Breathing exercises can be helpful to reduce stress and anxiety and help you to relax at bedtime. Some of my clients have struggled with much stress and anxiety during these challenging times.
The following breathing exercises can all be done easily on your own to help encourage your body and mind to relax and make sleep easier.
Breathing exercises can help you sleep better
Abdominal Breathing
Abdominal breathing refers to deep breathing into the abdomen rather than shallow breathing in the chest. The following steps will make sure that you are breathing from your diaphragm.
1. Lie down with your legs straight and slightly apart. Point your toes outward, put your arms at your side gently, make sure your palms are facing up, and close your eyes.
2. Place one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest.
3. Notice which hand rises the most as you inhale.
4. If the hand on your chest rises the most as you inhale, focus on filling your stomach (bottom of your lungs) full of air before you reach the top. The easy way to do this is to try and force your abdomen to rise as you breathe. Over time, this gets easier.
As you breathe, be sure to inhale through your nose and then exhale through your mouth. Keep your face relaxed as you do this. Breathe in and out while counting to make sure that you are breathing slowly. Relax and focus on the sound of your breath.
Continue breathing like this for a period of time such as 5 or 10 minutes. Practice this type of breathing regularly, such as once a day. Once you’ve become better at engaging in deep abdominal breathing, practice it when you find yourself becoming anxious or tense.
This type of breathing is useful in that it helps to slow down the various functions in your body that can keep you tense and anxious. Allowing yourself to deep breathe will slow your heart rate and make it easier to drift off to sleep.
Repeating a Mantra
Once you have mastered the art of abdominal breathing, you can add in a mantra that helps you to focus on the relaxation aspect of your breath. Follow the steps below to add in a mantra while you breathe.
1. Lie down and get comfortable or sit in a relaxing position.
2. As you breathe deeply through to your abdomen, say a phrase to yourself in your head such as “Inhale relaxation.”
3. Then, as you breathe out and release the air from your abdomen, say “Exhale tension.”
Be sure to pause before you exhale and before you inhale. As you exhale, become aware of any tension in your body and let it go.
You can even use your imagination to picture your body accepting relaxation and letting go of tension. Picture these experiences as visual events such as air moving in and out of your body.
Continue doing this for 5 to 10 minutes until you start to feel sleepy.
4-7-8 Breathing Routine
The 4-7-8 breathing exercise is another way to relax so that you can fall asleep. Follow the steps below to practice this type of breathing.
1. Sit with your back straight.
2. Place the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth and keep it there.
3. Exhale through your mouth and make a “whooshing” sound.
4. Close your mouth and inhale in through your nose to a count of four.
5. Hold this breath and count to seven.
6. Then, exhale out through your mouth while making the same “whoosh” sound and count to eight.
9. If you complete this cycle, you have done one breath. Now go back and do this again three more times so that you have completed the cycle for four breaths in total.
It’s important to note that when you breathe like this, you should inhale quietly but exhale while making a nose. Keep your tongue in the same spot throughout the whole exercise. Make sure that you maintain the ratio of time for inhale/holding/exhale as this is what is most important.
If you want to do everything faster the first few times you do this (if you find holding your breath for this long is difficult), feel free to modify the time and work your way up as you get accustomed to the exercise.
Practice breathing like this twice a day (again, only do four breaths at a time). Do this consistently for one month. As you grow more confident you can extend to eight breaths.
Now, when you find yourself unable to sleep, practice your 4-7-8 breaths
The next time you find it hard to fall asleep, try practicing one of the above 3 breathing exercises for better sleep. If you still struggle, considering having a chat with me to see if I can help with other strategies.
Gill Mathias
www.gillmathias.com gill@goldcoachuk.com 01530 589216