Yoga Nidra for Athletes

Selenia di Fronso

On today's episode we're diving into Yoga Nidra, which translated literally means yoga sleep. While it's not literally sleep, evidence suggests it can be a powerful tool for improving sleep quality and falling asleep faster, among many other things. That is the subject of a piece by our guest, titled ⁠"The Thin Line Between Waking and Sleeping in Athletes: A Call for Yoga Nidra in the Sporting Context." ⁠

Selenia di Fronso is a PhD researcher affiliated with the Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, within the Behavioral Imaging and Neural Dynamics Center, University “G. d'Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy. She focuses on sports psychology, including things like mental imagery, stress management, and mindfulness.

While this is an opinion piece, it heavily references the existing literature on Yoga Nidra, especially in medical contexts. She's primarily calling for greater investigation of how Yoga Nidra could be applied in athletic contexts.

Once you hear about it, we're sure some of you are going to be interested in trying this out. For those people, we're also releasing a recorded guided session that she has prepared for us, which can be found below.

Below are some additional resources if you want to learn more or find more sessions:

For our veteran listeners, there is an ⁠8-week prerecorded iRest series through the VA’s War Related Illness and Injury Study Center⁠, or you can contact them for live sessions. Technically these recordings are right there on their website, so you don't really need to be a veteran...

⁠A 2010 Pain Management Task Force report from the Office of the Army Surgeon General⁠ listed Yoga Nidra as a “Tier 1” modality for pain management.

⁠Evidence from Occupational Therapy settings⁠ suggests that Yoga Nidra can significantly improve time spent asleep (above and beyond traditional sleep hygiene interventions) for patients suffering from sleep disorders.

⁠Clinical studies have shown⁠ that yoga nidra meditation is associated with positive physiological changes, including improvements in several hematological variables, red blood cell counts, blood glucose levels, and hormonal status. Two neuroimaging studies have shown that yoga nidra produces changes in endogenous dopamine release and cerebral blood flow, a further confirmation that its effects on the CNS are objectively measurable. The practice has also been shown to reduce psychometrically measured indices of mild depression and anxiety, although these benefits were not shown in an experimental study to extend to severe depression or severe anxiety.