The art & science of restA calmer mind.
A deeper sleep.
Where Western sleep science meets ancient wisdom.
Discover a whole-person pathway to understanding your sleep—and finding your natural rhythm.
The Five
Foundational Pillars™
Explore the five pillars of the Nidra Sleep Pathway™.
Explore the complete Pathway PILLAR 01Nervous System and Self-Regulation
Chronic insomnia is at its core a nervous system problem. The hyperaroused sympathetic nervous system that prevents sleep onset is addressed through Yoga Nidra, breathwork protocols, somatic practices, and nervous system regulation techniques drawn from both clinical and contemplative traditions.
Explore this pillarPILLAR 02Behavioral Integration
The brain learns to fear sleep through repeated difficult nights. Pillar 2 uses the evidence-based principles of CBT-I combined with mindfulness-based approaches to systematically dismantle those conditioned patterns and rebuild a healthy, automatic relationship with sleep.
Explore this pillarPILLAR 03Circadian Alignment
The internal biological clock that governs the sleep-wake cycle is disrupted by modern life in ways that make restorative sleep physiologically difficult. Pillar 3 restores circadian alignment through light management, schedule anchoring, meal and movement timing, and temperature regulation.
Explore this pillarPILLAR 04Body Rebalance
Sleep is a full-body process that depends on hormonal balance, nutritional status, and physical health. Pillar 4 begins with a comprehensive physician evaluation to identify any underlying physiological factors contributing to sleep disruption, and addresses them directly.
Explore this pillarPILLAR 05Sleep Sanctuary Cultivation™
The sleep environment sends constant signals to the nervous system. Pillar 5 provides a complete framework for transforming the bedroom into a physiological sanctuary, addressing temperature, light, sound, electromagnetic exposure, air quality, and the emotional associations attached to the sleep space.
Explore this pillarSleep is deeply personal.
Your pathway should be, too.
The Nidra Sleep Institute™ brings together the clinical expertise of David C. Brodner, M.D. and the insight of an interdisciplinary team of educators and integrative practitioners.
Through education, guided practice, and immersive retreats, we explore the connections between your nervous system, your daily rhythms, your environment, and your sleep.
Get to know the Institute
YELAPA, MEXICOA change of scenery.
A space to reconnect.
The ocean. The jungle. The sound of the water at night. Immerse yourself in the Nidra Sleep Pathway through guided Yoga Nidra, movement, sleep education, and time simply to be.
“Sleep medicine gave me the science. Eastern medicine gave me the system. NSI™ is what happens when you stop choosing between them.”
Founder & Medical Director
Board-Certified Sleep Medicine Physician
Follow your curiosity.
Explore the science of sleep and the practices at the heart of the Pathway.
The biology of a good night
Sleep architecture, circadian rhythms, and the body’s natural intelligence.
Explore the science
A gentler way to wind down
Meet Yoga Nidra and its place within Nidra’s contemplative curriculum.
Discover Yoga NidraBring the learning home
Discover the guided practices and educational resources in the member library.
Explore the libraryOur story, philosophy & approach +
Sleep Through Meditation, Not Medication
Where Western Medicine Meets
Ancient Wisdom
The Nidra Sleep Institute™ was built on a simple philosophy: Sleep is not a problem to be managed. It is a biological intelligence to be restored. What we offer is not a shortcut. It is a pathway.
Achieve Better Sleep
The Nidra Sleep Pathway™
The Nidra Sleep Pathway™ was founded on the principles of traditional Western medicine woven together with 1,000 years of Eastern healing practice. Because all aspects of health are interconnected, our Dream Team integrates the clinical expertise of Board-Certified Sleep Medicine Physician David C. Brodner, M.D. with contributions from meditation guides, Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors, yoga teachers, acupuncturists, massage therapists, nutritionists, and complementary health practitioners.
Our approach is never generic. Our Dream Team assesses the unique obstacles preventing your healthy sleep and designs a personalized regimen to restore your natural rhythm — mind calmed, body balanced, guided by both science and tradition.
How It Began
Built from a Gap in Medicine
After more than two decades in sleep medicine, David C. Brodner, M.D. had seen what the standard model could and couldn’t do. Medications managed symptoms. Referrals divided the person into parts. Nobody was treating the whole human being who couldn’t sleep.
He had watched patients cycle through prescriptions, sleep labs, and generic advice making progress in isolation, losing ground holistically. The missing piece wasn’t more data. It was integration.
The Nidra Sleep Institute™ was founded to fill that gap: a physician-led, integrative practice that combines the rigor of board-certified sleep medicine with the depth of behavioral science, circadian research, Eastern practice, and whole-body medicine.
— David C. Brodner, M.D.
Founder
Why The Nidra Sleep Pathway™ Is Different
Integrating Western Medicine with Eastern Healing to Create Lasting Sleep Wellness.
Expert-Guided From the Start
David C. Brodner, M.D. is board-certified in Otolaryngology and Sleep Medicine with 24+ years of clinical practice. Every protocol, every recommendation, every pathway begins with real medical expertise — not wellness influencers or algorithm-trained apps.
East and West, Integrated
CBT-I, circadian science, and sleep architecture research meet Yoga Nidra, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and breathwork. The result is a system that addresses sleep at every level — neurological, behavioral, biological, and energetic.
A Pathway, Not a Protocol
Protocols tell you what to do. Pathways show you how to change. The Nidra Sleep Pathway™ is a structured, progressive curriculum that builds the skills, habits, and understanding needed for lasting sleep transformation.
