounds you hear just outside the room you're taking rest in.

Sounds inside the room you're resting in.

Now see if you can start to hear your body breathing for you.

With this awareness and with your eyes closed or relaxed,

Begin to visualize the walls of the room you're taking rest in,

The ceiling,

The floor,

Your body resting on the floor,

The position you chose to rest in,

Your clothing,

Your hair and your face.

Being acutely aware of the existence of your physical body resting on the floor.

Become aware again of your body breathing for you,

Awareness of your natural and spontaneous breath that moves in and out of your body without any effort.

Perhaps begin to notice the natural breath that flows in through both nostrils.

Try to track the feeling of the breath as it comes in and out of the nostrils.

Follow the feeling of breath into your nose,

Your sinuses,

Back of your throat,

Into your lungs perhaps feeling the ribs expand outward,

Belly begin to rise.

And as you release the breath perhaps feeling the belly draw in towards the back of the spine,

Ribs softly contract in,

Chest lowers,

Breath being released from the nostrils.

Beginning to notice how the body responds to each pulse of the breath.

Perhaps begin to notice the subtle pause between your inhale and your exhale,

Maybe starting Now going back to the natural effortless breath releasing any control over the inhale or the exhale.

Notice how the body's breathing for you.

Invite a full breath in through the nose and let that breath go when you're ready.

Take this moment to set an intention or a resolve for your yoga nidra practice.

Try to not overthink it but maybe just take whatever naturally came to the mind or the heart when I asked you to set an intention and trust that that is what your body and mind are needing here.

Please repeat this intention or resolve to yourself three times.

Moving into rotation of consciousness,

We will now begin our systematic journey of sensory awareness throughout our bodies.

You will move your awareness to different parts of the body as soon as you hear them named.

You're welcome to say the name of the part to yourself and try to feel that part of your body without moving it.

We'll begin on our right side.

Feel your right hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third finger,

Fourth finger,

Fifth finger,

Palm of the right hand,

Back of the hand,

Right wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Waist,

Hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole of the foot,

Top of the foot,

Right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe.

Take a few breaths observing whatever arises in the right side of the body.

Feeling awareness to the left hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third finger,

Fourth finger,

Palm of the left hand,

Back of the hand,

Left wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Waist,

Hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole of the foot,

Top of the foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe.

Take a few breaths breathing awareness observing whatever arises in the left side of the body.

Inviting awareness to the back of the body,

Feel your right heel,

Left heel,

Right calf,

Left calf,

Right thigh,

Left thigh,

Right sit bone,

Left sit bone,

Lower back,

Middle back,

Upper back,

Entire length of the spine,

Right shoulder blade,

Left shoulder blade,

Back of the neck,

Back of the head.

Breathing awareness to the backside of the body observing whatever arises.

Light awareness to the front of the body,

Feel the top of the head,

Forehead,

Right temple,

Left temple,

Right ear,

Left ear,

Right eyebrow,

Left eyebrow,

Middle of the eyebrows,

Right eye,

Left eye,

Right nostril,

Left nostril,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

Upper lip,

Lower lip,

Where your lips lightly touch together,

Chin,

Jaw,

Throat,

Right collar bone,

Left collar bone,

Right side of the chest,

Left side of the chest,

Upper abdomen,

Navel center,

Lower abdomen,

Right hip point,

Left hip point,

Pelvic floor.

New breaths observing whatever arises in the front side of the body.

Breathing awareness to the whole right leg,

Whole left leg,

Whole right arm,

Whole left arm,

The whole face,

The whole head,

The whole torso,

The whole body.

Use the breath to scan the mind and body,

Awareness of your whole body resting on the floor.

Inviting opposite sensations,

Imagine your whole body becoming light as though your body could float away from the floor toward the ceiling or perhaps remembering a time of floating in a pool of water.

Try to allow the head to become light and weightless,

Limbs light and weightless,

Torso light and weightless,

Inviting the whole body to feel light and weightless.

Now imagine your body becoming heavy,

Begin to feel the heaviness in all parts of the body,

Each part is becoming heavier and heavier and heavier.

