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Yoga nidra

Yoga nidra is a guided, lying-down relaxation practice that the yoga tradition treats as pratyahara, withdrawal of attention from the senses; its modern form was standardised at the Bihar School of Yoga in 1976. Recent meta-analyses report lower stress, anxiety, pain and blood pressure and possibly better sleep after practice, but the trials are small, mostly at high risk of bias and concentrated in a few settings, and the reviewers expect the effect sizes are inflated. No claim reaches moderate certainty because every pooled estimate rests on few, small, poorly blinded studies with inconsistent protocols.

  • Mind
  • Sleep

Evidence retrieved up to

What the research shows

Yoga nidra programmes were associated with lower anxiety and depressive symptom scores than comparison conditions, though the size of the effect is likely overstated by low-quality studies.

Low certaintyFurther research is likely to change this.
No known concerns at usual amountsBenefit

Who this is about

adults, including healthy adults and people living with health conditions

Practical note

The 73 pooled studies varied widely in format, from a single 30-minute session to 26 weeks of five 35-minute sessions a week; 30% did not report a trained instructor.

Safety note

Trials rarely reported adverse events, so safety data are thin. Reviewers note that yoga nidra involves visualising memories and emotions and that poorly guided sessions could be distressing, so studies generally used a trained instructor.

Sources

As part of a healthy lifestyle, yoga nidra may help people living well with high blood pressure: small, mostly high-risk-of-bias trials reported lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Very low certaintyThis is uncertain; treat it as a lead, not a finding.
No known concerns at usual amountsBenefit

Who this is about

adults, including adults living with high blood pressure

Safety note

Trials rarely reported adverse events, so safety data are thin. Reviewers note that yoga nidra involves visualising memories and emotions and that poorly guided sessions could be distressing, so studies generally used a trained instructor. The blood-pressure trials studied yoga nidra alongside usual care, not in place of it.

Sources

Yoga nidra was associated with lower pain intensity than passive control conditions, but not than other active approaches.

Very low certaintyThis is uncertain; treat it as a lead, not a finding.
No known concerns at usual amountsUnclear

Who this is about

adults living with acute or chronic pain

Practical note

Single sessions and longer programmes showed similar effects, with no clear dose-response relationship.

Safety note

Trials rarely reported adverse events, so safety data are thin. Reviewers note that yoga nidra involves visualising memories and emotions and that poorly guided sessions could be distressing, so studies generally used a trained instructor.

Sources

Yoga nidra may improve self-reported sleep quality in adults with poor sleep, but pooled randomised trials did not show a statistically significant effect.

Very low certaintyThis is uncertain; treat it as a lead, not a finding.
No known concerns at usual amountsUnclear

Who this is about

adults with poor sleep quality or insomnia symptoms

Practical note

The trials were few and small and were mostly conducted in India, which limits how far the findings generalise.

Safety note

Trials rarely reported adverse events, so safety data are thin. Reviewers note that yoga nidra involves visualising memories and emotions and that poorly guided sessions could be distressing, so studies generally used a trained instructor.

Sources

What the tradition holds

Guided yoga nidra practice lowers self-reported stress in adults.

No known concerns at usual amountsBenefit

Who this is about

adults

The tradition's frame

Yoga

In the yoga tradition as standardised by Swami Satyananda Saraswati at the Bihar School of Yoga, yoga nidra is a practice of pratyahara, the fifth limb of Patanjali's eight-limbed yoga: guided withdrawal of awareness from the senses, through rotation of awareness around the body, breath awareness and visualisation, is said to release energy bound up in outward attention and redirect it to rest and rejuvenation.

Practical note

Studies were mostly instructor-guided sessions done lying down, ranging from a single 30-minute session to several months of regular practice.

Safety note

Trials rarely reported adverse events, so safety data are thin. Reviewers note that yoga nidra involves visualising memories and emotions and that poorly guided sessions could be distressing, so studies generally used a trained instructor.

Sources