Quick Answer
Yoga for insomnia is one of the most thoroughly researched and clinically validated non-pharmacological sleep interventions available. Multiple randomised controlled trials confirm that regular yoga practice, particularly gentle, restorative, and Yin styles combined with Yoga Nidra and pranayama breathing techniques, significantly reduces sleep onset latency, increases total sleep time, improves sleep quality scores, and lowers the anxiety and cortisol levels that drive the most common forms of insomnia.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- Clinically Validated: Multiple RCTs confirm yoga significantly improves sleep onset, total sleep time, and sleep quality across diverse insomnia populations.
- Parasympathetic Activation: Yoga for insomnia works primarily by shifting the nervous system from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) to parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) dominance.
- Yoga Nidra is Transformative: This guided yogic sleep practice produces delta brainwave activity and profound physical rest, making it one of the most powerful sleep tools available.
- Pranayama Works Fast: Specific breathing techniques like 4-7-8 and Nadi Shodhana produce measurable nervous system calming within a single session.
- Consistency Over Intensity: A short daily gentle practice outperforms occasional vigorous sessions for sustained insomnia improvement.
Research Evidence for Yoga and Sleep
The scientific evidence for yoga as an insomnia treatment has grown substantially over the past two decades. A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine examined 19 randomised controlled trials involving over 1,800 participants and concluded that yoga practice produced statistically significant improvements across multiple sleep parameters: reduced sleep onset latency (the time to fall asleep), increased total sleep time, improved sleep efficiency (the ratio of time asleep to time in bed), reduced nocturnal wake time, and significantly better subjective sleep quality scores.
Importantly, these benefits were found across strikingly diverse populations. Studies included postmenopausal women, older adults, cancer patients and survivors, people with type 2 diabetes, chronic pain conditions, depression, anxiety disorders, and those with primary insomnia (insomnia without another identified medical cause). The breadth of populations showing benefit suggests yoga addresses fundamental mechanisms underlying insomnia across its many presentations rather than a single narrow pathway.
A 2021 study published in SLEEP Medicine Reviews compared yoga against other behavioural sleep interventions and found it comparable to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) in reducing insomnia severity index scores, with the advantage of additionally reducing anxiety, depression, and daytime fatigue at the same time. This makes yoga particularly attractive for the large proportion of insomnia sufferers whose sleep difficulties are driven by generalised anxiety and racing thoughts.
What the Research Actually Measures
Sleep research uses several standardised measures: the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), actigraphy (wrist-worn motion sensors that track sleep-wake cycles over weeks), and polysomnography (full lab-based brainwave recording). Yoga studies showing improvements on these validated measures are measuring genuine neurophysiological and behavioural change, not just subjective placebo effects. The consistency of findings across these objective measures across diverse studies strengthens confidence in yoga as a genuine clinical tool for insomnia.
Yoga Nidra specifically has attracted research attention for its neurophysiological profile. EEG studies show that deep Yoga Nidra practice produces theta (4-8 Hz) and delta (0.5-4 Hz) brainwave activity characteristic of stages 3 and 4 NREM sleep, even while the practitioner maintains a thread of awareness. This makes Yoga Nidra uniquely valuable as it provides deep physiological rest even for practitioners who cannot initially achieve sustained sleep.
Research by Shirley Telles and colleagues at the Patanjali Research Foundation has documented that a single 35-minute Yoga Nidra session reduces salivary cortisol by an average of 11%, increases skin resistance (a parasympathetic activation marker), reduces heart rate, and normalises brainwave activity in insomnia-affected individuals. These are acute effects from a single session; the cumulative effects of regular practice are proportionally more profound.
How Yoga Treats Insomnia: The Mechanisms
Understanding why yoga helps insomnia equips you to choose the right practices and apply them with the intelligence that produces real results. Yoga addresses insomnia through at least five distinct neurobiological mechanisms that interact and reinforce each other.
Five Mechanisms of Yoga's Sleep Benefits
- 1. Parasympathetic nervous system activation: Slow, deep breathing combined with gentle physical postures shifts nervous system dominance from the sympathetic (stress-activated) branch to the parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) branch. This is measurable through heart rate variability, cortisol levels, and galvanic skin response.
