We made you a special video on how to do it!
By Cheryl Coppa
Not enough sleep is a common struggle! We have covered the importance of sleep in a previous blog and while there is no alternative to the benefits of sleep, there is this tool!
NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) or Yoga NIDRA (yoga sleep). They are the same thing; one is a scientific name and the other is a yoga name.
The term NSDR was coined by Andrew Huberman, PhD, neuroscientist, researcher, and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. This protocol is so beneficial to the body and mind that it was given a scientific acronym (NSDR). It is a powerful tool, a zero-cost tool that has enormous effects on not just sleep and calm but also enhancing rates of neuroplasticity (learning and retaining information).
“It is a powerful tool, a zero-cost tool that has enormous effects on not just sleep and calm but also enhancing rates of neuroplasticity”
NSDR or Yoga NIDRA is like the bridge between sleep and wakefulness. “It is ultimately self-directing a state of calm, self-inducing a state of calm through vision and breathing.” - Dr. Huberman.
Our thoughts follow our vision and breathing, which is why your thoughts and breathing are crucial and the ultimate tool in NSDR or Yoga NIDRA.
It is a meditation or a body scan matched with breathing that you can do at any time to ease and reset your whole system, especially if you are not sleeping well or your mind races. It is designed to calm and soothe the nervous system, destress the body, and reduce anxiety. It’s not so much turning off your thoughts like we sometimes think we need to do to sleep, but rather shifting the focus of our thoughts. This will allow our thoughts to break up, become less, then we become relaxed and the brain can enter sleep. We can teach ourselves this technique and then practice it. The practice can be just 10 or 20 minutes. You can do this every day!
Many often say they have a hard time meditating. It helps to PRACTICE (note the word practice) that we won’t be amazing or even successful at something the first few times. Practice with an instructional video that the voice is soothing to you. I have attached here our Yoga Instructor Sabrina Marr’s video. She has a very soothing voice and is amazing. Practice with an instruction video you find pleasing and you have a zero-cost power tool in your toolbox!
Yoga Instructor Sabrina Marr Practicing Yoga Nidra Meditation
Non-Sleep Deep Rest Benefits Include:
Helps with memory retention
Lowers cortisol levels
Enhances neuroplasticity
Relieves stress
Improves cognitive function
Improves quality of sleep
Improves ability to fall asleep
Enhances focus and mental clarity
Lowers Blood Pressure
Helps with pain management
A significant aspect of NSDR is the impact on stress. Especially as women over 40 if you are concerned or worried about your cortisol levels, this is a zero-cost tool to you. Stress is and always will be, so you need to manage with the tools you have. Take this tool with you. A tool you will always have time for, especially the nights you lay awake wanting to sleep, pull out this tool.
Faster learning and better retention -
“Two papers published in the last two years, from Cell reports and Cell Press Journal, show that a 20-minute non-sleep rest protocol after a bout of intense focus or attempt to learn anything—skill learning or cognitive learning, accelerates neuroplasticity by about 50%”, Huberman says.
This is pretty significant, 50%!!!
“But the actual rewiring of neurons, the formation of new synapses, and reordering of the circuitry that leads to the skill or that cognitive ability becoming reflexive, happens in states of deep rest.” You can achieve this deep rest through NSDR, Yoga NIDRA, or a shallow nap of about 20-30 minutes.
Does this need to be done every day? No, but you certainly can do it every day to recharge, upload, destress, and calm the body.
And it all comes down to the power of your breathing. Even just slowing your breathing, slows your thoughts. And as with anything, you get better at it the more you do it.
In the crazy constant hustle and bustle of a world, take 10-20 minutes, practice, and reap the benefits.
“There is virtue in work, and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.”
About Cheryl Coppa