The word Nyasa means "placing," "applying," or "touching." It refers to the conscious act of touching or placing the fingers or hands on energy points of the body. In hindu tantric meditations and pujas, the practitioner lays his hands on himself in each of these places, in special sequences.

Contemporary guided relaxations taught at the end of most yoga classes, and called "yoga nidra" (yogic sleep), were originally complicated mental nyasa, in which the practitioner would relax on her back and mentally "place" the sound of a mantra in each part of her body, accomplishing relaxation, connection, and sanctification all at once.

In the early 1960s, Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of Yoga decided that the religious overtones of this practice might repel many westerners who might otherwise benefit from yoga. So, by his own admission, he created "yoga nidra" by combining traditional yogic technique with western hypnotic relaxation and the information he read in Herbert Benson's seminal 1960's work "The Relaxation Response."

Before 1960, "yoga nidra" did not exist. There was only nyasa and the dream yoga techniques known as "nidra yoga."