10 Minutes of This Feels Like 8 Hours of Sleep (Andrew Huberman)

Summary

The script discusses the benefits of Yoga Nidra, an ancient relaxation technique akin to sleep, which can boost dopamine levels and enhance mental and physical energy. The speaker shares their personal experience with the practice and introduces a simplified version called Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR). This protocol involves lying still, focusing on breath, and body sensations to achieve restorative effects similar to sleep, potentially aiding those with sleep difficulties.

Takeaways

• 🧘 Yoga Nidra is a protocol that promotes mental and physical rejuvenation by lying down and trying to stay awake while remaining completely still.
• 🌟 The practice involves long exhale breathing to slow the heart rate, which is beneficial for stress mitigation and can offset sleep loss.
• 🧠 Research indicates that Yoga Nidra can lead to a 60% increase in dopamine in the striatum, a key brain area involved in movement and reward pathways.
• 🔍 The speaker shifted focus from animal studies to human studies to explore the effects of Yoga Nidra and stress mitigation techniques.
• 🛌 Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) was developed as a simplified version of Yoga Nidra, aiming to provide the same restorative benefits without the mysticism.
• 🌱 NSDR can be practiced for 10 to 30 minutes and involves body scanning and staying awake, but falling asleep is not a problem.
• 📉 NSDR has been observed to decrease sympathetic autonomic arousal, leading to a state of rest that is different from regular sleep or meditation.
• 🤔 The speaker collaborated with Dr. Matthew Walker to explore the neural level effects of NSDR, particularly its potential to mimic sleep.
• 🌛 NSDR is different from meditation as it focuses on relaxation and sensory experiences rather than concentration.
• 💤 People who struggle with falling asleep can benefit from NSDR at any time of the day or night to help them self-direct their relaxation.

Q & A

What is Yoga Nidra?

Yoga Nidra, meaning 'yoga sleep', is a thousand-year-old protocol where you lie down and try to stay awake while remaining completely still. It involves long exhale breathing to slow the heart rate and is traditionally used to offset sleep loss and create states of mental and physical rejuvenation.

How does Yoga Nidra affect dopamine levels?

A study from a medical hospital in Denmark showed that people who performed the Yoga Nidra protocol for an hour experienced a 60% increase in dopamine in the striatum, a key area of the brain involved in movement, reward, and motivation pathways.

What is the difference between Yoga Nidra and non-sleep deep rest (NSDR)?

NSDR is a protocol developed to strip away the mysticism and intentions associated with Yoga Nidra, focusing on the physical act of lying down, doing long exhale breathing, and body scanning to relax. It is designed to be a more accessible and scientifically clear alternative.

How long should one practice NSDR for optimal benefits?

The script suggests that NSDR can be practiced for 10 to 30 minutes, or even an hour, with the aim of finding the minimal effective dose that provides restorative benefits similar to sleep.

What are the benefits of practicing NSDR?

Practicing NSDR can lead to increased dopamine levels, improved cognitive performance, and a subjective feeling of having slept for several hours, which can be beneficial for those with sleep difficulties.

How does NSDR differ from meditation?

Meditation is a focusing exercise that often involves directing attention to a specific point or thought, whereas NSDR is about relaxation and being in a sensory state, focusing on bodily sensations without drifting into past or future thoughts.

Can NSDR help with sleep difficulties?

Yes, NSDR can be particularly beneficial for those who have challenges falling asleep, as it teaches self-directed relaxation and can be practiced at any time of the day or night.

What is the relationship between NSDR and the brain's reward and motivation pathways?

The increase in dopamine levels observed after NSDR suggests a potential impact on the brain's reward and motivation pathways, which could contribute to the reported feelings of rejuvenation and mental clarity.

Is there any scientific collaboration planned to study NSDR?

Yes, there is a collaboration brewing between the speaker and Dr. Matthew Walker, a renowned sleep researcher, to explore the neural level effects of NSDR using brain imaging techniques.

What is the primary goal of practicing NSDR?

The primary goal of NSDR is to restore mental and physical vigor through relaxation techniques that are distinct from meditation, hypnosis, or pharmacology, and to potentially recover from sleep loss.

How does the speaker personally utilize NSDR?

The speaker practices NSDR about once a day, at any time that suits their needs, to feel rejuvenated and to simulate the effects of a full night's sleep, even if they have only slept for a few hours.

