I may stand corrected. Which would make me and a lot of clients happy. And sleepy. As a cognitive behavioral psychologist (CBT) I typically teach a 6-4-8 breathing exercise as a stress relief technique and as a sleep aid,. This involves a 6-second inhale, 4-second hold, and 8-second exhale (or 8-4-10, depending on the individual's starting point).
But in this post by Alina Gonzalez entitled, How I Learned To Fall Asleep In Under 1 Minute, she advocates using Dr. Andrew Weil's breathing technique which she calls the "4-7-8 Trick." You can go to Dr. Weil's website to see him demonstrate, here.
So I plan to take the 4-7-8 versus 6-4-8 breathing challenge. And I invite readers to do the same. Leave me a comment and let me know which breathing exercise calmed, relaxed, and helped you get to sleep the most quickly.
Ready, Set, Sleep!
And a big shout out to my sister for
bringing my attention to the article Under 1 Minute blog post.
--Sandy Andrews, Ph.D.
Cognitive Behavioral Psychologist
Austin, Texas
