‘It’s like wiping my hard drive’ – the ancient Indian secret that will give you the best sleep of your life

Hands up if you’ve ever hankered after a better night’s sleep, or longed for a time when your mind wasn’t swirling with a million and one thoughts? Quite a lot of us, then!

Yet we can feel so bogged down with never-ending to do lists and overstimulated by our digital devices that switching off can seem impossible.

So, on a quest to unwind fully and reach peak relaxation, I decided to try Yoga Nidra, AKA yogic sleep. It has been likened by devotees to that magical time just before you nod off, when your body is fully relaxed and your mind is lucid.

“I’m really, really happy when I sleep in Yoga Nidra because it’s like wiping my hard drive”

- Leela Miller

Finding a class at Triyoga in London, I meet Leela Miller, who has been teaching yoga for more than 30 years and has practised traditional Yoga Nidra for five years. She explains that this technique is a stillness practice that helps down-regulate, or calm, the fight-or-flight response of the sympathetic nervous system and up-regulate (strengthen) the relaxation response of the parasympathetic nervous system, allowing access to deeper layers of mental and physical health and the unconscious mind.

Put simply, it’s a deep, guided relaxation that is mentally and physically restorative and releases deep-seated tensions and anxiety, improving your ability to sleep peacefully.

While, in theory, you are supposed to achieve and sustain a lucid dream state, people who are really tired and stressed may nod off, which is completely fine too. “I’m really, really happy when I sleep in Yoga Nidra because it’s like wiping my hard drive,” Leela muses.

“There have been times when I wake up and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what time it is, I don’t know what day it is’ and then I realise it’s been just half an hour and everything is ok, and I feel amazing.”

At the beginning of the class, we’re told to lie in Savasana (corpse pose), on our backs with our palms upturned and feet wide apart, and to make ourselves as comfortable as possible so we can deactivate our minds and get in the zone. With a blanket over me, another folded up as a pillow and a head bandage around my eyes blocking out the light (you can also use eye pillows), I feel blissfully cocooned.

Leela then instructs us to scan our bodies and minds, letting go of any tension and negativity we may be holding onto, and tells us to set our Sankalpa – our intention. This is something simple, positive, and personal to us that we say internally at the beginning of the practice, and it enters our conscious minds; we then repeat it at the end when we are hopefully more open, allowing it to permeate our subconscious minds.

Then it’s time for the ‘rotation of consciousness’, which sounds baffling but simply means drawing attention to different areas of the body, one bit at a time. “Right thumb, second finger, third finger, fourth finger, fifth finger,” Leela says quickly in her flat, evenly toned American accent, and my mind quickly jumps to each anatomical part.

Later, Leela explains that this activates the corresponding areas of the brain and helps raise awareness of parts of the body that otherwise go unnoticed. The overall effect is strangely soothing, and I’m now no longer thinking about work, but just going with the flow.

Taking control

Yogis believe you can control the mind through the breath, and the slow, conscious breathing we do throughout the session works towards strengthening the relaxation response and suppressing the fight-or-flight response.

“It’s a lot easier to get a good night’s sleep if you’re not stressed. If you’re vibrating up here [she gestures towards the ceiling] because your stress response has hijacked you, then it’s going to take a longer time to get to a relaxed state,” Leela explains.

As I continue to breathe deeply, I can feel the tension palpably leaving my body. The next stage is imagining we’re heavy and rooted to the ground. By now, I’m so under the spell that I genuinely feel as though I’m sinking under an enormous weight.

My body, which seconds earlier had felt leaden, inexplicably feels feather-light

A minute later and Leela is telling us to imagine we’re floating away like an autumn leaf – and my body, which seconds earlier had felt leaden, inexplicably feels feather-light. This technique of experiencing opposites taps into the yogic principle of cultivating equanimity.

“You’re trying to establish that it doesn’t matter if you’re hot or cold, heavy or light, happy or sad, and it’s ok,” Leela says. “In the grand scheme of things, it’s all ok.” Right now, it’s better than ok, as I feel like I’m being pulled deeper and deeper into a heightened state of relaxation that I’ve never experienced before.

We are then told to think of seemingly random objects: a feather, an open book, a tree. I do so unquestioningly, not understanding why. It’s only afterwards that Leela explains this is all to do with memories – specifically the hippocampus, responsible for the processing and storage of long-term memory and the amygdala, responsible for determining their corresponding emotions and moods.

For one person ‘a tree’ may conjure up happy memories of Christmas time, while another may recall a past trauma of a tree falling on their house. “Whether they’re good or bad memories, you just see them – don’t engage with them, because by that time hopefully you’re super relaxed,” Leela says. “You’re almost resetting your reaction to it.”

We end the session with Leela inviting us to picture an idyllic scene, laying out specific details. The story is arbitrary but the aim is always the same. As with the random objects, the images can bring up memories and buried emotions that are impacting in a way we may not be aware of.

“Once you make the unconscious conscious, you have a choice,” Leela later reasons. “If it’s unpleasant and you are relaxed enough, you can look at it and change your relationship to it and maybe let it go.”

With that, it’s time to come to. Leela tells us to consciously become aware of the room and start making small movements with our bodies. Pulled out of my dreamlike state, I’m genuinely mystified how only 30 minutes have gone by when it feels like I’ve been resting for hours.

Dopily, I look around me and see someone gently snoring to my left and another stretching contentedly like a cat to my right – and I realise, in Yoga Nidra, we’ve all found our happy place.

Yoga for Spring

Channelling the seasonal shifts happening around us onto our mat is a great way to reconnect with our natural rhythms, says Pip Roberts. Bringing seasonality into our yoga practice is a beautiful way of connecting with the natural rhythms of the earth, especially when our modern lives are so often dissonant with the shifts of nature, particularly in urban environments.

Well-stocked shops allow us to nourish ourselves with any food we choose, whatever the season, and the technology that exists to help us means that we’re often on the go, all year round, without pause. This can leave us feeling at odds with the season, exhausted by our to-do lists, or having too much energy to use in one day.

But if we can learn to draw back into ourselves and our natural rhythms, we can find an energetic balance in line with the season. I like to do this through a yin yoga practice. It’s a style of yoga where postures are held and explored for a longer period of time, anywhere upwards of two minutes. As a slow and meditative practice, it’s a great opportunity to connect with your body and understand what it needs.

Yin yoga is also influenced by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which I find helpful to consider when adding seasonality into my practice. TCM associates each season with an element and certain parts of the body, which we are then able to stimulate using certain poses in yin yoga, through energetic pathways called meridians.

Spring is all about the return of life, both in nature and within the body. It’s a natural time for beginning new plans, getting creative and finding more energy to put your plans into practice. Similarly, in TCM, spring is said to be associated with the wood element and the energetic expanding and growth that it embodies.

This season is also associated with the liver and the gall bladder. If we go back to our GCSE science just for a moment, we’ll remember that the liver plays an essential part in all metabolic processes and the gall bladder serves to support digestion.

In TCM, the liver is responsible for the smooth running of qi (energy) throughout the body, which regulates all emotions, while the gall bladder is said to be essential for courage and motivation. All of these functions, both biological and energetic, are useful in times of new beginnings.

I’ve shared my favourite yin poses for springtime. As you move through them, keep in mind that this practice should feel quite energising, so notice in each pose if there is a way to gently expand it further. Just as each tree in the forest is different from the others, so too will your practice be.

Don’t worry if your poses look different from the pictures. Instead, be gentle, stay away from anything painful or uncomfortable, and find a way to achieve your own version of the pose that works for your body.

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