This prescriptive approach was described by authors such as the 'relaxationist' Annie Payson Call in her 1891 book Power through Repose, and the Chicago psychiatrist Edmund Jacobson, the creator of progressive muscle relaxation and biofeedback, in his 1934 book You Must Relax!. The yoga scholar Mark Singleton states that while relaxation is a primary feature of modern Western yoga, its relaxation techniques 'have no precedent in the pre-modern yoga tradition', but derive mostly from 19th and 20th century Western 'proprioceptive relaxation'. The text says that the yogi should sleep in this position, which 'bestows bliss'.

It is an asana or yoga pose where the legs are wrapped around the back of the neck. In the 17th century Haб№ha RatnДЃvalД« (3.70), Yoganidrasana is first described. For one who has achieved YoganidrДЃ, death never occurs.' KhecarД« MudrДЃ is the Hatha yoga practice of folding the tongue back so that it reaches inside the nasal cavity, where it can enable the yogi to reach samadhi. The 15th century Haб№ha Yoga PradД«pikДЃ goes further, stating (4.49) that 'One should practice KhecarД« MudrДЃ until one is asleep in yoga. he then enters the 'fourth state', namely samadhi, beyond the usual states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, 'that special thoughtless sleep, which consists of consciousness.' The Amanaska (2.64) asserts that 'Just as someone who has suddenly arisen from sleep becomes aware of sense objects, so the yogin wakes up from that at the end of his yogic sleep.' Д«y the 14th century, the YogatДЃrДЃvalД« (24вЂ“26) gives a more detailed description, stating that yoganidra 'removes all thought of the world of multiplicity' in the advanced yogi who has completely uprooted his 'network of Karma'. In the 11th or 12th centuries, yoganidra is first used in Hatha yoga and Raja yoga texts as a synonym for samadhi, a deep state of meditative consciousness where the yogi no longer thinks, moves, or breathes. In the CiГ±cinД«matasДЃrasamuccaya (7.164), yoganidra is called 'peace beyond words' in the MahДЃmДЃyДЃtantra (2.19ab) it is named as a state in which perfected Buddhas may access secret knowledge. Yoganidra is first mentioned as something linked to meditation in Buddhist and Shaiva tantras. These mentions do not define any yoga technique or practice, but describes the god Vishnu's transcendental sleep in between the Yugas, the cycles of the universe, and the manifestation of the goddess as sleep itself.

The god Brahma asks YoganidrДЃ to wake up Vishnu to go and fight the Asuras or demigods named Madhu and Kaitabha. The DevД«mДЃhДЃtmya mentions a goddess whose name is YoganidrДЃ.

Pratyahara and irest