Outlines

00:00

🧘‍♂️ Yoga Nidra and Non-Sleep Deep Rest

The speaker introduces Yoga Nidra, an ancient practice that involves lying still while awake to induce relaxation and replenish mental and physical energy. They share their personal experience with the practice, noting its restorative effects and how it made them feel as if they had slept for eight hours. The speaker then discusses their research into stress mitigation and trauma, leading them to explore Yoga Nidra's effects on the brain. They mention a study from Denmark that showed a 60% increase in dopamine levels in the brain after practicing Yoga Nidra, which is associated with improved cognitive performance. The speaker also introduces the concept of Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR), a protocol they developed to simplify Yoga Nidra for scientific study, focusing on the physiological effects rather than the spiritual or mystical aspects.

05:02

🌙 Exploring Non-Sleep Deep Rest for Sleep Recovery

The speaker delves into the differences between Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR) and other relaxation techniques like meditation and hypnosis. They explain that NSDR is distinct from meditation, which is a focus exercise, and hypnosis, which is designed to solve specific problems. NSDR aims to restore mental and physical vigor and teach self-relaxation. The speaker shares anecdotal evidence that people who struggle with sleep find NSDR beneficial at any time of day or night. They also discuss the potential for NSDR to mimic sleep recovery, although more research is needed to confirm this. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of NSDR as a tool for enhancing well-being and the preliminary findings suggesting its effectiveness in increasing dopamine levels in the brain, which could contribute to improved cognitive function.

Keywords

💡Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra, also known as 'yoga sleep,' is a meditative practice with origins in ancient India. It involves lying down and attempting to stay awake while remaining completely still. The practice includes long exhale breathing to slow the heart rate, which is believed to promote relaxation and rejuvenation. In the script, Yoga Nidra is highlighted as a method to counteract sleep loss and enhance mental and physical vigor, with the speaker sharing personal experiences of its restorative effects.

💡Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with the brain's reward and pleasure centers. It plays a role in movement, motivation, and mood regulation. The script discusses a study where Yoga Nidra was found to increase dopamine levels in the striatum, a region of the brain involved in movement and reward pathways. This increase is linked to the practice's potential to enhance cognitive function and well-being.

💡Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR)

Non-Sleep Deep Rest is a protocol developed by the speaker to provide the benefits of Yoga Nidra without its mystical connotations. It involves lying down and focusing on long exhale breathing to slow the heart rate and calm the body. The practice aims to induce a state of rest that is not quite sleep but is deeply restorative. The script describes NSDR as a tool for stress mitigation and potentially for recovering from sleep loss.

💡Stress Mitigation

Stress mitigation refers to the reduction or management of stress. In the context of the script, Yoga Nidra and NSDR are presented as techniques for stress mitigation, potentially offering restorative effects on both mental and physical health. The speaker's shift in research focus from animal studies to human studies was driven by an interest in understanding and alleviating the effects of stress and trauma.

💡Trauma Treatment Center

A Trauma Treatment Center is a facility dedicated to helping individuals recover from traumatic experiences. In the script, the speaker mentions visiting such a center in Florida where Yoga Nidra was used as part of the morning routine to promote healing and restoration in individuals dealing with trauma.

💡Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia

Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) is a measure of heart rate variability synchronized with the phases of the respiratory cycle, associated with better cardiovascular health and emotional regulation. The script explains that long exhale breathing in Yoga Nidra and NSDR induces RSA, contributing to the slowing of the heart rate and promoting a state of calm.

💡Sympathetic Autonomic Arousal

Sympathetic Autonomic Arousal refers to the body's alertness or 'fight or flight' response. The script notes that NSDR can lead to significant decreases in this arousal, helping to shift the body into a state of rest and recovery that is distinct from typical meditative states.

💡Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Positron Emission Tomography is a medical imaging technique that produces three-dimensional images of functional processes in the body. In the script, PET scans were used in a study to measure dopamine levels in the brain after Yoga Nidra, providing evidence of the practice's impact on brain chemistry.

💡Cognitive Tasks

Cognitive tasks are activities that require mental effort, such as memory and problem-solving. The script references studies showing improved performance on cognitive tasks following Yoga Nidra, suggesting that the practice may enhance cognitive function.

💡Neuroimaging

Neuroimaging is the use of various techniques to either directly or indirectly image the structure, function, or pharmacological aspects of the nervous system. The script mentions an upcoming collaboration to use neuroimaging during NSDR to understand the neural mechanisms at play, particularly how they might mimic the effects of sleep.

💡Matthew Walker

Matthew Walker is a prominent sleep scientist and author of 'Why We Sleep.' In the script, he is mentioned as a collaborator in future research to explore the neural level effects of non-sleep deep rest, indicating the scientific community's interest in understanding the practice's impact on sleep and cognition.

Highlights

Yoga Nidra is a protocol that can help explore the importance of sleep and its effects on mental and physical vigor.