Deeper Than Symptoms
We are not interested in managing sleeplessness. We realign it — the nervous system patterns, the circadian disruptions, the physiological imbalances, the behavioral loops — and we address the sources, not the symptoms.
Built for the Chronic Sufferer
Generic advice is written for light sleepers. NSI™ was designed for people who have tried everything: the melatonin, the apps, the white noise, the sleep hygiene guides. People who need something deeper.
Immersive When You're Ready
From the online member library to destination retreats in Yelapa and beyond, NSI™ meets you wherever you are — and offers a deeper level of immersion when you’re ready for it.
The Framework
The Five Pillars of the Nidra Sleep Pathway™
At the core of NSI™ is a proprietary five-pillar framework, developed over decades of clinical practice and shaped by the science of how the human body actually sleeps. The Pathway is not a checklist. It is a progressive, layered curriculum that rebuilds your relationship with sleep from the ground up.
Nervous System & Self-Regulation
Behavioral Integration
Circadian Alignmen
Body Rebalance
Sleep Sanctuary Cultivation™
The People Behind the Pathway
An Interdisciplinary Team Built Around You
Restoring sleep requires more than one lens. Our Dream Team brings together board-certified medicine, integrative nursing, behavioral science, and Eastern practice — unified by a single purpose.
Founder & Medical Director
David C. Brodner, M.D.
Board-Certified Otolaryngologist & Sleep Medicine Specialist
Dr. Brodner brings over 24 years of clinical experience in sleep medicine — and a rare commitment to looking beyond the standard prescription pad. Trained in both Western sleep medicine and Eastern integrative practice, he founded NSI™ to offer patients something the conventional model rarely does: a whole-person pathway to lasting sleep restoration.
He is board-certified in Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery and Sleep Medicine, and has built his practice on the conviction that sleep disorders are not pharmaceutical deficiencies — they are complex, layered conditions that require equally layered solutions.
Integrative Sleep Practitioner
Gillian May
BSN, MSN — Registered Nurse & Integrative Health Specialist
Gillian May brings the warmth and depth of integrative nursing to the Nidra Sleep Pathway™. With dual training in clinical nursing and integrative health, she bridges the gap between the medical rigor of NSI’s physician-led protocols and the embodied, experiential practices that allow genuine nervous system restoration.
Her work within the Pathway focuses on the areas where lived experience meets clinical knowledge: Yoga Nidra facilitation, breathwork, and the guided practices that help clients move from hyperarousal to rest. She is an essential voice in how NSI™ translates science into something people can feel.
See How We Work Together
The Nidra Sleep Pathway™ is an integrative system and its power lies in the collaboration between disciplines. Every member of the Dream Team contributes to a unified approach.
Our Mission & Philosophy
We Exist to Restore Sleep at Its Root
NSI™ was founded on the belief that chronic sleeplessness is not a character flaw, a lifestyle problem, or a pharmaceutical deficiency. It is a signal, and it deserves to be heard.
“Our mission is to give every person who has been failed by the standard sleep model a more complete path forward — one grounded in real medicine, whole-person science, and the wisdom traditions that have understood human rest for centuries.”
What We Believe
The Principles That Guide Everything We Do
Sleep is biological, not behavioral
Poor sleep is not a willpower problem. It is a physiological one — rooted in nervous system dysregulation, circadian disruption, nutritional imbalance, or behavioral patterns that have become entrenched. We treat it accordingly.
The whole person must be seen
You cannot understand someone’s sleep by looking at their sleep alone. Hormones, gut health, chronic stress, trauma, environment — these are not separate topics. They are sleep. Our approach addresses all of them.
Ancient wisdom is clinical evidence
Yoga Nidra, breathwork, and Traditional Chinese Medicine have thousands of years of practice behind them. That is not anecdote — it is accumulated human data. We integrate these practices because the science now supports what practitioners always knew.
Protocols teach. Pathways transform.
Following a protocol changes what you do. Walking a pathway changes who you are. NSI™ is designed for the latter — a progressive, layered education that builds genuine sleep capacity rather than dependency on any single technique.
Medication is a tool, not a solution
We are not anti-medication. We are pro-clarity. Sleep medications have their place — and that place is not as a permanent substitute for addressing root causes. We work with physicians and patients to find the right role for every intervention.
Rest is a human right
In a culture that glorifies exhaustion, choosing to sleep well is a radical act. NSI™ stands for a different relationship with rest — one in which deep, restorative sleep is understood as a biological necessity, not a luxury.
The Deeper Why
Why an Institute, Not a Clinic
A clinic treats presenting conditions. An institute understands them. From the beginning, NSI™ was designed as a place of learning as much as a place of healing because lasting sleep restoration requires that patients understand what is happening in their bodies, not just follow instructions.
The Nidra Sleep Pathway™ is structured to educate as it heals. The Five Foundational Pillars™ are not just clinical protocols, they are frameworks for understanding sleep, the nervous system, and the body in a way that stays with a person long after they complete any given program.
“We want our patients to graduate from needing us — not because we’ve solved their problem, but because they understand it well enough to manage it themselves.”
This is why we built the Member Library. This is why we run immersive retreats. This is why every element of NSI™ is designed to deepen a person’s relationship with their own sleep biology.
We are not interested in dependency. We are interested in mastery.
Begin Your Pathway
The Nidra Sleep Pathway™ starts wherever you are. Explore the science, meet the team, or go directly to the Member Library to begin.