There’s no question that many of us would like to improve the quality of our sleep each night. Tossing, turning, waking up frequently, struggling to fall back asleep — and that’s if we can even drift off in the first place.
We are notorious for allowing bright screens into the bedroom and daily doses of anxiety to hit the pillow alongside our heads — seemingly subconscious habits that leave us annoyingly alert rather than calm and relaxed. One of the best ways to bring the body into its relaxed state is one we shouldn’t have to think about: breathing. You read that right. Proper inhales and exhales have become a lost art among today’s fast-paced, highly stressed society, robbing us of one of the best (not to mention free) tools for logging quality shut-eye. Taking the time to address your breathing could be just what you need to shut down your stress and solve your sleep problems, killing the proverbial two birds with one soothing stone.
Struggling to drift off to dreamland each night? Give these six breathing tricks a try at bedtime.
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Double down on the exhale.
One more for the yogis out there! Many pranayamic breathing techniques rely on an exhale that is double the length of the previous inhale to inspire calming and restorative benefits. A 2006 study found that this form of voluntary, slow breathing has the ability to help reset the body’s autonomic nervous system by synchronizing neural elements in the heart, lungs and brain. And practitioners have found that by focusing on the count associated with the breath, the technique keeps us from thinking stressful thoughts and becomes a more effective substitute for counting sheep. To test it out, lie down in bed on your back, inhale for three seconds, exhale for six seconds and repeat until you’ve fallen asleep.
