YOGA NIDRA IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

YOGA NIDRA AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR REDUCING STRESS AND ANXIETY

 

The present study showed the effectiveness of Yoga Nidra and seated meditation in reducing anxiety and stress levels of college professors when compared to the control group. However, there was a tendency toward a greater effectiveness of the Yoga Nidra intervention, regarding anxiety. Yoga Nidra is easy to perform, does not require a seated posture and concentration, and seems to positively impact psychological variables, such as anxiety and depression. Therefore, it might represent a therapeutic technique with preventive, promotive, and curative value. 

 

[Camila Ferreira – Vorkapic, Claudio Joaquim Borba – Pinheiro, Murilo Marchioro, Daniel Santana, The Impact of Yoga Nidra and Seated Meditation on the Mental Health of College Professors]

 

The sample selected for this study consists of 200 respondents. The two groups were divided into the study: control and experimental groups. The data has been collected from the respondents pre and post-test administration of Yoga Nidra intervention within an interval of one month. The subjects have been instructed to practice Yoga Nidra. There is one follow-up at an interval of one month to assess the level of stress. It has been observed that the stress level of participants reduced after administrating the intervention of Yoga Nidra. The findings suggested that Yoga Nidra is an effective mechanism in mitigating stress.

 

[Dwivedi, M.K. (2021), “Mitigation of stress through yoga nidra (meditation) intervention”, The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice]

 

The study aimed at finding out the effect of Yoga nidra on stress and anxiety on college going students. The study was conducted at the Yoga clinic of Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya. Practice time was 30 min the duration was 6 months. 80 students were taken from PG Yoga classes for observing the effect as well as 30 was in control group. The result shows a significant change in the practice group as Yoga nidra positively decreased the stress level of the male and female subjects. Several other studies prove Yoga nidra equally influences anxiety level significantly in both male and female subjects.

 

[Kumar K. A study on the impact on stress and anxiety through Yoga nidra. Indian J Tradit Knowl.]

 

YOGA NIDRA IMPROVES WELL-BEING AND EMOTIONAL BALANCE

 

Yoga-nidra intervention resulted in significant improvement in all primary outcome measures. Participants reported significant improvement in the feelings of happiness, enthusiasm, quietude, being more inspired and alert, active, having clarity of thought, control over anger, and self-confidence at the end of the study period. Mixed method design of the study provided cross-validation and convergence of results obtained from quantitative and qualitative assessment tools. Yoga-nidra is beneficial in improving multiple dimensions of adolescent well-being.

 

[Vaishnav, Bhalendu, Vaishnav, Smruti, Vaishnav, Vibha, Varma, Jagdish, Effect of Yoga-nidra on Adolescents Well-being, A Mixed Method Study, International Journal of Yoga]

 

YOGA NIDRA IMPROVES COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS AND SLEEP QUALITY

 

Background: Yoga nidra is practised by sages for sleep. The practice is simple to use and has been clearly laid out, but its role in the treatment of chronic insomnia has not been well studied. Methods: In this randomized parallel-design study conducted during 2012-16, we enrolled 41 patients with chronic insomnia to receive conventional intervention of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (n=20) or yoga nidra (n=21). Outcome measures were both subjective using a sleep diary and objective using polysomnography (PSG). Salivary cortisol levels were also measured. PSG was done before the intervention in all patients and repeated only in those who volunteered for the same. Results: Both interventions showed an improvement in subjective total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, reduction in total wake duration and enhancement in subjective sleep quality. Objectively, both the interventions improved TST and total wake duration and increased N1% of TST. Yoga nidra showed marked improvement in N2% and N3% in TST. Salivary cortisol reduced statistically significantly after yoga nidra (p=0.041).

 

Conclusion: Improvement of N3 sleep, total wake duration and subjective sleep quality occurred following yoga nidra practice. Yoga nidra practice can be used for treatment of chronic insomnia after supervised practice sessions.