- 2. HPA axis downregulation: The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis governs cortisol secretion. Chronic insomnia involves dysregulated HPA activity, with elevated evening cortisol preventing sleep onset. Regular yoga practice normalises the HPA axis over weeks to months, reducing the hyperarousal state that underlies chronic insomnia.
- 3. Vagus nerve activation: The vagus nerve is the primary conduit of the parasympathetic nervous system. Yogic breathing, humming practices (Bhramari), and specific inversions stimulate vagal tone, producing measurable reductions in heart rate and inflammatory markers associated with poor sleep.
- 4. GABA enhancement: A landmark 2010 study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that a single yoga session increased brain GABA levels by 27% compared to a reading control group. GABA is the brain's primary inhibitory neurotransmitter; low GABA is directly associated with anxiety and insomnia, and most pharmaceutical sleep aids work by enhancing GABA activity.
- 5. Cognitive deactivation: Yoga practice, particularly mindful movement and Yoga Nidra, trains the capacity to disengage from ruminative thought. The hyperactive default mode network characteristic of insomnia is gradually quieted through regular practice, reducing the bedtime "racing mind" that is the single most common self-reported insomnia complaint.
The interaction between these mechanisms is what makes yoga's sleep benefits so durable compared to pharmaceutical interventions. Sleeping pills address symptoms (through forced sedation) but do not alter the underlying HPA dysregulation, sympathetic dominance, or cognitive hyperarousal driving insomnia. Yoga progressively remodels the stress response architecture itself, meaning improvements build and compound over time rather than diminishing with tolerance as they do with medication.
Best Yoga Poses for Insomnia
The following poses are selected based on research evidence, traditional therapeutic application, and their physiological mechanisms for activating the parasympathetic nervous system and reducing the muscular and mental tension that prevents sleep.
Top Yoga Poses for Insomnia Relief
- Legs Up the Wall - Viparita Karani (5-15 minutes): This mild inversion is perhaps the single most powerful accessible yoga pose for insomnia. The inversion reverses blood flow from the legs and stimulates the baroreceptors in the neck and chest, triggering a parasympathetic relaxation response. It also physically drains lactic acid from tired legs, reducing the restless legs sensations that disturb many insomnia sufferers. Elevate the hips slightly on a folded blanket for maximum benefit. Close the eyes, breathe slowly, and remain for at least 10 minutes.
- Child's Pose - Balasana (2-5 minutes): The forward fold creates a gentle compression of the abdomen that activates vagal afferents and reduces sympathetic tone. The grounding of the forehead to the floor (or a block) specifically stimulates the ajna chakra region and the frontal lobe, associated with calming of the prefrontal cortex. Hold with arms extended forward or resting alongside the body, breathing into the back body.
- Reclined Butterfly - Supta Baddha Konasana (5-10 minutes): Lying on your back with soles of the feet together and knees falling open creates an unforced opening of the hips and groin, releasing the psoas and hip flexors where stress and anxiety are classically held in the body. Support the knees with blocks or folded blankets if they do not rest comfortably. This pose is deeply releasing and requires no active effort.
- Seated Forward Fold - Paschimottanasana (3-5 minutes): The forward fold compresses the abdomen and stretches the entire posterior chain from heels to skull. In Yin practice, this is held for 3-5 minutes to allow the connective tissue and nervous system to release fully. Focus on the lengthening of the spine rather than reaching the feet. Support the head on a block or bolster if the hamstrings are tight.
- Supine Spinal Twist - Supta Matsyendrasana (2-3 minutes each side): Lying on your back, draw one knee to the chest and let it cross over the midline while the arms extend in a T. This gentle twisting stimulates the parasympathetic ganglia along the spine and provides traction to spinal discs. The rhythmic compression and release of abdominal organs massages the vagus nerve through its thoracic and abdominal path.
- Standing Forward Fold - Uttanasana (2-3 minutes): Standing with feet hip-width apart, fold forward and let the head hang completely heavy. This inversion to the head stimulates the hypothalamus, which regulates sleep-wake cycles. Bending the knees generously if needed, focus on completely releasing the weight of the head and upper body. This position can rapidly reduce the mental hyperarousal of racing thoughts.
