How to Rest Using Yogic Sleep
Get to know the powerful practice of yoga nidra, a technique that can fill in where sleep fails us.
At 1am on the morning that I sat down to edit this piece, an insane thunderstorm rolled into my neighborhood. It sent blinding flashes paired with crashing booms through the house, shaking the walls and rattling my nervous system. This was right around when I should have been in my deepest sleep. By the time I’d dozed off, the storm had returned, during what should have been my REM cycle. In the morning, my Fitbit didn’t even have detailed sleep data, because my heartbeat had been that irregular.
To lose a night of sleep before sitting down to finish an article about rest was the most perfect irony. It was nature’s reminder that even our best laid plans for rest can be easily thwarted. It was the confirmation I needed that sleep is not always to be counted on, and that even when we feel that we get “enough” rest, it often doesn’t feel like enough—for reasons entirely beyond our control.
Why enough sleep is sometimes not enough
A few weeks ago, after another bad night of sleep, I woke up feeling drained, and then angry that I felt drained. I know that the writing has to come out of my body, and I couldn’t figure out why my body…
