What is I Am Yoga Nidra

The Integrative Amrit Method of Yoga Nidra, I AM Yoga Nidra™ is one of the 5 major schools of Yoga Nidra which is a sleep based guided meditation and relaxation technique. Yoga Nidra teaches you to step away from your unwanted negative thoughts and behaviors and replace them with truth filled intentions that anchor you in the reality that you are much more than your thoughts and behaviors.   It is scientifically proven to balance the nervous system and enlarge the prefrontal cortex. This balance naturally releases your own feel good hormones such as dopamine, melatonin and serotonin; allowing your mind and body to rest and deeply restore itself.

Studies have shown that just 45 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to the restorative benefits of 3 hours of sleep.  Benefits of this restoration include relief from insomnia, reduced stress, anxiety and depression, increased concentration, reduced blood pressure, equalization of blood sugar levels, a boost to the immune system, and an increase in the allostatic load of the good stress we can handle so that it does not become distress. 

This method is legimately backed by many scientific studies. But personally, I was amazed to learn that women with breast cancer tend to have lower levels of melatonin and melatonin has been proven to slow breast cancer growth by up to 70%.....Yikes, this hit home for me because menopause was doing a number on my melatonin levels and was causing me to wake up every night between 2-5am.  If you are interested in reading this article for yourself, you can find it below and here https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20030714/hormone-melatonin-slows-breast-cancer

This practice is appropriate for everyone and the only thing you have to do is to try and stay awake and even if you fall asleep, you will still receive benefits.   Contact me to discuss how we customize a session to address your specific needs today!

Make your appointment Here or Call 630-670-8756

Hormone Melatonin Slows Breast Cancer

By Bright Light at Night Linked to Increased Cancer Risk By Daniel J. DeNoon FROM THE WEBMD ARCHIVES July 14, 2003 (Washington, D.C.) --

The nighttime hormone melatonin puts breast cancer cells to sleep. It also slows breast cancer growth by 70%. David E. Blask, MD, PhD, of Bassett Research Institute in Cooperstown, N.Y., reported the findings at this week's annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Breast cancers get revved up by a kind of dietary fat called linoleic acid. Melatonin interacts with linoleic acid, so he gave melatonin to mice implanted with human breast cancers."This breast cancer rev-up mechanism gets revved down by melatonin," Blask said at a news conference. "Nighttime melatonin is a relevant anticancer signal to human breast cancers. Ninety percent of human breast cancers have specific receptors for this signal."The hormone seeps from a pea-sized gland in the brain when the lights go out at night. It's the reason you get sleepy when it's dark. Blask and colleagues found that melatonin puts cancer cells to sleep, too. Blask's team exposed lab mice with human breast cancers to constant light. Tumor growth skyrocketed."With constant light, tumors grow seven times faster and soak up incredible amounts of linoleic acid," he says. "During the day, the cancer cells are awake and linoleic acid stimulates their growth. But at night cancer cells go to sleep. When we turn on lights at night for a long time, we suppress melatonin and revert back to the daytime condition." The finding may explain why nurses who often work the night shift have high rates of breast and colon cancer. Blask says clinical trials are under way to see whether melatonin supplements can help treat cancer. It may also help in other ways."When you take melatonin prior to normal onset of sleep, it will [jump-start the sleep cycle]," he notes. "Many cancer patients suffer from sleep problems. Melatonin may also improve the quality of life in cancer patients by helping them sleep."Arizona Cancer Center researcher David Alberts, MD, notes that there is a lot of interest in melatonin as a sleep inducer. However, he worries about the safety of over-the-counter melatonin supplements."The issue is safe dosing of melatonin," he said at the AACR news conference. Provided that melatonin supplements actually contain the hormone, Blask isn't worried about overdose."In human studies, melatonin has basically no toxicity," he tells WebMD. "Now it takes very little melatonin to stimulate nighttime sleepiness -- on the order of three-tenths of a milligram. But you can't overdose with melatonin. People have taken gram quantities. Its nastiest side effect is sleepiness."WebMD Health News