Calming Anxiety or Falling Asleep Is As Simple As 4-7-8

Need a way to calm down when you’re experiencing anxiety – or simply need to settle down to fall asleep? The time-tested 4-7-8 breathing method may help, CNN reports.

Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, explained the classic 4-7-8 technique for relaxation. You breathe in four a count of four, hold that breath for seven counts, and breathe out for a count of eight.

This method, also known as the “relaxing breath,” originally comes from pranayama, the yoga practice of breath regulation developed in ancient India. In 2015, integrative medicine specialist Dr. Andrew Weil brought it into wider public consciousness as a stress reduction tool.

It can also help you fall asleep by bringing down anxiety or racing thoughts.

“What a lot of sleep difficulties are all about is people who struggle to fall asleep because their mind is buzzing,” explained Rebecca Robbins, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies sleep and circadian disorders. “Exercises like the 4-7-8 technique give you the opportunity to practice being at peace. And that’s exactly what we need to do before we go to bed.”

How to try the 4-7-8 breathing method

There’s nothing complicated about the method, but when you’re first learning the exercise, Weil recommends sitting up with your back straight. Once you’ve got the hang of the technique, you can try it while lying in bed.

While practicing the breathing method, place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth just behind your upper front teeth. You’ll be exhaling through your mouth and around your tongue. Weil explains the steps to follow:

Exhale through your mouth, making a whooshing sound.
Close your mouth, quietly inhale through your nose, while counting to four quietly in your head.
Hold your breath in for a count of seven.
Breathe out through your mouth, making the whooshing sound for eight counts.
Repeat the cycle three more times, for four breath cycles in all.

What matters most is the 4-7-8 ratio, Weil explains, not how long you breathe in or out. If you have difficulty holding your breath or exhaling that long, shorten the exercise while maintaining the inhale/hold/exhale ratio, he recommends.

Why does 4-7-8 work?

When we’re feeling stress, our sympathetic nervous system (which controls our fight-or-flight response) is on high alert, leaving us feeling overstimulated, Dasgupta explains. “An active sympathetic nervous system can cause a fast heart rate as well as rapid and shallow breathing,” making it difficult to settle down to transition into sleep.

The 4-7-8 breathing technique helps activate our parasympathic nervous system, which controls rest and digestion. It accomplishes two things: helping us settle down while also giving our brain something else to think about rather than wondering why you’re not falling asleep.

You can read the full article here.

Or watch Dr. Weil’s video tutorial on how to perform the 4-7-8 breathing method.