12 Breathing Techniques For Sleep To Drive Insomnia Away

Breathing is more than mode of living for us. The exchange of gases along with the techniques involved has the capability of deducing your overall well being. So, if you are here wondering what you can do to drive away the signs of insomnia, there are several breathing techniques for sleep you can opt for.

It is beneficial to know about the various kinds of breathing exercises for sleep (R) to ensure that you not just feel refresh and rejuvenated but the same impacts your overall health too.

In this article, we are going to be discussing the various techniques for breathing to fall asleep easily and without any hassle.

What are Breathing Techniques?

Throughout the day, we often come across situations that end up instilling stress in our mind and body. The overwhelming bout of stress is often a very common reason why we face difficulties in falling asleep.

Taking control of our breathing can often time impact our overall mind and well being. Controlled breathing has the capacity of wiping out the impending stress from the body which is one of the primary reasons behind the consistent lack of sleep night after night.

Breathing technique are specialized methods of breathing to bring in calmness and peace to one’s mind and help them recuperate throughout their lack of sleep.

How Does Breathing Techniques Benefit You?

When it comes to discussing about the breathing techniques for sleep, the main prospect that majority of the people tend to focus on is how it affects our overall nervous system.

The benefits of these exercise on the overall breathing exercise has profound impacts on the overall nervous system, promoting relaxation as well helping you sleep better. If you are here wondering about how, we are here to explain the same to you.

Controlled breathing as what we do during the breathing techniques directly stimulate the vagus nerve. The stimulation of the Vagus nerve helps promote the release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The neurotransmitter is what is primarily responsible for decreasing the feelings of anxiety and in promoting the feeling of calmness which is often what we need to get a peaceful night’s sleep.

Does Breathing Technique Help With Insomnia and Lack of Sleep?

As mentioned before, breathing exercises are directly related to neural stimulation which brings about synaptic reactions and changes that helps make you feel a lot calmer. Not just that, several forms of breathing also bring down your levels of stress which further aid in promoting a good night’s sleep and is often believed to drive the signs and symptoms of insomnia at bay.

12 Breathing Exercise for Sleep

If you are here wondering what can kind of breathing techniques are beneficial for insomnia, don’t worry, we have it all figured out for you.

In this section, we are going to walk you through the top 12 techniques of controlled breathing to fall asleep in a matter of time and drive the signs of insomnia away.

1. Meditative Breathing

Meditative breathing (R), just as the name suggests, is a technique that clubs breathing techniques with the easy flow of meditation. If you are here wondering why even indulge in something like this, well, even a 5 minute concentrated meditative breathing can positively influence your overall mental state and refresh your mind and help you sleep better.

How to do?

1. Sit up right on your bed with your back straight and your head slightly tucked in the forward direction
2. You need to progressively lengthen your breathing
3. For the first round, inhale and then count to one and exhale
4. Progressively, inhale and hold your breath for 2, 3, 4 and so on seconds with time
5. Do this for 5 minutes or so

Why does it impact?

When you consistently focus on your breathing and bring your concentration to one point, it diverts your thoughts away from the stress and anxiety and helps relax your mind. This, in turn, promotes your sleeping schedule as well.

2. Diaphragmatic Breathing

Yet another one of the amazing breathing techniques for sleep is the diaphragmatic breathing. This exercise involves the diaphragm in action and the deep breathing helps in pumping in better channeled oxygen and even helps fight off the impending overwhelming stress that majority of us often complain about.

How to do?

1. Lie down on your back on the bed
2. Place one hand on your chest and the other palm on your abdomen, preferably over your belly
3. Inhale some air and count to three and on the count of three, exhale
4. Do this for a few minutes
5. Focus on the movement of your hand going up and down with your breathing

Why does it impact?

The constant up and down movement of the rested palm on the belly helps in diverting your focus away from the stress and matters that are affecting your sleep and brings in calmness to your mind, thus allowing sleeping better.

3. Alternating Nostril Breathing

We often tend to focus more on mouth breathing rather than breathing through our nostrils. The result? Mouth breathing ends up stressing your body. Controlled breathing through the nose helps in ensuring to keep your overall body in a much more steady state. This technique is often alternatively known as “Nadi Shodhana”.

How to do?

1. Breathe in through one nostril, keeping the other one blocked with one finger
2. When you are about to exhale, remove your finger and exhale through the priorly blocked nostril while blocking the other one with your finger now
3. Repeat this multiple times for amazing benefits for your overall mental well being

Why this impacts?

Nasal breathing helps gush in more amount of fresh oxygen into the body which is beneficial in boosting the overall your state of mind. It keeps the mind at peace and promotes keeping it in a steady state.

4. 4-7-8 Relaxing Breathing

The 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise for sleep has persistently gained a lot of popularity overtime. This is a popular breathing technique developed by Dr. Andrew Weil. This breathing technique for sleep is based on the ancient practice of Pranayama. In order to gain the best kind of results in terms of inducing better sleep, it is important to carry on doing this technique consistently for an extended amount of time.

How to do?

1. For the first step, part your lips and exhale out through your mouth completely while making a whooshing sound
2. Once that’s done, close your mouth, count to 4 and inhale through your nose
3. Following that, hold your breath for around 7 seconds
4. On the eighth second, exhale through your mouth making a whooshing sound again
5. This is one complete cycle
6. Do this multiple times before bed at night

Why this impacts?