- Corpse Pose - Savasana (10-20 minutes): The final resting pose of any yoga sequence is itself a profound sleep preparation tool when extended. The key is active surrender: systematically releasing each body part and each thought that arises. Use an eye pillow to block light and a blanket for warmth. When Savasana is extended to 15-20 minutes with full parasympathetic intention, it consistently transitions into the theta brainwave state associated with hypnagogic onset.
| Pose | Hold Duration | Primary Mechanism | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legs Up the Wall | 10-15 minutes | Baroreceptor activation, blood pooling reversal | General insomnia, restless legs, anxiety |
| Child's Pose | 3-5 minutes | Vagal stimulation, frontal lobe grounding | Anxiety-driven insomnia, mental hyperarousal |
| Reclined Butterfly | 5-10 minutes | Psoas release, hip opening, deep rest | Stress insomnia, physical tension |
| Seated Forward Fold | 3-5 minutes | Posterior chain release, abdominal compression | Evening wind-down, hamstring tension |
| Supine Spinal Twist | 2-3 min/side | Spinal parasympathetic ganglia stimulation | Back tension, digestive upset, nervous system |
| Legs Up Wall + Yoga Nidra | 20-30 minutes | Deep parasympathetic state, delta brainwaves | Severe insomnia, total system reset |
Pranayama Practices for Sleep
Pranayama - yogic breath control - may be the fastest-acting tool in the yoga-for-insomnia toolkit. While yoga postures take weeks of regular practice to produce sustained changes in sleep architecture, certain pranayama techniques activate the parasympathetic nervous system within a single session. Understanding why this works and which techniques to use provides an immediately accessible intervention for acute insomnia.
The vagus nerve, the primary conduit of parasympathetic signalling, has significant nerve endings in the diaphragm. Slow, deep diaphragmatic breathing with an extended exhale directly stimulates these vagal afferents, sending relaxation signals from the body to the brain rather than the usual top-down direction. The extended exhale in particular activates the baroreceptors in the lungs and cardiovascular system, reducing heart rate and blood pressure.
Four Pranayama Techniques for Insomnia
- 4-7-8 Breathing (developed by Dr. Andrew Weil from pranayama tradition): Inhale through the nose for 4 counts. Hold the breath for 7 counts. Exhale completely through the mouth for 8 counts. Repeat 4-8 cycles. The extended exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system strongly. Many practitioners report falling asleep before completing 4 cycles when lying in bed. This is excellent for sleep onset insomnia.
- Nadi Shodhana (Alternate Nostril Breathing): Using the right hand, close the right nostril with the thumb and inhale through the left nostril (4 counts). Close both nostrils briefly (1-2 counts). Release the left nostril while keeping the right closed with the ring finger, and exhale through the right nostril (4-8 counts). Reverse. This cycle balances the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches through the nasal-hypothalamic pathway. 5-10 minutes before bed is deeply calming for anxious minds.
- Bhramari (Humming Bee Breath): Inhale deeply, then exhale with a sustained humming sound. The vibration of humming stimulates the vagus nerve directly through the larynx and activates the parasympathetic ganglia in the chest. Bhramari also activates the relaxation response through the innate mammalian response to the sound of maternal humming. Even 5 minutes significantly reduces heart rate and blood cortisol levels.
- Extended Exhale Breathing: The simplest and most accessible technique: inhale for 4 counts, exhale for 6-8 counts. The extended exhale to inhale ratio is the key mechanism. Any ratio where exhale is longer than inhale will activate the parasympathetic nervous system. This can be practiced in bed, at any time, by anyone, immediately.
Yoga Nidra: The Sleep Practice
Yoga Nidra, which translates as "yogic sleep," is a structured guided meditation practice conducted while lying in Savasana. Unlike most meditation, the practitioner is guided specifically toward the threshold between waking and sleep consciousness, a state called the hypnagogic state, characterised by theta brainwaves, spontaneous imagery, and profound physical relaxation while a thread of awareness is maintained.
The tradition of Yoga Nidra as a formalised practice was largely systematised by Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of Yoga in the 1960s and 70s, though its roots are in the ancient practice of nyasa (placing consciousness in different body locations) and the Mandukya Upanishad's description of states of consciousness. The modern system typically involves a sequence of: initial intention setting (Sankalpa), body rotation (moving awareness systematically through 61 body points), pairs of opposing sensations, visualisation, and return.
