If you are anxious or stressed before an important event, falling asleep and staying asleep might be a problem. Try this to calm your nerves and get some rest.
It is called the ‘4-7-8’ method. This is what you should do:
- Breathe calmly through your nose for 4 seconds.
- Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
- Exhale slowly through your mouth for 8 seconds.
It really is that simple. It may sound crazy, but it really works.
What Is The 4-7-8 Method For Sleep?
The 4-7-8 breathing technique, also known as “relaxing breathing,” involves breathing for 4 seconds, holding your breath for 7 seconds, and exhaling for 8 seconds.
This breathing pattern is intended to reduce anxiety or help people sleep. Some proponents claim that the method helps people sleep in 1 minute
How Does The 4-7-8 Sleeping Method work?
That’s what I found out about how it works. When you are stressed or anxious, the amount of adrenaline in your blood increases and your breathing becomes faster and lighter.
This breathing exercise works as a kind of sedative. Deliberately slowing down your breathing in this way forces your heart rate to drop, causing you to calm down very quickly; It is simple physiology!
The same exercise also helps calm the mind, simply because it makes you focus completely on your breathing.
You don’t realize it, but at this point, your central nervous system gradually reduces its activity and the feelings of anxiety disappear. Any neurologist can confirm this for you.
The result is that your whole body relaxes. In terms of the speed and strength of the physical effect, exercise is similar to an anesthetic.
It was investigated by Harvard physician Andrew Weil, who discovered that the ‘4-7-8’ method has been well known to the Indian yogi for several centuries.
They use it during meditation practice to achieve a state of complete relaxation. It is safe to say, therefore, that it is completely harmless.
How It Can Be Useful To You, Specifically
If you get up late at night because something is bothering you, for example, it will help you. The same is true when you feel nervous before a competition or major event in life. The ‘4-7-8’ method is guaranteed to let you get what you need!
For a better effect, you can use this “sleeping potion”:
To relax your mind and body before bed, mix
- 1/4 tablespoon of honey
- 1/8 tablespoon of sea salt
- 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
You can swallow this mixture as is or add it to a glass of warm water; the effect would be the same.
These ingredients will not only have a great effect on your health but will also reduce cortisol spikes that impede your ability to sleep and wake you up at night.
Based on materials from Alina Gonzalez, wikiHow
