September 19, 2022 – If you’re too stressed out and can’t sleep, taking some time to practice your breathing system with ancient roots can help you find your way to sleepland.
The 4-7-8 breathing technique was promoted by Andrew Weil, MD, founder of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, but it is based on pranayama, the practice of yoga to regulate breathing, CNN mentioned.
Rebecca Robbins, an instructor at Harvard Medical School and an associate scientist in the division of sleep disorders and daycare at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, tells CNN. “But 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.”
woe website They give you the following instructions: Place the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth and hold it there during the entire exercise. This will cause you to exhale through your mouth around your tongue and inhale through your nose. Exhale completely in a sizzling sound, then inhale through your nose until you reach four mental counts. Hold your breath for seven repetitions. Exhale through your mouth, wheezing, for a count of eight.
Repeat this cycle three more times.
“If you’re having trouble holding your breath, speed up your workout but keep the 4:7:8 ratio for the three phases,” says Weil’s website. “This breathing exercise is a natural tranquilizer for the nervous system.”
Raj Dasgupta, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, told CNN that the 4-7-8 technique appears to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for rest and digestion. This technique reduces the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the fight-or-flight response.
While many people swear by the 4-7-8 technique, its effectiveness is not backed by much scientific research.
Breathing exercises of all kinds help people relax and fall asleep, said Kelly Waters, MD, a sleep medicine physician at Spectrum Health. protection.
“The repetitive nature of the breathing techniques is great for the last steps of stabilization,” she said. “The first stage of sleep is called the stage of sleep, and these types of breathing techniques allow for a form of self-hypnosis.”
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