How Yoga Nidra Produces Sleep Benefits
The body rotation component of Yoga Nidra, which moves awareness rapidly through different body regions, is particularly important neurologically. Each rotation activates the corresponding cortical representations in the sensory homunculus, progressively occupying the sensorimotor cortex with neutral body awareness rather than stressful thought content. This occupies the neural machinery of ruminative thinking with benign but engaging content until the cortex begins to downshift naturally toward sleep states. The technique essentially provides the mind something interesting enough to prevent catastrophising but calm enough to allow sleep onset.
Research applications of Yoga Nidra include treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (a 2018 military study found Yoga Nidra superior to standard relaxation therapy for PTSD-related insomnia), pre-surgical anxiety, cancer patients during and after treatment, and burnout recovery. The Pentagon has funded research on iRest Yoga Nidra (an evidence-based adaptation) for veteran populations, indicating the level of credibility this practice has achieved in mainstream healthcare contexts.
For personal practice, the easiest entry is through guided audio recordings. Numerous high-quality Yoga Nidra recordings are freely available on YouTube and Spotify, ranging from 15 to 60 minutes. The 30-35 minute format tends to work well as a pre-sleep practice. With regular use (4-6 weeks), many practitioners find that the cue of lying down and beginning the body rotation is sufficient to induce a sleep-onset state within minutes, as the nervous system learns to associate the practice with deep rest.
Complete Evening Sequence for Sleep
The following sequence integrates the evidence-backed poses, breathing, and relaxation practices into a cohesive 30-45 minute evening routine designed specifically for insomnia relief. It is appropriate for all levels of yoga experience.
30-Minute Evening Yoga Sequence for Sleep
- Seated 4-7-8 breathing (3-5 minutes): Begin seated in a comfortable position. Practise 6-8 rounds of 4-7-8 breathing to begin downshifting the nervous system before any movement.
- Neck and shoulder release (3 minutes): Gently lower one ear toward the shoulder, holding for 30-45 seconds each side. Slowly roll the chin to the chest and return. These releases address the primary sites of tension accumulation in people with stress insomnia.
- Child's Pose - Balasana (3-4 minutes): Extended arms or arms alongside body. Breathe deeply into the back of the ribcage. Allow the forehead to become heavy and the spine to round naturally.
- Seated Forward Fold - Paschimottanasana (3-4 minutes): From sitting, extend legs forward and fold with bent knees as needed. Rest head on forearms, a bolster, or the floor. Breathe into the hamstrings and lower back.
- Reclined Butterfly - Supta Baddha Konasana (5 minutes): Transition to lying down, bring soles of feet together, let knees fall open. Support knees with blocks if needed. Arms rest alongside body, palms up. Eyes closed. Breathe slowly.
- Supine Spinal Twist (2 minutes each side): Draw the right knee to the chest, guide it across to the left. Extend the right arm. Close the eyes. Breathe into the twist for 2 minutes. Repeat on the left side.
- Legs Up the Wall - Viparita Karani (10 minutes): Shimmy the hips close to a wall and extend legs upward. Let the arms rest comfortably. Use an eye pillow. Breathe slowly. This is the centrepiece of the practice; do not shorten it.
- Savasana with Bhramari (5 minutes): Come away from the wall to lie flat. Begin Bhramari humming breath for 10 breaths. Then simply rest in silence, allowing the body to settle completely. This is the direct transition to sleep preparation.
Yoga Styles Compared for Insomnia
Not all yoga is equally suited for insomnia treatment. Understanding the spectrum of yoga styles and how they interact with the nervous system helps you choose the most appropriate practice for your evening and your specific insomnia pattern.
| Yoga Style | Evening Suitability | Insomnia Benefit | Best Time to Practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yoga Nidra | Excellent | Very high - direct sleep onset tool | Immediately before bed |
| Restorative Yoga | Excellent | Very high - deep parasympathetic | 1-2 hours before bed |
| Yin Yoga | Excellent | Very high - connective tissue and nervous system release | 1-3 hours before bed |
| Hatha Yoga (gentle) | Good | High with appropriate pacing | 2-3 hours before bed |
| Vinyasa / Flow | Moderate | Indirect - through daytime stress reduction | Morning or early afternoon |
| Ashtanga / Power Yoga | Poor | Low if practised in the evening | Morning only |
| Kundalini Yoga (gentle kriyas) | Good | High for nervous system regulation | 2-3 hours before bed |
For practitioners who can only practice once per day and prefer morning sessions, the sleep benefits are still achieved through the cumulative reduction of chronic stress, cortisol normalisation, and HPA axis recalibration that comes with consistent yoga practice regardless of timing. Morning practice can be combined with a brief 10-minute evening Legs-Up-the-Wall and 4-7-8 breathing routine to provide both the long-term training benefit and the acute pre-sleep calming effect.