Allow the head to feel heavy,

Limbs are heavy,

The torso is heavy,

Whole body is heavy,

Drawing in towards relaxation.

Now awaken an experience of refreshed coolness in your body.

Imagine jumping into a cool pool of water,

Feel this coolness permeating your entire body.

Whole body is refreshed and cool.

Allow a sensation of warmth to spread throughout the entire body,

Remember the feeling of heat in summer when you're in the sun without any shade.

Allow the sensation of warmth to radiate onto your skin,

Warmth all around the body.

And allow a feeling of complete calm to envelop you.

Perhaps remember a time when you felt comforted,

Grounded or relaxed.

Try to manifest this experience of calm in your entire mind,

Body and your emotions.

Feel yourself relaxed and aware,

You are completely calm.

Now begin to concentrate on the space in front of your closed eyelids.

And on the space,

Become aware of any phenomena that manifests within it,

Colors,

Patterns,

And light,

Perhaps even images.

Continue your awareness of this space without becoming involved,

Practicing detached awareness only.

If any subtle images make themselves known,

Try to notice them without directing the image.

And if thoughts occur,

Let them come and go and continue watching the space behind the closed eyelids,

Continue detached awareness.

Watching whatever arises.

Moving into rapid image visualization,

A number of different things will be named and I invite you to envision them on a level of emotion,

Memory and imagination as best you can.

Simply jump from image to image as soon as you hear it named.

Let the image come by itself.

If nothing arises,

Proceed to the next image visualization.

A full moon.

A foggy morning.

A good night's rest.

Your reflection in the mirror.

A tall tree in the woods.

A warm embrace.

A burning candle.

Receiving a call from a loved one.

A relaxing afternoon.

Offering support to a loved one.

Laughing with friends.

Receiving help from others.

A vibrant sunset.

A path in the woods.

Listening to your favorite song.

Your body resting on the floor.

Coming back to your intention or resolve,

Please repeat the statement to yourself three times.

Begin to come back to the feeling of the breath flowing in and out of your body.

Maintain this awareness of your breath and at the same time,

Become aware of your physical body resting on the floor.

Scan the body with your breath,

Observing the body parts you feel touching the ground or support beneath it.

Feel the container of your skin and the clothes and props that are touching you.

With this awareness of your physical body,

Start to visualize the pose you took rest in.

Your clothing,

Your hair and your face.

The walls surrounding you,

The ceiling above you and the floor holding you up.

Take a breath,

Scanning the mind and body and just begin to take note how you feel.

Begin to notice sounds you hear in this moment without any strain,

Textures you might feel against your skin,

Temperature surrounding your body.

I invite you to take a nice full breath in through the nose and let that breath go.

Rest here as long as your body needs to.

Reviews

That went by so quickly. I enjoyed the peaceful rest

Every time I need a fast yoga nidra this helps me so much it's perfect for relaxing and getting rest fast. I love yoga nidra. I did this one for like months every night and it was my favorite for long time. Thank u Kate!

It must've worked, since I don't remember the ending!

Yay, real yoga nidra! I feel so rested and have energy. Nameste

I listen to a lot of Yoga Nidra and this recording was wonderful.

Thank you I did this practice with my 10 year old tonight. He loved it too xx

Relaxing and I fell asleep before it was over. Thank you. 🙏❤️😴

Excellent! Great pace and beautiful voice. I especially like that there is continued music at the end for further relaxation if you need it. Definitely my new favorite.

Fall asleep quickly

So soothing, I fall asleep before the end every time, thank you 🙏🏻

Beautiful thank you.

I so needed this ... thank you
This morning I felt so exhausted, now after resting and taking the time to let my body and mind heal whilst listening to this ... my day is going to start again with renewed energy.🌺

Amazingly amazing!😊😊😊Thank you.

Sophie 8

Oh such a great meditation. Peaceful and relaxing. Thanks 🙏🏻

I’ll be doing this one again for sure
Beautiful soothing voice and cadence.
This meditation took me deep within.

Very nice 🙏🏻💕

One of my go to meditations almost every day
Thank you

Beautiful yoga nidra

So relaxing. Thank you

Very relaxing. Thank you !