Yoga Nidra involves lying down and trying to stay awake while remaining completely still for 10 to 20 minutes.

People who practice Yoga Nidra experience a 60% increase in dopamine in key brain areas.

Yoga Nidra has been used to offset sleep loss and create states of replenished mental and physical vigor.

The speaker shifted their lab focus from animal studies to human studies to explore stress mitigation and trauma.

Non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) was developed as a simplified version of Yoga Nidra, focusing on the physical rest aspect.

NSDR involves long exhale breathing to slow the heart rate and calm the body.

The speaker found NSDR to be incredibly restorative, especially when not sleeping well.

NSDR creates dramatic decreases in sympathetic autonomic arousal, similar to a shallow state of sleep.

A study from Denmark showed a significant increase in dopamine in the striatum after practicing Yoga Nidra.

Post-Yoga Nidra performance on memory and cognitive tasks is improved.

The speaker is collaborating with Dr. Matthew Walker to explore the neural level during non-sleep deep rest.

NSDR is different from meditation as it focuses on relaxation rather than focus.

NSDR can be practiced at any time of the day or night to help with sleep difficulties.

Yoga Nidra and NSDR are protocols for restoring mental and physical vigor that are safe and have no cost.

The speaker finds NSDR to be a potent tool for personal use, providing a significant increase in dopamine and mental clarity.

NSDR is a protocol that can help people explore the restoration of mental and physical vigor outside of traditional sleep.

