The founding story of Som NSDR

Some years ago, a series of stressful events hit me all at the same time. Taken in isolation, none were insurmountable—but all together, I became a bit overwhelmed. The stress began to affect my sleep, and very rapidly I found myself in a downward spiral. I knew how crucially important sleep (and stress reduction) were both for my productivity and for my long-term health, so the lack of it only increased my stress levels as I worried about my ability to function in my career, and about the damage I was doing to my physical and mental health.

This, of course, only worsened my sleep even further. Soon, I was spending every night laying awake for hours, exhausted, stressed, and frustrated. My professional and personal life both suffered tremendously, and at my lowest points, insomnia ruled my entire life. Nothing else seemed to matter—and if you’ve been there, you know exactly what this experience is like.

As I did my best to deal with the situation, I probably tried nearly every approach for insomnia in existence: every sleep hygiene recommendation, supplements, pills, therapy, CBT-I, diet changes, meditation, breathwork, sophisticated electronic devices, and more. Nothing helped much, and I was left frustrated and hopeless.

That all changed when I discovered the ancient practice of yoga nidrā (YN) through a spiritual center in India, and its modern adaptation, Non-Sleep Deep Rest (NSDR). I was initially skeptical of the practice, having reached the conclusion that I was a hopeless case and that nothing would work for me. But, a few short weeks into working directly with experts in India, I was already noticing a small impact—a few precious nights of decent sleep here and there, a sense that my constant state of elevated anxiety was, at times, quieting down.

So I went all-in on this practice, reading every book and scientific study, taking every course, and learning and mastering every technique. Unfortunately, I realized quickly that existing digital resources for YN/NSDR didn’t measure up to anything that I was learning. YouTube videos, existing apps, etc. did not capture the depth and authenticity of the practice as I knew it, and I ended up having to write and record my own scripts under the guidance of expert teachers to develop my at-home practice.

Fast-forward through a few months of regular NSDR sessions using my own newly created scripts, and my life had changed significantly. I went from sleeping 2-3 hours a night at best to nearly eliminating my insomnia. I didn’t become a perfect sleeper immediately, of course, but it only took a few months of consistent practice for insomnia to cease its stranglehold over my life.

The data doesn’t lie

Check out my sleep score history from Oura Ring, the most accurate sleep tracking device available, since I started my practice in 2020.

Sure, it took me a while since I was learning, designing, and improving the protocol from scratch over this whole period. Those years of learning have now been condensed into an easy-to-use app where most users see benefits within a few short weeks.

Note: Som NSDR is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, Oura Ring, a product sold by Oura Health Ltd.

I began experiencing a number of other benefits as well, feeling calmer and better able to respond to stress, mentally sharper, happier. And yet, this practice as I had learned it still didn’t exist in any easy-to-access digital form anywhere! My practice was cobbled together from my own scripts that I had developed through years of study and research, had recorded myself, and stitched manually into audio files.

At that point, I made it my mission to create a simple & free mobile app that could guide anyone through the same journey and experience similar benefits. I felt an obligation to bring this obscure and niche practice to a broader audience who I knew could benefit tremendously, so that my personal challenges with insomnia would be channeled in a positive direction.

This is how Som NSDR was born. There’s no big corporation or investors behind it. I’m not (and never will be) an influencer trying to hook you on generic content to sell you junk. I’m just on a mission to help others experience the transformative power of NSDR on stress, sleep, and peak performance. If you practice NSDR regularly, you will experience benefits!

– Antoine Sindhu, founder of Som NSDR