Creating a Sleep-Supportive Environment to Complement Your Yoga Practice
Yoga practice is one half of the equation for resolving chronic insomnia. The other half is the environment in which sleep happens. Even the most consistent yoga and pranayama practice will yield limited results if the bedroom itself is working against your nervous system's capacity to downregulate. Understanding the environmental factors that most significantly affect sleep quality allows you to amplify the benefits of your yoga practice rather than working against constant environmental resistance.
Temperature: The Single Most Controllable Factor
Of all the environmental variables affecting sleep, bedroom temperature is among the most significant and the most directly within your control. Core body temperature naturally drops in the hours before and during sleep as part of the body's circadian preparation for rest. A bedroom that is too warm — above approximately 18-19 degrees Celsius for most adults — interferes with this natural thermoregulatory process and fragments sleep architecture in measurable ways. Research from Harvard Medical School's Division of Sleep Medicine has identified bedroom temperature as one of the three most impactful environmental sleep variables.
The cooling effect of your evening yoga practice, particularly the parasympathetic activation generated by restorative poses and pranayama, is essentially preparing your body to welcome the natural temperature drop that supports deep sleep. Supporting this with a cool bedroom creates a powerful synergy. If you cannot control room temperature directly, lighter bedding, a fan, or a brief cool shower after your evening practice can achieve a similar effect.
Light Exposure and Circadian Alignment
The human circadian rhythm is entrained primarily by light exposure, with blue-spectrum light having the strongest suppressive effect on melatonin production. Evening screen use — phones, tablets, laptops, televisions — bathes the eyes in the very wavelengths most potent at delaying melatonin release and shifting the body's internal clock toward later sleep timing. This is not a minor inconvenience. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that individuals using light-emitting electronic devices before bed took longer to fall asleep, experienced reduced REM sleep, had lower morning alertness, and shifted their circadian clock significantly compared to those reading printed books.
The implication for a yoga-for-insomnia protocol is that your evening practice is most effective when it occurs in dim, warm-toned lighting rather than under bright overhead lights or facing screens. Candles, salt lamps, or low-wattage warm-toned bulbs all support the melatonin production your yoga practice is helping to initiate. Consider your evening yoga practice as the beginning of a light-dimming journey toward sleep, rather than a session bounded by normal domestic light levels on both sides.
Sound and Silence
The sleeping brain remains more acoustically sensitive than is commonly appreciated. Sharp intermittent sounds — notifications, traffic, a partner's movement — trigger micro-arousals in the sleep cycle even when the sleeper does not consciously wake. Over a full night, these micro-arousals accumulate into significantly reduced sleep quality. For people with insomnia, acoustic sensitivity is often even greater, with the nervous system already primed to detect potential threats.
Some practitioners find that white noise, brown noise, or the sound of rain creates a consistent acoustic environment that masks the sharp contrasts of intermittent sounds. Others find total silence most effective. What matters is consistency and the elimination of unexpected sound peaks. If you live in an acoustically challenging environment, practising your yoga nidra or savasana with noise-blocking headphones playing ambient sound can significantly deepen the quality of conscious relaxation, with benefits that carry forward into subsequent sleep.
Keeping a Sleep and Yoga Journal
Tracking your yoga practice alongside sleep metrics — time to fall asleep, number of awakenings, subjective morning quality rating — over four to six weeks creates an invaluable dataset for personalising your practice. You may discover, for instance, that vigorous pranayama practices like kapalabhati are better placed in morning sessions for you, while others in your situation find them helpful in the early evening. You may find that certain poses correlate strongly with improved sleep while others make little difference.
