Magical '4-7-8' breathing trick can induce sleep in 1 minute
It can be pretty tough to fall asleep when your brain is thinking nonstop or anxiety has gotten the best of you, and it seems to only get harder when you're lying in bed listening to yourself breathe. Yet paying attention to that breathing may be exactly what you need in order to find a calm, easy entry into a good night's rest.
How to Do The “4-7-8″ Exercise
Dr. Weil is an influential public supporter of a previously little-known breathing technique known as the “4-7-8 exercise.” This trick, which began to capture national attention several years ago and has since been the subject of innumerable headlines, including one on Oprah.com, is shockingly simple, takes hardly any time, and can be done pretty much anywhere.
2. Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound as you do so.
3. Close your mouth and inhale slowly through your nose while mentally counting to four.
4. Hold your breath for a mental count of seven.
5. Exhale completely through your mouth for a mental count of eight. Make the same whoosh sound from Step Two.
6. This concludes the first cycle. Repeat the same process three more times for a total of four renditions.
In a nutshell: breathe in for four, hold for seven, and breathe out for eight. You must inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. The four-count inhale allows chronic under-breathers to take in more oxygen. The seven-count hold gives the oxygen more time to thoroughly permeate the bloodstream, and the eight-count exhale slows the heart rate and releases a greater amount of carbon dioxide from the lungs. WhyThis Sleep Hack Works So Well So, what's so special about breathing in and out differently? This pattern of inhales and exhales gets not only your lungs, but also your brain working to put you to sleep. When we lie awake, anxiously awaiting sleep, we begin to stress ourselves out over the thought of not sleeping at all. In turn, our heartbeat increases and we take shallow, desperate breaths.
When we worry, panic, or stress out, we do something called under-breathing. As Calm Clinic explains, we worry that we aren't getting enough oxygen, so we panic even more and begin to take faster, shallower breaths to make up for it. Yet we're getting more than enough oxygen—this habit actually fills our system with too much, leading to hyperventilation.So, the 4-7-8 breathing pattern makes you slow down and take a moment, in a literal sense. When you breathe in slowly for four seconds, you pause and let the breaths sink in. As you hold those breaths for seven seconds, you allow the oxygen to take effect and fill your body. And, finally, when you exhale for eight seconds, you release the carbon dioxide steadily. In response, your heart rate will slow, as your panic drops, and the rest of your body relaxes in turn as you control your breaths.
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