Sleepless and Stressed
It was the week before my best friend’s wedding, and my anxiety
(nerves, plus excitement) had reached epic levels. I wasn’t sleeping, to
say the least. Part of that had to do with the maid of honor speech I
would be giving. I was terrified and could not shut my brain off to fall
asleep at night.
After day three of lying awake until the wee hours of the night, I
sheepishly admitted to her that I was too nervous to fall asleep, and
she—the bride, who was sleeping like a baby the week before her own
wedding—told me I needed to try the “4-7-8” breathing trick.
She happens to be a licensed wellness practitioner who studies
meditation, stress, and breathing techniques, and told me it would
change my life. You simply breathe in through your nose for four
seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, and exhale through your
mouth for eight seconds. She explained that the studied combination of
numbers has a chemical-like effect on our brains, and would slow my
heart rate and soothe me right to sleep that night. “It works,” she told
me. “It’s crazy.”
How it Works
I couldn’t wait to put the trick to the test, and to my complete
disbelief, I woke up the next morning unable to even remember getting to
the eighth second of the exhale because it knocked me out that fast.
For the next four nights leading up to the big day, even as my stress
increased, I was able to fall asleep the minute I tried the 4-7-8 trick.
I also used it to relax in the moments leading up to the speech.
When you feel stressed or anxious, adrenaline courses through your
veins, your heart beats at a rapid rate, and your breathing becomes
quick and shallow. So before I get into the specifics behind how the
4-7-8 breathing trick works, I wanted to explain in my own words what it
feels like when you try it. To me, the effect of the breathing
technique feels almost like a sedative drug, because in order to hold
your breath for seven seconds and then to exhale for eight—when your
breath is so shallow and short—your body is forced to slow your
heart rate. It has no choice. Holding your breath, and then slowly,
deliberately exhaling for eight seconds, causes a chain reaction. It
feels like going from a mad-dash sprint to a finish line to a slow,
leisurely, calming stroll through the park.
When you first start, you’ll be desperate to just take in another
breath, or you’ll want to speed up your counting, but if you stick to
the numbers (or at least try to), and don’t take any breaks (in other
words, consecutively repeat the 4-7-8 without resuming regular
breathing), you can literally feel your heart rate slow down,
your mind get quieter, and your whole body physically relax. It washes
over you like a calming, relaxing drug. I can never remember getting
past the first set of 4-7-8.
Do you know the feeling of being put under by anesthesia, where you
are conscious, and the next thing you remember is waking up? That’s what
this is like for me: As soon as I start the practice, the next thing I
remember, I’m waking up in the morning and can’t even remember beginning
the 4-7-8 count the night before. Crazy.
Now to the more technical details: People who are stressed or anxious are actually chronically under-breathing,
because stressed people breathe shortly and shallowly, and often even
unconsciously hold their breath. By extending your inhale to a count of
four, you are forcing yourself to take in more oxygen, allowing the
oxygen to affect your bloodstream by holding your breath for seven
seconds, and then emitting carbon dioxide from your lungs by exhaling
steadily for eight seconds. The technique will effectively slow your
heart rate and increase oxygen in your bloodstream, and may even make
you feel slightly lightheaded which contributes to the mild
sedative-like effect. It will instantly relax your heart, mind, and
overall central nervous system because you are controlling the breath
versus continuing to breathe short, shallow gasps of air.
How it Can Work For You
Mindful breathing practices have been a part of yoga and Eastern
wellness modalities for centuries, but aren’t as popular in Western
culture. The most well-known champion of the 4-7-8 breathing technique
in the U.S., who is somewhat responsible for the prevalence that the
technique does have amongst integrative medicine practitioners, yogis,
and those in search of stress reduction and overall relaxation, is
Harvard-educated Dr. Andrew Weil.
Though I’m not promising or claiming (nor does Dr. Weil) that
practicing this breathing technique can fight disease or provide
clinical benefits, I can tell you one thing: If it affects you like it
did me, it will help you fall asleep way faster. Not only is it
free, it also works for a number of different instances. In addition to
using it to fall asleep in a pinch, you can practice it if you wake up
in the middle of the night and find yourself thinking about something
you have to do the next day, in order to fall back asleep; if
you are nervous before an event (like a wedding, or giving a speech); if
you are angry about something and want to calm down. My friend (the
bride-to-be who slept like a baby the week before her wedding), who gets
nervous to fly, uses it before flights and during if the plane
encounters turbulence.
It is now what I use to fall asleep every single night, and each morning, I’m amazed at how well it worked.
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