Getting a good night’s sleep is a crucial part of overall health, but many people struggle to get the recommended seven-plus hours of sleep. In fact, data suggests that one in four women have symptoms of insomnia, such as trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, or both, leading many to seek help for sleep problems.
One potential help that is now making waves is the 4-7-8 breathing technique. While it won’t suddenly cure a person’s sleep problems, experts say it can help you relax enough to pass out. But what is the 4-7-8 breathing technique and how can it help?
What is the 4-7-8 breathing technique?
At its core, the 4-7-8 breathing technique is designed to relax you. It was popularized by integrative medicine specialist Andrew Weil, MD, who has videos online on how to do the breathing exercise.
In a video, Weil said he teaches this exercise to all of his patients, calling it “another yoga breathing technique.”
The name describes what you really need to do when you’re trying this technique: Inhale for a count of four, hold your breath for a count of seven, and exhale for a count of eight.
How to do the 4-7-8 breathing technique
Weil discusses the technique in a video on their website:
- Sit up straight.
- Place the tip of your tongue against the ridge of tissue just behind your upper front teeth (you’ll keep it there at all times).
- Exhale through your mouth.
- Close your mouth and inhale through your nose for a count of four.
- Hold your breath for a count of seven.
- Exhale through your mouth to a count of eight, making a hissing sound (if this is difficult to do around your tongue, Weil suggests pursing your lips slightly).
- Do this cycle four times.
How can the 4-7-8 breathing technique help with sleep?
Overall, the technique “is helping an individual focus on their breath and the numbers require some concentration,” Christopher Winter, MD, of Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicineand author of the book, The Sleep Fix: Why Your Sleep Is Disrupted and How to Fix It. That can actually be a welcome distraction from other things that might be keeping you awake, he says. “The individual is not sitting focused on why they can’t sleep, which is probably the main value,” says Dr. Winter. “There are some who feel that the technique is unlocking a magical combination of breathing for sleep, which I have never seen any real research to support.”
Philip Gehrman, Ph.D.., is a clinical psychologist at the Penn Sleep Center and an associate professor of clinical psychology in psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine, agrees. “I’m not aware of any evidence that shows it’s better or worse than other approaches,” she says.
But doing something over and over again, like breathing exercises, can help you get a good night’s sleep, says Kelly Waters, MD, a sleep medicine physician at Spectrum Health. “The repetitive nature of the breathing techniques is great for the last few steps of settling down,” she explains. “The first stage of sleep is called the ‘hypnic’ stage, and these types of breathing techniques allow for a type of self-hypnosis.”
Breathing exercises in general are known to help people relax, says clinical psychologist Thea Gallagher, Psy.D., assistant professor at NYU Langone Health and co-host of the mind in sight podcast. “It helps regulate your physiology,” she says. “It can help you slow down, ground you, and bring you back to the present.”
This can be especially helpful if you feel your mind start to race when you’re trying to settle down to sleep, says Gallagher. “It really allows you to get back in the moment, recalibrate, reevaluate and snap yourself out of a mental spiral that you may be having,” she says.
Doing breathing exercises like the 4-7-8 technique can also facilitate chemical changes in your body, says Hillary Ammon, Psy.D., a clinical psychologist at the Center for Women’s Anxiety and Emotional Well-Being. “Often when people experience anxiety, worry, or stress, they release stress hormones, including cortisol,” she says. “These chemical changes send signals to your body that there is a threat in front of you, causing you to feel nervous or restless.” The 4-7-8 technique helps get your body out of that fight or flight mode. “You’re putting out more oxygen than you’re taking in, which tells your body there’s no threat and it can go into a relaxed state,” says Ammon.
What to do if you have trouble sleeping
Relaxing your mind is an important step in helping you fall asleep, says Dr. Winter. And, if the 4-7-8 technique helps you do that, he says you absolutely should use it, it’s just not the only method that can help.
“Anything can be used to calm people down: decorate your dream home in your mind, plan a trip, imagine yourself sitting with a deceased person who is dear to you and the two of you having a conversation, or relive a memory you had with they. ,” he says. “I had a patient follow the steps to making banana bread and her husband visualized himself playing on her favorite golf course. There are many ways to relax and focus his mental energy elsewhere. ”.
You can also take a gradual approach to falling asleep, says Dr. Waters, including turning off screens before bed, as bright lights can affect your mind’s ability to prepare for bed. Sorting through her thoughts can also help, such as keeping a journal or making a to-do list to write down any thoughts that are running through her mind so you can put them off until the next day, she says.
Light reading or doing a puzzle can also help calm your mind, says Dr. Waters. “When your eyes move but you stop processing what you’re reading, it’s time to turn off the lights and go to bed,” she says. So if you want to use breathing techniques, it may be helpful to use them here. If you wake up in the middle of the night, Dr. Gehrman says you can also try the breathing technique at that time.
Dr. Winters simply recommends not relying on the 4-7-8 technique alone to help you sleep. “It’s fine, but it’s not a miracle,” he says. “It’s just a way of being mindful of your breath, which is relaxing and calming for some. “The miracle technique that will make you fall asleep in 60 seconds”? Probably not, but it’s certainly not harmful to try.”
Korin Miller is a freelance writer specializing in general wellness, sexual and relationship health, and lifestyle trends, with work appearing in Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Self, Glamor, and more. She has a master’s degree from American University, lives by the beach, and hopes to one day own a cup of tea and a taco truck.
