How Yoga Nidra Helps Me: My Secret to Recharging Without Coffee or a Nap

Here’s my secret to how I can stay awake from 5:30 AM to 9:30 PM every day.

And it’s not coffee or anything related to caffeine.

It’s yoga nidra!

I know I’m not supposed to sleep during yoga nidra, but did I fall asleep and still reap the benefits?

Totally yes!

Unlike a normal nap, I wake up from yoga nidra with a clear head and a renewed sense of focus. A regular nap might leave me groggy and hard to wake up from, but yoga nidra feels completely different.

I first fell in love with yoga nidra when I was co-facilitating an online workshop with my friend Youmin Yap on resting and intention-setting. Yoga nidra, also known as yogic sleep, is a relaxation practice rooted in ancient yogic traditions. It helps release tension from both the body and mind, guiding us into a profound state of calm and inner peace.

In this workshop, Youmin—an expert rest coach and forest bathing therapy trainer—would lead a 10-minute yoga nidra session, and afterwards I would guide participants in crafting their intention statements.

As we settled in for yoga nidra, Youmin explained what it meant to her:

“Yoga Nidra is a very delicious rest medicine that is super accessible to people. You do not have to be of a physical fitness level. You do not have to be of a certain belief. Everybody knows how to lie down and close their eyes. Yoga Nidra then is like a river of rest where we just flow with the words and, in a very seamless, effortless way, we enter the restful state.”

I followed Youmin’s guidance, making myself as comfortable as possible on my yoga mat. I closed my eyes, breathed deeply, and paid attention to each body part as she guided me. Soon my awareness drifted in and out, hovering somewhere between relaxation and sleep.

The funny thing was, I did fall asleep—but I naturally woke up to her voice right when the practice was ending. No alarm needed.

I was amazed with the sense of clarity I had after I woke up. With just 10 minutes of yoga nidra, I felt like I had another 8 hours of sleep. I was awake, alert, focus, and most importantly – relaxed.

How was this possible?

It turns out yoga nidra has countless benefits. One of the most important is that it activates the parasympathetic nervous system—our body’s “rest and digest” mode—which explains why it’s so effective for reducing stress.

Yoga nidra also supports spiritual growth, helping us feel more connected to a greater presence and to our True Self.

Youmin shared that one of the benefits of yoga nidra is that it redistributes mental energy from the head back into the body for healing. That made so much sense for me. Every time I woke up from yoga nidra, I felt as though my inner batteries had been recharged to at least 90%.

As we progressed each day in the retreat, I also started to stay awake during the yoga nidra practice. On the first two days I fell asleep for almost the entire session. But on the third and forth day I started to stay awake longer. On the fifth and sixth day I didn’t fall asleep at all, I heard every word that Youmin said, and I also picked up on my soul’s whispers.

After each yoga nidra session, Youmin would ask us to write down our soul’s whispers and at the end of the retreat we would piece them together to weave into our soul-aligned intention for the year.

At the beginning of this year, I’ve fallen in love with practicing yoga nidra after lunch as a way to recharge my batteries and to counter the energy dip I would experience after eating. I love a good 20-minute to 30-minute yoga nidra practice. On the days that I knew I wouldn’t get an afternoon break, I would try to get in a 10 to 15-minute yoga nidra practice in the morning so my energy could last till the end of the day.

Of course, there were days when I couldn’t fit in a yoga nidra “nap,” especially while traveling, and I was still fine.

But as a mom of two kids, four dogs, and a few businesses to run, I love that even a short 10-minute yoga nidra practice leaves me refreshed and recharged, and it gives me energy to keep going in my day.

And it’s not that type of stimulating energy that caffeine would give – which often makes us feel like we still need willpower to push through the day and then we’d crash to exhaustion at the end of the day.

The energy I receive from yoga nidra is a restored sense of calmness and focus, knowing that I can still be my best self at the end of the day.

PS: I usually write best in the morning before lunch time but guess what, this blog is written right after I woke up from my yoga nidra “nap” after lunch and it still makes sense (hopefully).

Resources:

• Youmin Yap’s yoga nidra audio: https://xiunatureconnections.com/gifts/p/pause 
• Free yoga nidra practices videos by Ally Boothroyd: https://www.youtube.com/@SarovaraYoga
• “Yoga Nidra – Step-by-Step Guide to Yogic Sleep for Top Relaxation” by OneYoga Thailand: https://oneyogathailand.com/yoga-nidra-step-by-step-guide-to-yogic-sleep-for-top-relaxation/
• “What Happens if You Fall Asleep During Yoga Nidra?” by Christian Möllenhoff: https://www.forceful-tranquility.com/what-happens-if-you-fall-asleep-during-yoga-nidra/