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.
Check out Dr. Weil’s site if you are interested in further
reading, and tell me what you think about this trick in the comments below.
Credits: www.byrdie.com