In Yoga Nidra, you will be guided into a hypnagogic state of consciousness where you are between waking and sleeping. It is a state in which the body is completely relaxed, and the practitioner becomes systematically and increasingly aware of their inner world. Once the body is relaxed, the inner world that is experienced can be explored by traveling through and penetrating the Pancha Maya Koshas, or 5 layers of our being. "While Yoga Nidra is not a substitute for actual sleep, one hour of Yoga Nidra practice is equivalent to four hours of sleep. This is due to the series of brain waves experienced along the way. With practice, you’ll eventually be able to enter the delta brainwave state but remain aware. It resembles what it feels like to be on the verge of being awake and asleep. The conscious experience of deep sleep is what makes it so restorative and unique." (Saraswati 1998, Kumar 2008)