Yoga Nidra, may be rendered in English as "yogic sleep" or "sleep of the yogis". There are numerous traditions of Yoga Nidra sadhana that have been transmitted through parampara within the Indian religions. These aspects may include disciplines and traditions of dream, sleep and yoga.

Fundamentally, Yoga Nidra is engaged to prepare and refine a sadhaka spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically prior to seeking sublime levels and aspects of consciousness and awareness through meditation, trance and other sadhana not constituted by sleeping and dreamwork. In some Himalayan lineages, Yoga Nidra as Yoga of Clear Light, is a sublime sadhana and transmission modality in its own right. However, general traditions of Yoga Nidra have related a version of the practice that has become synonymous with yogic relaxation and guided visualisation techniques.

The true Yoga Nidra is a state of consciousness in which the yogi is in direct communion with the Divine energy, that may be understood as Dharma, pervading the whole phenomenal Universe and beyond.[citation needed] In the Vaishnava sampradayas this deified "energy" is Vishnu, the sleeping lord. This energy is beyond space and time, allowing the yogi to potentially access by grace, past, present, future and beyond.[citation needed] A tantrika engaged in this sadhana may also become aware of their past or future lives (refer bhumi).[citation needed] Through Yoga Nidra, as other sadhana, the practitioner may work through karma and samskara, cleansing the store consciousness. In some traditions, Yoga Nidra is employed to purify the unconscious mind through use of certain vows and commitments, samaya, known as sankalpas.

Experienced tantrikas employ Yoga Nidra for astral travels and thoughtform projecting and in its advanced and refined practice, it may lead to samādhi and satchitananda.[citation needed] Adherents of the Yoga Nidra as guided visualisation technique, hold that half an hour of Yoga Nidra may yield the benefit of up to three hours of standard sleep, although the regular engagement of this sadhana as a sleep substitute is contraindicated as the bodymind still requires sufficient rest through standard sleep. This tradition of Yoga Nidra should not be conflated with techniques of autosuggestion and autogenous training, etcetera, though there is a palpable commonality in process if not in application.

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