The Important Relationship Between Yoga Nidra, Brainwaves, and HGH

We might rarely read or listen about Human Growth Hormone (HGH), but this hormone is very important in maintaining our health as we age. Human Growth Hormon (HGH) or somatotropin is an important hormone that is secreted by pituitary gland in your brain. It is associated with:
1. Bone mineralization
2. Muscle mass
3. Strength booster and exercise performance while helping you recover from injury and disease
4. Fat breakdown and protein synthesis
5. Growth and regeneration of all internal organs
6. Homeostasis (balance)
7. Immune system


HGH is the agent that stimulates growth throughout childhood and then maintains the tissues and organs throughout life. In our 40s, the pituitary gland that produces HGH, begins to decrease the amount it produces.
The diminished production of HGH is associated with symptoms of aging which can include poor stamina, decreased muscle mass, increased body fat, poor mood, lack of motivation and decreased of bone density. Essentially, it slows the aging process.
Interestingly, your diet and lifestyle choices can significantly affect your HGH level and one of the lifestyle choices is to have enough rest. However, in this fast-paced modern day which often keeps us busy, not everyone is able to follow the rule of 8 hour sleep. So, how can we keep up with that?
Practicing Yoga Nidra regularly can help you with this situation. It is stated that forty five minutes of Yoga Nidra is as restorative as three hours of sleep.


Yoga Nidra is an ancient-sleep based meditation technique. It is a series of breath, body and awareness technique to help you slip into a state of non-doing.

The body needs to let go and to rest. It needs to have profound experiences of non-doing so it can regenerate itself. Without this, the body begins to tire. Like a car, it needs maintenance and repair. Keep it in overdrive and it will eventually burn out.
Yoga Nidra is regenerative, but it is more than a nap. It is a spiritual practice that, through a structured and conscious movement through sleep states, takes you to realms beyond the mind and into the fourth state of consciousness beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep.
Yoga Nidra stills the waves of mind by taking us into conscious sleep states, progressively moving us through the same brainwaves state as sleep. These brainwaves indicate less and less activity of the mind, creating profound state of meditative awareness - if experienced intentionally.


There are five major brainwave states:
1. Beta:
Beta is associated with normal waking state. Beta brainwaves is found between 13-100 cycles per second. It is most identified with the character, least still and most driven by ego programming.


2. Gamma:
Gamma is associated with high IQ and is found between 40 and 70 cycles per second. Gamma waves are important for learning, memory and information processing. Additionally, greater Gamma activity in meditators is associated with greater empathy and compassion. The Gamma brainwave is usually experienced while awake, but interestingly can also be experienced in REM sleep.


3. Alpha:
Alpha ranges between 8-12 cycles per second. The Alpha brainwave state is associated with relaxed wakefulness all the way into dreaming or REM sleep. Brain activity begins to slow down and our thoughts come fewer and further apart. As we enter the Alpha brainwave state, we experience relaxation and ease. The body is often overcome with an overwhelming feeling of well-being associated with the release of serotonin into the system. In this state, the immune system is boosted enabling us to better fight off and recover from infections and disease. Here, we also begin to gain access to the subconscious mind which is associated with the Prana or Energy body.


4. Theta:
Theta ranges between 4-7 cycles per second. It is associated with increased creativity, feeling relaxed and carefree. Artists, inventors, and children often have more Theta brainwave activity, even in the waking state. This is also the state out of which creative solutions, inspirations and answers will often arise. If you have ever fallen asleep and awoken with an answer or solution to a problem, it is a result of entry into the Theta state. Along with the Alpha brainwave state, the Theta brainwave state is associated with increased retention of learned material and long-term memory.

5. Delta:
The deepest sleep state and Yoga Nidra state happen in the Delta brainwave frequency. Here, amazingly, brainwave activity can slow all the way down between 0.5 to 3.9 cycles per second. The fluctuations of mind are down to only the most basic survival functions. Since all other activity is shut off, this is the most restorative state for the body. When under anesthesia, when knocked unconscious or in a coma, the body is in a Delta brainwave state. The body, if injured severely enough, goes into a coma because this is the best state from which to heal. Every time we go to Delta brainwave states in Yoga Nidra, we are profoundly healing and restoring the body.
Every night, we cycle through the brainwaves several times. When we get a good amount of Delta brainwave sleep, we awake feeling particularly refreshed, alert and rejuvenated. It has been repeatedly proven that Theta and Delta activity tend to decrease as we age, and the tendency to stay in upper Alpha increases. Yoga Nidra can help reverse this tendency and the sleep problems that can result. In Delta states of Yoga Nidra, HGH is released. As we get older, HGH levels decline. In adults, low or absent HGH can cause emotional symptoms, such as tiredness and lack of motivation. This can be counteracted in the Delta brainwave state where HGH is released. Delta brainwave states also reduce the amount of cortisol, a stress hormone which accelerates aging process, in the system.
In the Delta state, we not only have access to the unconscious, but also the the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious, defined by Jung, refers to primal patterning built into the DNA of all humans being all over the world. These are issues that are common to being human rather than more specific issues that are unique to each individual person - such as power, the search for wholeness, and being a woman or being a man.
Yoga Nidra experiences in the Delta state are usually associated with one's complete loss of body awareness. This is why, in the deep Delta brain experience, you may feel you cannot move, or it takes longer to come back to waking consciousness and the ability to move. Some may even have out-of-body experiences in Yoga Nidra, which are associated with the Delta state. One benefits of the out-of-body experience is that it allows us to see that the body is not the total sum of who we are. We are more than the body.
This expands our awareness to a greater sense of Self and begins to help us release our identification with the body as the limit of who we are.


In conclusion, developing and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits is important for our well-being as we get older, especially getting enough rest, and Yoga Nidra can assist you with that, not only with physical term, but also with emotional, mental and spirit as a whole being.