Insomnia often has idiosyncratic elements that no single protocol fully addresses. The journal is your mechanism for discovering what your particular nervous system responds to. Many chronic insomnia sufferers who have tried multiple interventions without lasting success find that this kind of systematic personal tracking finally reveals the specific combination of practice elements, timing, and environmental conditions that produces consistent results for their unique physiology and psychology.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does yoga actually help with insomnia?
Yes. Multiple randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews confirm that regular yoga practice significantly improves sleep onset latency, total sleep time, sleep efficiency, and self-reported sleep quality. A 2019 meta-analysis examining 19 RCTs found yoga produced consistent sleep improvements across diverse populations.
Which style of yoga is best for insomnia?
Yin yoga, restorative yoga, and Yoga Nidra are the most effective styles specifically for insomnia because they activate the parasympathetic nervous system through long-held, passive postures and guided body awareness. Vigorous styles like Vinyasa or Ashtanga are less suitable as evening practices but can improve sleep when practised earlier in the day.
How long before bed should I do yoga for insomnia?
Gentle yoga and restorative practices can be performed right up until bedtime and even in bed. More active practices like Hatha or flow sequences are best completed at least 2-3 hours before sleep to allow core body temperature to normalise. Yoga Nidra is ideally practised lying down immediately before sleep as a direct sleep initiation tool.
What is Yoga Nidra and how does it help insomnia?
Yoga Nidra is a systematic guided relaxation and body scan practice performed in Savasana. It guides the practitioner through progressively deeper states of consciousness toward the threshold between wakefulness and sleep. Research shows it produces significant reductions in sleep onset latency, decreases cortisol levels, and activates delta brainwave patterns associated with deep sleep.
Can yoga help with anxiety-driven insomnia?
Particularly well. Anxiety is one of the most common drivers of insomnia, and yoga addresses this pathway directly by reducing sympathetic nervous system activation, lowering cortisol and adrenaline levels, activating the vagus nerve through breathing, and training the mind to disengage from ruminative thought patterns.
Which yoga poses specifically help with sleep?
Poses with the strongest evidence include: Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani), Child's Pose (Balasana), Reclined Butterfly (Supta Baddha Konasana), Seated Forward Fold (Paschimottanasana), Supine Spinal Twist, and extended Savasana. These activate the parasympathetic nervous system and physically release the muscular holding patterns associated with chronic stress.
How often do I need to practice yoga to see improvements in sleep?
Even 2-3 sessions per week of 20-45 minutes produces measurable sleep improvements within 4-8 weeks. Daily brief practices of 10-15 minutes of gentle poses before bed show results within 2-3 weeks. Consistency matters more than session duration.
Is pranayama helpful for insomnia?
Extremely. Specific pranayama practices work within minutes. 4-7-8 breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system via vagal tone. Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing) balances the nervous system. Bhramari (humming bee breath) lowers heart rate and reduces cortisol within a single session.
Sleep Is Waiting
Insomnia is not a character flaw or a permanent condition. It is the nervous system stuck in a pattern of vigilance that once served a purpose but is no longer needed. Yoga for insomnia does not force sleep; it creates the conditions in which sleep becomes inevitable because the body and mind have returned to the state of safety that is their natural home.
Start tonight. Ten minutes of Legs Up the Wall followed by 4-7-8 breathing is enough to begin. Your sleep system is not broken; it is waiting for permission to relax. Every evening yoga practice is that permission, given more clearly with each passing night.
Sources and References
- Wang, W.L. et al. (2019). The effect of yoga on sleep quality and insomnia in women with sleep problems. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 17(1), 116.
- Cramer, H. et al. (2021). Yoga for sleep disorders: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SLEEP Medicine Reviews, 55, 101424.
- Streeter, C.C. et al. (2010). Effects of yoga versus walking on mood, anxiety, and brain GABA levels. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 16(11), 1145-1152.
- Telles, S. et al. (2013). Changes in autonomic variables following two meditative states described in yoga texts. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 19(1), 35-42.
- Satyananda Saraswati, S. (1976). Yoga Nidra. Yoga Publications Trust, Munger.
- Khalsa, S.B.S. (2004). Treatment of chronic insomnia with yoga: A preliminary study. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 29(4), 269-278.
- Brown, R.P. & Gerbarg, P.L. (2005). Sudarshan Kriya yogic breathing in the treatment of stress, anxiety, and depression. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 11(4), 711-717.