The technique helps restore balance and calmness back into the mind and body which is key to falling asleep without any problem. The consistent practice of this technique is believed to help you fall asleep within a matter of a few minutes.

5. Visualizing Breathing

As weird as it might sound, visualizing breathing is actually how it sounds like. Throughout the entire process, you focus on your breathing patterns and feel the breath of fresh air gushing in and out of your lungs freely and without any kind of obstructions.

How to do?

1. As you are inhaling, envision the breath of fresh air travelling through your nostrils into your body, reaching down to your toes.
2. Following that, when you are exhaling, imagine the air travelling up your body and leaving your body through the nostrils back again.

Why it impacts?

Focusing on the breathing exercise helps in triggering and activating the parasympathetic nervous system that is associated with calming down your nerves and helping you relax and even lower your rapidly beating heart that helps you sleep better at night.

6. Humming Bee Breathing

Often also known as the Brahmari, this breathing technique for sleep is quite beneficial in boosting your overall stability of your mind. It is quite beneficial in boosting the inner peace and helps in calming down the mind which is quite beneficial in helping you sleep.

How to do?

1. Inhale deeply through your nose taking in as much air as you can
2. While you are exhaling, make a humming sound while keeping your ears closed with your forefingers to intensify the humming sound further

Why it impacts?

When you focus solely on the humming sound, it does become quite easier to divert your mind away from the common aspects of the stress and anxiety and helps it calm down which, in turn, aid in getting rid of the problems preventing you from falling asleep.

7. Deep Breathing

The concept with deep breathing exercises is definitely not a new concept or term. It is quite beneficial in getting rid of the stress accumulated throughout the day and is definitely an amazing boost to your overall mental health.

How to do?

1. Sit upright with your back straight
2. Relax your muscles and just relax first
3. Take a deep breath in, dragging out the process of inhalation for a few seconds more
4. Once done, exhale with a similar vigour

Why it impacts?

Deep Breathing helps oxygenate the whole body properly which is key to keeping your mind relaxed and calm and thus promotes better sleep at night without any kind of issues.

8. Lengthened Breathing

Lengthened and deep breathing has beneficial impacts in calming down your overall senses. If the concept of breathing to fall asleep doesn’t sound like something that would work, I have some news for you. Lengthening out your breathing does aid in tricking your mind and making you fall asleep easily.

How to do?

1. Inhale and make a count till three
2. But drag out your exhaling process and count until six
3. You can switch the seconds as per your feasibility but the main motto is to ensure that your exhale is longer than your inhale

Why this impacts?

Short spurts of inhaling and lengthened exhalation process actually does have positive impacts in resetting your autonomic nervous system, thus boosting it to relax your accessory senses. It further helps in getting rid of the stress and helps you get a good night’s sleep.

9. Yoga Breathing

Also known as Anulom Vilom in Sanskrit terminology, this breathing technique for sleep doesn’t just impact your sleep cycle but helps boost the overall well being and boosts the blood circulation of the body as well. Not just that, this form of breathing exercise is also believed to calm the rushing trail of thoughts.

How to do?

1. Sit in an upright position, ensuring that your spine is completely straight
2. Place your thumb on one nostril and inhale deep through the other nostril
3. While exhaling, remove the thumb from the nostril and use your forefinger to cover the other nostril and exhale
4. Repeat this alternatively for a few minutes

Why this impacts?

The constant process of deep controlled breathing with our complete focus on switching fingers and breathing helps steer out thoughts of solidarity, stress or any other kind of negative thoughts. This calms your mind and thus helps you sleep better at night.

10. Double exhalation

This technique is exactly how it sounds like. It is believed to help in stabilising the trail of thoughts in one’s mind. It prevents you from consistently thinking about the negative things and thus helps in getting rid of the signs and symptoms associated with insomnia.

How to do?

1. Inhale slowly and fill up your lungs
2. Exhale twice as long as you inhaled
3. Do this breathing for insomnia while you are slept on bed making sure you are on your back when doing the technique

Why this impacts?

The double exhalation helps take away any kind stress off of the body and further brings calmness and tranquility back into the mind. This, in turn, aids in promoting better sleep at night.

11. Pursed Lip Breathing

Pursed Lip breathing helps in exhaling out the trapped air inside the lungs while ensuring to keep your mind and soul completely content.

How to do?

1. Inhale and then count for two
2. Just as you are about to exhale, pucker your lips and exhale the air and count till 4 in your mind
3. Do this consistently for a few rounds

Why this impacts?

Pursed lip breathing is actually quite beneficial in clearing out the trapped air from the lungs and aids in getting out the stress out of the effectively without any kind of side effects or machinery.

12. Breath Counting

Just as the name of the sleeping breathing technique is, you got to do just that itself. The process predominantly involves counting of the breaths you are taking to help distract your mind from the onslaught of thoughts.

How to do?

1. Inhale in a deep breath
2. While exhaling, start counting 1, 2, and 3 and so on
3. Do this till you reach 5. This completes one set
4. Start over again and do this for a few minutes

Why this impacts?

It predominantly diverts the attention to the counting along with the breathing process. This is definitely quite beneficial in impacting your overall breathing pattern that helps calm down your nerves and thus, helps in inducing a good night’s sleep.

The various breathing techniques for sleep are actually beneficial in boosting your overall mind, body and soul. If you have been finding it hard to catch a good night’s sleep, trying out the various breathing exercises for sleep can actually help you get to sleep within a matter of minutes or so.