Transcripts

if ever there was a protocol that is

useful for people to explore given that

sleep is so important and mental and

physical Vigor are so important it's a

10 to 20 minute or I've continued to do

it about once a day and I personally

just feel as if I've slept 8 hours feel

amazing people who did this experienced

a 60% increase in dopamine in these key

brain areas this is wild this is a big

effect what is

this I first thought about and learned

about something called Yoga Nidra Yoga

Nidra means yoga sleep there's a

thousand-year-old or more protocol where

you lie down and you try to stay awake

while remaining completely still it

involves some long exhale breathing

which we know slows the heart rate

through respiratory sinus arhythmia

which is a good thing it slows the heart

rate and it had long been used as a way

to offset sleep loss as well as to just

create states of replenished mental and

physical Vigor even if you slept well

and there are a bunch of theories and

some actually interesting writings about

yoga Nedra potentially allowing people

to um tap into intentions and things

like that okay great I learned about

this process by the way somewhere around

2015 2016 and I decided to shift a

significant portion of my lab from

animal studies to human studies and I

was very interested in stress mitigation

and Trauma so I went visit a trauma

Treatment Center in Florida where they

were doing Yoga Nidra with people every

morning for an hour they would wake up

they would do this yoga NRA for an hour

I decided to participate once or twice

and I found it to be incredibly

restorative because I wasn't sleeping

well on that trip and I would come out

of it thinking like I just felt like I

slept eight hours I only slept four or

five broken hours I do this one hour of

Yoga Nidra and whoa feel amazing like

this is wild this is a big effect what

is this go back to my laboratory we're

studying stress stress mitigation

techniques and for whatever reason you

know I decided okay we could talk about

Yoga Nidra but it's a little bit like

talking about meditation and then you

have these name which is you know a

little complicated for the scientific

literature because it's not clear

exactly what it is and I want to be very

clear I'm not trying to take anything

away from Yoga Nidra or those practices

I have tremendous respect for them but I

came up with this thing called non-sleep

deep rest or nsdr for short which a

gives people some sense of what they're

doing and B strips away the intentions

and any kind of mysticism whatsoever and

it really just involves lying down for

anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes or an

hour I suppose and people are doing long

exhale breathing to slow their heart

rate and calm down doing a sort of body

scan of paying attention to different

parts of their body trying to stay awake

but if they fall asleep it's okay we

observe that it creates very dramatic

decreases in sympathetic autonomic

arousal AKA alertness and places the

brain into and body into kind of a of a

a shallow state of sleep not surprising

but a state that is unusual and at least

to my knowledge not observed in other

meditative States at least you know to

my knowledge but to be fair we didn't do

neuroimaging of this so we didn't have a

lot of insight into it I started digging

around in the literature and turns out

there's a study out of a medical

hospital in Denmark that had people

doing Yoga Nidra for an hour so a very

similar protocol but an hour using

what's called pet positron amiss

tomography measuring the amount of

dopamine in the reserve pool in a

certain key area of the brain called the

striatum which is involved in the

generation of movement it's also part of

the reward and motivation pathway

although you know there a bunch of

different Pathways for dopamine so I

want to be clear about that we talked

about that earlier so what they observed

was really interesting they observed at

least by Patron amission

tomography that people who did this

1hour yoganidra protocol experienced a

60% above Baseline increase in dopamine

in these key brain areas just from this

hour of lying there completely still

trying to stay awake listening to this

script relaxation I think like this is

wild and then there's some other studies

showing that post Yoga Nidra performance

on memory tasks or other cognitive tasks

is improved I got very excited about

this and started whittling down the

non-sleep Deep breast protocol to what

we hope is the minimal effective dose

which is about 10 minutes of non-sleep

deep rest um we've done some exploration

of that in my lab currently there is a

collaboration Brewing between myself and

Dr Matthew Walker

the author of why we sleep the great

sleep researcher the great Matt Walker

to explore what is happening at a neural

level using brain Imaging during

non-sleep deep rest Matt has some my

understanding is some insight or

hypotheses I don't know you know what

exactly um is based on so I want to be

very clear this is all very very

preliminary that certain pockets of the

brain might be able to go under go

sleep-like States in things like nsdr

Yoga Nidra that is not whole brain

sleeping um but it might be pockets of

brain areas um going to sleep like

States H but the whole purpose of doing

these experiments going forward this

collaboration is to figure out exactly

what's happening at a neural level

during non-sleep deep rest and how

closely it mimics sleep can you recover

sleep that you lost we don't know here's

what we do know subjectively and again

this is anic data if you will these are

people who have challenges falling

asleep often benefit from doing

non-sleep deep rest a 10-minute or

20-minute protocol at any time of day or

night because it's teaching you to

self-direct your own

relaxation it's different than

meditation because meditation involves

focusing meditation is really a focusing

perceptual exercise think about your

third eye center focus on your breath

redirect your focus every time it drifts

meditation is a focus exercise and work

from Wendy Suzuki's Lab at NYU has shown

that it can improve performance in

different cognitive tasks but the

traditional forms of meditation

sometimes can disrupt people's ability

to sleep well why well you're increasing

Focus capacity to fall asleep you need

to kind of defocus and let go of your

thoughts it's kind of interesting at the

beginning of all yoga needra scripts at

least the ones I've heard you hear um

you're going to move from thinking and

doing to being and feeling very new Agy

language but let's explore that thinking

and doing is about anticipation it's

about memory to feeling and being you're

going into as much as possible a purely

sensory state right you're focusing on

just how things feel you're not thinking

into the Future Past you're just

thinking future or past you're just

feeling sensation in your body very

interesting and we so different than

than meditation different than hypnosis

hypnosis is a sort of meditation

designed to solve a specific problem

quit smoking relax less pain okay

meditation more of a focus exercise

non-sleep deep rest is used to restore

mental and physical Vigor and to teach

you to relax yourself so it can be done

in the middle of the night if you're

having trouble sleeping it can be done

in the morning this is when I typically

like to do it I did morning I woke up at

5:00 that's a little early for me I she

had a phone call uh for about an hour

and then I realized oh goodness I got to

get up soon I'm going to take 30 minutes

and do a 30 minute non-sleep deep rest

or in this case it was yoga Nitra I come

out of that and I recall fa being in a

pseudo sleep State and I personally just

feel as if I've slept 8 hours and many

people report the similar sensation and

again it's subjective but I think if

ever there was a protocol that is useful

for people to explore given that it's

safe at zero cost and that sleep is so

important and mental and physical Vigor

are so important and the data on

dopamine it's a 10 to 20 minute Yoga

Nidra or nsdr script to me it's one of

the more interesting aspects of

protocols meaning you know we have

exercise protocols we have nutrition

protocols we got deliberate heat

exposure deliberate cold exposure

protocols what about protocols for

restoring mental and physical Vigor that

aren't meditation that aren't hypnosis

that aren't pharmacology and what does

that look like it's taking the brain out

of that anticipatory mode so if we

speculate go okay move from thinking and

doing to being in Feeling Again very new

Agy but what are we doing we're

deliberately shifting our thinking away

from the very types of thought and

action that deplete the dopamine Reserve

pool right and should we be surprised

that there's this significant increase

in dopamine in the striatum post Yoga

Nidra or nsdr probably not because

you're not tapping into that neural

circuitry for a period of time it also

underscores the extent to which in our

Waking Life we are constantly in Gold

directed Behavior even when we don't

realize it and so um I find nsdr to be

among the most potent and important

tools or protocols that I've used in my

own life I've continued to do it about

once a day um any time of day or night

sometimes based on need to get more

sleep sometimes just as a practice and

even 10 minutes of nsdr for me I emerge

from that feeling completely completely

different and always better