I tried a relaxation technique hailed by Google CEO Sundar Pichai called non-sleep deep rest, or NSDR. It was hit or miss for me.

If you picture a person doing yoga, you might think of a downward-facing dog or wheel pose, where your hands and feet touch the floor while you are in the air.

The yoga nidra is different. It is commonly used to achieve a state called non-sleep deep rest, or NSDR. NSDR has been hailed as a relaxation method.

Pichai recently told The Wall Street Journal that he can find an NSDR video on the internet.

The practice of yoga nidra is stationary. You lie on your back on the ground and follow instructions, like focusing on your breathing or bringing attention to various parts of the body. You are supposed to fall into a space between being awake and asleep, according to yoga nidra instructor Tracee Stanley.

In the 1960s, yoga nidra was popularized by a man who called it a kind of conscious sleep.

It has been claimed that it can provide a variety of benefits. A study of more than 700 people from September 2020 found that those who tried yoga showed lower stress, higher well-being, and improved sleep quality compared to their peers in the control group.

NSDR can help reduce anxiety, ease pain, and even accelerate learning.

I tried yoga nidra for a week.

It was pretty hit or miss for me

On my first day, I used the 10-minute yoga nidra on the website. At one point, the instructor listed each finger and toe individually, and asked the audience to focus on various parts of the body. I had not expected this level of specificity, but the instructions throughout the week were just as detailed.

Instructors in many of the yoga videos I tried this week told me not to watch them if I fell asleep during yoga nidra.

I searched for yoga nidra on the internet, as Pichai says he does, and tried some videos that popped up. Paying attention to your breathing, focusing on different body parts and nearby sounds, and setting and repeating a Sankalpa are some of the things involved.

I had a hard time getting into the right mindset for these slow guided videos because my mind was racing and I had to do things later.

The noise was an obstacle. Though there are sections of the video dedicated to focusing on sound, I would sometimes find my mind still preoccupied with nearby noises even after we had moved on, which distracted me from the new instructions at hand. I want a quiet environment for yoga nidra.

There were some minor successes, though

The video seemed to work for me. As it played, I felt like my body had fallen asleep, as if my mind was still awake. I almost felt like I was sleeping. My breathing and heart rate changed. After opening my eyes, I felt as if I had woken up from a night's sleep, but I felt better and more alert.

The yoga nidra was a mixed bag. I might need more time to get used to the practice. A few videos were relaxing at times, but only because of the speaker's voice or the video's music, and I didn't notice slowed breathing or a slowed heart rate. It was a unique experience when it worked for me.