Does half an hour of yoga against sleep deprivation work?
My alarm went off and I felt like I had only been asleep for five more minutes. Crap. I've been chronically tired for a week. No energy to get up, too tired to put on my makeup, I'm so tired that my tiredness is tired of it. I'll stop complaining here, because you would get tired of it. By the way, it's not that I sleep poorly, because I'm a gifted sleeper, but I could use a little extra energy. I read in a sleep magazine (yes, that exists) to try Yoga Nidra. Half an hour of Nidra would have the same effect as three hours of sleep, it seemed to me an optimal use of the lunch break. Half an hour of doing, three hours of result. That's value for your money and then comes that quarantine subscription to YogaTV still in handy.
Yoga Nidra literally means sleep yoga, which I find sounds very nice, because I have permanent sleep. Armed with a yoga mat, blanket, and pillow, I head to the bedroom, where the yogi tells me which position I should take. Lying on my back, letting my feet fall slightly outward, palms up and especially staying in that position for the next half hour. I can do that. Delightful. A small caveat and thus an immediate challenge: your body must enter the state of sleep, but your mind must remain awake. I have to repeat this a few times for myself from the yogi, which doesn't seem pointless to me. In the meantime, I immediately get brain spins that I fall into a deep sleep, dozing through my lunch break and waking up around five. Although I do get exercises in between, bringing my breath to a certain body part and focusing on sounds and then letting that go again. At a certain point, I suspect somewhere halfway through the Nidra class, I have to count back on my breath from 27 to 0. When I suddenly hear the instructor say: ‘It doesn't matter where you left off counting, do this and that now.’ I think: huh? At 21, I was only at one-and-twenty. Life-threatening to do, such a half hour of sleep yoga in your lunch break, because I just dozed off.
It suddenly seems to be over. I have to move my fingers, my toes and legs and rub my hands together and place them on my face. This can't have been half an hour? But it was. Strangely enough, I might feel a bit fitter than before my Yoga Nidra session, although I'm not entirely sure. First, let's tackle some emails.
Do I feel fitter? Maybe. The fog has lifted a bit from my head and I'm a notch more productive. It could also be because I lay completely still for half an hour, but it seems that Nidra has a positive effect on your concentration AND it reduces stress. Which is exactly the intention, because it's an ancient relaxation method from long before Christ. Whether I feel less tired, I'm not entirely sure, but I do feel nicely refreshed. Hey, and my mother always said: if it doesn't help, it doesn't hurt, which is quite correct when it comes to a half hour of relaxation .
