We have Richard Miller and the iRest Institute to thank for their many years of dedication which has lead to much of the research we now see in mindfulness and yoga nidra.  Please check them out.  

“We had not expected the meditators to be able to control their consciousness to such an extent.“(Brain researcher Troels Kjær, The Kennedy Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark)

The objective of the research paper is to explore the role and effectiveness of Yoga Nidra in mitigating the stress level of the employees at the workplace. The paper is conceptual and qualitative in nature in which Yogic technique- Yoga Nidra has been used as a stress management intervention strategy.

Exploring the Experiences of Women with Complex Trauma with the Practice of iRest Yoga Nidra.
2014. Hartman, Courtney. California Institute of Integral Studies. San Francisco, CA.

According to Maharshi Markandey Yoga nidra is the state of deep relaxation as Lord Visnu Himself uses this marvelous technique.

iRest Integrative Restoration, A Meditative Approach to Healing: Bringing Calm and Ease to Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence and/or Stalking.

In this study, Herbert Benson's (1975) Relaxation Response Meditation program was tested as a possible treatment for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). 

Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain syndrome, is often accompanied by psychological distress and increased basal sympathetic tone.

This eight-week study examined the feasibility of offering weekly classes in Integrative Restoration (iRest), a form of mindfulness meditation, to military combat veterans at a community mental health agency in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Women's scores on quality-of-life measures increased significantly, and the median reported HF severity, calculated as the weekly average of a daily HF severity score, decreased 40% over the course of the 11 weeks of the assessment period. 

These findings provide an initial indication that mindfulness meditation training can buffer CD4+ T lymphocyte declines in HIV-1 infected adults.

More than 3,000 scientific studies have been conducted on the benefits of meditation, and include positive outcomes for the treatment of depression, anxiety, lack of concentration, high blood pressure, inflammatory disorders, asthma, PMS, Arthritis, Fibromyalgia and more.

“There’s an intrinsic connection between our experience of life and the molecular function of our bodies,”

The practice appears to have an amazing variety of neurological benefits – from changes in grey matter volume to reduced activity in the “me” centers of the brain to enhanced connectivity between brain regions.

In the new paper, published in Frontiers in Immunology, British researchers analyzed the findings from 18 previously published studies—involving a total of 846 people—on the biological effects of meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, Qi gong and Tai Chi. Together, the authors say, the studies show that these mind-body exercises appear to suppress the expression of genes and genetic pathways that promote inflammation.

"Millions of people around the world already enjoy the health benefits of mind-body interventions like yoga or meditation, but what they perhaps don't realize is that these benefits begin at a molecular level and can change the way our genetic code goes about its business,” says Ivana Buric, Lead investigator from the Brain, Belief and Behaviour Lab in Coventry University's Centre for Psychology, Behaviour and Achievement.

Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. The study is the first to link positive well-being to higher telomerase, an enzyme important for the long-term health of cells in the body.

Scientists aren’t quite sure how the placebo effect works. This phenomenon occurs when a patient believes they are getting treatment and their condition begins to improve, despite not actually receiving medication with an active ingredient. A new study has also found that some breast cancer survivors who regularly practice stress reduction techniques, including mindful meditation and yoga, can physically change their cells, despite no longer receiving treatment.

"Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day," says study senior author Sara Lazar.

Many studies have investigated meditation for different conditions, and there’s evidence that it may reduce blood pressure as well as symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and flare-ups in people who have had ulcerative colitis. It may ease symptoms of anxiety and depression, and may help people with insomnia.

The results suggest that participation in MBSR is associated with changes in gray matter concentration in brain regions involved in learning and memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.

This is a useful page of research links for studies of various therapeutic applications of the i-rest yoga nidra protocol developed by Richard Miller. There are also a selection of other general research papers on yoga nidra from other traditions and other approaches. The i-rest newsletter archive offers some inspiring short articles, reflections and useful research summaries relating to yoga nidra in general as well as to this specific protocol.

Indian study charting increase in alpha waves after practice of yoga nidra. 

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The current findings suggest that patients with menstrual irregularities having psychological problems improved significantly in the areas of their wellbeing, anxiety and depression by learning and applying a program based on Yogic intervention (Yoga Nidra).

Discover the very real autonomic effects of practicing Om meditation.  

Findings from this pilot study lend support for the potential effectiveness of iRest for managing chronic pain after TBI and for the reliability of the DVPRS for assessing pain in a small veteran sample.