This is a little-known way to use breath work to fall asleep. It incorporates breath and body awareness by taking different positions along with focusing on the breath.

If you feel tired in the morning when you wake up, it is usually due to one of two things; you have not slept long enough or the quality of your sleep has not been good enough.

Sleep plays a huge role in your overall well-being, and as adults, we need between 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Lack of sleep or poor sleep over a longer period can have severe health consequences which can lead to the development of disease, reduced immunity, increased stress, obesity, etc.

When we sleep, the body recovers, regulates, and rejuvenates itself. Without sleep, we would not be able to exist for long, so it is vital that you get the sleep you need and that you get quality sleep.

If you find it difficult to fall asleep, here is a small and simple breathing exercise that can help; both falling asleep and calming the nervous system sufficiently so that you also sleep better.

Also, check out “Meditation and the effect on your sleep“

Go to bed and:

Start by lying on your back, fully extended, hands relaxed by your sides, palms facing up.

Close your eyes and focus on your breath, breathing through your nose.

Now try to create an equal length on the inhalation and exhalation, possibly try to count to 4, 5, or 6 on the inhalation and to 4, 5, or 6 on the exhalation. Your breathing should be steady, calm, and with a minimum of pause between inhalation and exhalation. If the breath seems strained in any way at 6, only count to 4, etc. When you feel that they are of the same length, keep counting but do the following, take:

8 breaths lying on the back.

16 breaths lying on the right side

32 breaths lying on the left side

A little advice here, you might be tempted to try to make the count even longer to 7 or 8. But the truth is that most people don’t need to do that, simply using the count of 4-6 is often enough to calm the nervous system down.

If you are still not asleep yet, then you can simply focus on making your exhalations slightly longer than your inhalations and do a second round.

So counting to 4 on the inhale and 5 on the exhale, then 5 on the inhale and 6 on the exhale, or even longer on the exhale.

Now take the same breaths as before, 8 breaths on the back, 16 breaths on the right side, and 32 breaths on the left side.

ZZzzzzz Sleep well. 😴💤