Sava, means corps or dead body and asana means posture. Therefore, Savasana directly translates as dead man’s pose! It implies a depth of release that goes far beyond simple relaxation, which is why Savasana has been referred to as the art of relaxation. It takes time and patience to master the art of this pose.
Savasana is placed at the end of a yoga class to enable us to digest and assimilate all of the information that your body and mind have taken on during your yoga practice. Although yoga Asana has been proven to calm the nervous system, throughout the practice our bodies are put under stress, so we move in and out of sympathetic state. Savasana, however, is a way of truly tapping into our parasympathetic state, where we can fully rest and digest, in a relaxed state of being.