No Time to Meditate? Why Yoga Nidra Is Time Well Spent.

Eric Bennewitz guiding Yoga Nidra.

If you're like most people, your day is a blur of To Do Lists, screens, obligations, and exhaustion. You’ve likely heard that meditation can help reduce stress, improve focus, and boost your physical and mental well-being—but finding time to sit s

till, clear your mind, and meditate every day might feel impossible.

Enter Yoga Nidra. This gentle, guided practice offers many of the same benefits of traditional meditation, but in a way that’s more accessible, often more effective, and deeply restorative.

Welcome to the world of Yoga Nidra, or “yogic sleep”—a meditative practice that only requires a few minutes a week to potentially make the rest of your day less distracting and more efficient. Before we dive into how this happens, let me give you the basics of this hidden treasure of yoga.

What is Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra (pronounced nee-dra) is a meditative practice done lying down. Unlike traditional seated meditation, where you often focus on your breath or a mantra, Yoga Nidra is a fully guided experience. You’re led through various relaxation, breath awareness, and visualization techniques that progressively relax the body and mind into a state of complete non-doing. During biological sleep you are in an unconscious state and not aware of what’s happening while in Yoga Nidra, you rest into a state of deep sleep in body & mind, but your awareness remains awake. In this process your brainwaves slow down, your nervous system resets towards equilibrium, your body enters a healing mode if at Delta brain waves and your subconscious (habit mind) gets effortlessly rewired for the better. To assist this rewiring, Yoga Nidra adapts something special called an Intention or Sankalpa in yogic terms. Think of it as a super-charged new years resolution that can manifest and produce some amazing shifts in your perspectives of who you are and life in general.

In just 20 to 40 minutes a Yoga Nidra practice can benefit you feeling as refreshed as a few hours of regular sleep, but that doesn’t mean you should sleep less at night and DO MORE stuff. Knowing this much already, Yoga Nidra sounds like a valuable tool worth looking into when you consider the chronic stress induced times we are living in.

Why Yoga Nidra Works:

The Science Behind It

So, why Yoga Nidra works so well, especially when other forms of meditation feel inaccessible? The secret lies in how it engages your brain and nervous system. During Yoga Nidra, your brain shifts from active beta waves to slower alpha, theta, and even into delta waves—the same waves associated with deep dreamless sleep and healing. This shift allows your body & mind to rest while your awareness remains quietly awake. It’s this blend of conscious awareness and deep rest that makes Yoga Nidra so unique. Yoga Nidra also stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, your body’s rest-and-digest mode. This reduces stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, lowers heart rate and blood pressure among many other benefits that I will cover shortly. Unlike other forms of meditation that might take months to yield noticeable results, many people feel positive effects of Yoga Nidra after just one session regardless of any past meditation experience.

The Benefits of Yoga Nidra

Still not impressed? Then let’s talk about the many benefits of Yoga Nidra. While it may seem like you’re just lying still and listening, the internal work your body & mind are doing is substantial.

1. Stress Reduction (physical, emotional & mental)

This is one of the most immediate and noticeable benefits. Yoga Nidra quickly calms the sympathetic nervous system (your fight-or-flight response) and shifts you into a calming and healing parasympathetic state.

2. Improved Sleep Quality

People who practice Yoga Nidra report falling asleep faster and sleeping more deeply. Some even use it as a replacement for naps because of how refreshing it is.

3. Mental Clarity and Focus

When your mind is no longer constantly racing, you gain clarity. Yoga Nidra gives your brain the reset it often needs but rarely gets during the day.

4. Emotional Healing

By accessing the subconscious mind, Yoga Nidra allows space for unresolved emotions to surface and release. It also helps rewire negative thought patterns and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.

5. Pain Relief

Because the body enters such a deep state of rest, muscle tension eases, inflammation may decrease, and chronic pain often feels more manageable. Yoga Nidra is associated with the release of the brain’s natural pain-killer produced in the pituitary gland.

6. Improved Brain & Body Homeostasis

Yoga Nidra increases production of Seratonin, which makes you feel good, calm, focused and balanced. Melatonin levels shift towards rebalancing, which induces a restful sleep, reduces stress levels and is associated with your body’s bio-rhythm and the rate at which you age. When Yoga Nidra is experienced in Delta brainwaves (slowest), then it may increase Human Growth Hormone balances. This leads to increased stamina, muscle mass, metabolism, mood and motivation, bone density and slower aging.

Yoga Nidra:

A Modern Solution for Modern Stress

Let’s be honest: most people today are running on empty. Between work, family, social obligations, and constant digital distraction, we’re living in a state of near-constant nervous system overload.

That’s why Yoga Nidra has found its moment. You don’t need to take a silent retreat, join a gym, or buy anything fancy. All you need is a quiet place to lie down and a Yoga Nidra recording or teacher to guide you. Even 10-minutes of Yoga Nidra can make a difference. But if you can devote 30 to 40 minutes once or twice a week, you’ll likely notice major improvements in your mental and physical health.

How to Get Started

Getting started with Yoga Nidra is easy. Feel free to visit my website or the Youtube Channel at Eric Bennewitz Yoga, Tantra Yoga, Meditation for free access to various Yoga Nidra practices.

A few tips to make your Yoga Nidra experience as stress-less as possible:

• Find a quiet, comfortable place to lie down (blanketed floor or yoga mat).

• Use a blanket to stay warm since your body temperature may go down during Yoga Nidra.

• Put on headphones to stay focused.

• Choose a guide whose voice and style resonate with you. If that is my voice and style, thank you!

  
  

Commit to trying it a few times per week for two weeks and observe how you feel.

Final Thoughts

No time to meditate? Why Yoga Nidra is time well spent. The practice is simple, effective, and profoundly transformative. Whether you’re new to meditation or a seasoned practitioner looking for something different, Yoga Nidra offers a valuable addition to your self-care toolkit.

By tapping into your body’s natural relaxation response, rewiring mental patterns, and offering a space for true rest, Yoga Nidra proves that you don’t need hours—or even a quiet mind—to experience the power of meditation.

So the next time you find yourself too busy to meditate, consider lying down, pressing play, and giving yourself the gift of conscious deep sleep. Your body and mind will thank you.

Share your Yoga Nidra Experiences

Have you tried Yoga Nidra before? Share your experience in the comments below! Looking for a guided practice? Let me know—I offer online, live class, workshop and teacher training Yoga Nidra experiences.