 

[Datta K, Tripathi M, Verma M, Masiwal D, Mallick HN. Yoga nidra practice shows improvement in sleep in patients with chronic insomnia: a randomized controlled trial. Natl Med J India]

 

The aim of the study was to study the effect of yoga nidra practice on cognition and sleep using objective parameters. 41 participants were enrolled, and baseline sleep diary (SD) collected. Participants volunteered for overnight polysomnography (PSG) and cognition testing battery (CTB) comprising of Motor praxis test, emotion recognition task (ERT), digital symbol substitution task, visual object learning task (VOLT), abstract matching (AIM), line orientation task, matrix reasoning task, fractal-2-back test (NBACK), psychomotor vigilance task and balloon analog risk task. Baseline CTB and after one and two weeks of practice was compared. Power spectra density for EEG at central, frontal, and occipital locations during CTB was compared. Repeat SD and PSG after four weeks of practice were done. After yoga nidra practice, improved reaction times for all cognition tasks were seen. Post intervention compared to baseline (95%CI; p-value, effect size) showed a significant improvement in sleep efficiency of +3.62% (0.3, 5.15; p = 0.03, r = 0.42), -20min (-35.78, -5.02; p = 0.003, d = 0.84) for wake after sleep onset and +4.19 μV2 (0.5, 9.5; p= 0.04, r = 0.43) in delta during deep sleep. Accuracy increased in VOLT (95% CI: 0.08, 0.17; p= 0.002, d = 0.79), AIM (95% CI: 0.03, 0.12; p = 0.02, d = 0.61) and NBACK (95% CI: 0.02, 0.13; p = 0.04, d = 0.56); ERT accuracy increased for happy, fear and anger (95% CI: 0.07, 0.24; p = 0.004, d = 0.75) but reduced for neutral stimuli (95% CI: -0.31, -0.12; p = 0.04, r = 0.33) after yoga nidra practice. Yoga Nidra practice improved cognitive processing and night-time sleep.

 

[Datta K, Bhutambare A, V. L. M, Narawa Y, Srinath R, Kanitkar M (2023) Improved sleep, cognitive processing and enhanced learning and memory task accuracy with Yoga nidra practice in novices.]

 

THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL OF YOGA NIDRA IN REGULATING THE MENSTRUAL CYCLE

 

Patients were recruited from Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, CSM Medical University (erstwhile KGMU) Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. One hundred and fifty female patients with menstrual disorders were randomly divided in to two groups 1- Intervention group: 75 subjects (Yoga Nidra intervention and medication) 2- control group: 75 subjects (without Yoga Nidra intervention only medication). Schedule for clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry tool was used. There was significant improvement in pain symptoms (P<0.006), gastrointestinal symptoms (P<0.04), cardiovascular symptoms (P<0.02) and urogenital symptoms (P<0.005) after 6 months of Yoga Nidra therapy in Intervention group in comparison to control group. Yoga Nidra appears to be a promising intervention for psychosomatic problems. It is cost-effective and easy to implement. The results indicate that somatoform symptoms in patients with menstrual disorder can be decreased by learning and applying a program based on Yogic intervention (Yoga Nidra).

 

[Rani, Khushbu; Tiwari, S. C.1; Singh, Uma2; Agrawal, G. G.3; Srivastava, Neena. Six-month trial of Yoga Nidra in menstrual disorder patients, Effects on somatoform symptoms, Industrial Psychiatry Journal]

 

The present study demonstrated the efficacy of Yoga Nidra on hormone profiles in patients with menstrual irregularities. Yoga Nidra practice was helpful in patients with hormone imbalances, such as dysmenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, menorrhagia, metrorrhagia, and hypomenorrhea.

 

[Rani M, Singh U, Agrawal GG, Natu SM, Kala S, Ghildiyal A, Srivastava N. Impact of yoga nidra on menstrual abnormalities in females of reproductive age. J Altern Complement Med]