The act of sleeping is quite misunderstood. Yes, we sleep because we get tired, but really sleep is about nourishing and refreshing your brain.
For many people though sleep is the worst time of the day. They lay there sometimes for hours looking at the roof waiting for that moment when the they slowly slip into the abyss of sleep. Sometimes waiting minutes, sometimes waiting hours.
They long for sleep, they long for that moment when the world disappears. They get anxious, they angry, they get frustrated and there seems to be no one who cares. It’s the most alone many people feel.
Practitioners misunderstand what they go through, brush it off as a fleeting moment or can’t relate to the stress of the situation.
So here’s a great little tip that we have used to help many people over the years.
- Place your hands over your stomach, about the level of your belly button
- Close your eyes and slowly start counting
- Take a deep slow breath over a 5 second period ensuring you feel the breath is to your stomach not your chest
- Then slowly breath out the same way
- Continue this for 5 minutes without pausing
Slow deep abdominal breathing has been shown to promote alpha brain wave function and stimulate your vagus nerve.
Alpha brain waves are very healing in nature. They encourage relaxation and tend to promote healing.
Your vagus nerve is kind of the break to your system. It’s responsible for lowering your heart rate, improving gut function, helps control brain function and improve immune function.
When we stimulate the vagus nerve we tend to calm our system and the brain and reduce stress.
We’ve seen this simple breathing technique help many people over the years get to sleep quickly and easily. Whilst we should always work to finding and correcting the cause of sleep dysfunction, this simple little trick has helped so many people over the years that it in itself is often enough to break the insomnia cycle that many people have.
Quotes:
Sleep is a complexed combination of changes to neurology and hormones
Sleep deprivation has been associated with many physical, neurological and psychological disorders
Slow deep abdominal breathing activates pathways that can help initiate sleep
Tips:
Breath in for 5 seconds out for 5 seconds abdominally to help activate the pathways that initiate sleep
Slow deep breathing needs to be a continuous action, not a stop start action
Placing your hands or a book over your tummy whilst abdominal breathing can help provide feedback as to where you are breathing from