How I Learned To Fall Asleep In Under 1 Minute

Sleepless and Stressed
It was the week before my best friend’s
wedding, and my anxiety (nerves, plus
excitement) had reached epic levels. I wasn’t
sleeping, to say the least. Part of that had to
do with the maid of honor speech I would be
giving. I was terrified and could not shut my
brain off to fall asleep at night.
After day three of lying awake until the wee
hours of the night, I sheepishly admitted to her
that I was too nervous to fall asleep, and she
—the bride, who was sleeping like a baby the
week before her own wedding—told me I
needed to try the “4-7-8” breathing trick.
She happens to be a licensed wellness
practitioner who studies meditation, stress,
and breathing techniques, and told me it
would change my life. You simply breathe in
through your nose for four seconds, hold your
breath for seven seconds, and exhale through
your mouth for eight seconds. She explained
that the studied combination of numbers has
a chemical-like effect on our brains, and
would slow my heart rate and soothe me right
to sleep that night. “It works,” she told me.
“It’s crazy.”
How it Works
I couldn’t wait to put the trick to the test, and
to my complete disbelief, I woke up the next
morning unable to even remember getting to
the eighth second of the exhale because it
knocked me out that fast. For the next four
nights leading up to the big day, even as my
stress increased, I was able to fall asleep the
minute I tried the 4-7-8 trick. I also used it to
relax in the moments leading up to the
speech.
When you feel stressed or anxious, adrenaline
courses through your veins, your heart beats
at a rapid rate, and your breathing becomes
quick and shallow. So before I get into the
specifics behind how the 4-7-8 breathing trick
works, I wanted to explain in my own words
what it feels like when you try it. To me, the
effect of the breathing technique feels almost
like a sedative drug, because in order to hold
your breath for seven seconds and then to
exhale for eight—when your breath is so
shallow and short—your body is forced to slow
your heart rate. It has no choice. Holding your
breath, and then slowly, deliberately exhaling
for eight seconds, causes a chain reaction. It
feels like going from a mad-dash sprint to a
finish line to a slow, leisurely, calming stroll
through the park.
When you first start, you’ll be desperate to
just take in another breath, or you’ll want to
speed up your counting, but if you stick to the
numbers (or at least try to), and don’t take
any breaks (in other words, consecutively
repeat the 4-7-8 without resuming regular
breathing), you can literally feel your heart
rate slow down, your mind get quieter, and
your whole body physically relax. It washes
over you like a calming, relaxing drug. I can
never remember getting past the first set of
4-7-8.
Do you know the feeling of being put under by
anesthesia, where you are conscious, and the
next thing you remember is waking up? That’s
what this is like for me: As soon as I start the
practice, the next thing I remember, I’m
waking up in the morning and can’t even
remember beginning the 4-7-8 count the
night before. Crazy.
Now to the more technical details: People who
are stressed or anxious are actually
chronically under-breathing , because stressed
people breathe shortly and shallowly, and
often even unconsciously hold their breath. By
extending your inhale to a count of four, you
are forcing yourself to take in more oxygen,
allowing the oxygen to affect your
bloodstream by holding your breath for seven
seconds, and then emitting carbon dioxide
from your lungs by exhaling steadily for eight
seconds. The technique will effectively slow
your heart rate and increase oxygen in your
bloodstream, and may even make you feel
slightly lightheaded which contributes to the
mild sedative-like effect. It will instantly relax
your heart, mind, and overall central nervous
system because you are controlling the breath
versus continuing to breathe short, shallow
gasps of air.
How it Can Work For You
Mindful breathing practices have been a part
of yoga and Eastern wellness modalities for
centuries, but aren’t as popular in Western
culture. The most well-known champion of the
4-7-8 breathing technique in the U.S., who is
somewhat responsible for the prevalence that
the technique does have amongst integrative
medicine practitioners, yogis, and those in
search of stress reduction and overall
relaxation, is Harvard-educated Dr. Andrew
Weil.
Though I’m not promising or claiming (nor
does Dr. Weil) that practicing this breathing
technique can fight disease or provide clinical
benefits, I can tell you one thing: If it affects
you like it did me, it will help you fall asleep
way faster. Not only is it free, it also works for
a number of different instances. In addition to
using it to fall asleep in a pinch, you can
practice it if you wake up in the middle of the
night and find yourself thinking about
something you have to do the next day, in
order to fall back asleep; if you are nervous
before an event (like a wedding, or giving a
speech); if you are angry about something and
want to calm down. My friend (the bride-to-be
who slept like a baby the week before her
wedding), who gets nervous to fly, uses it
before flights and during if the plane
encounters turbulence.
It is now what I use to fall asleep every single
night, and each morning, I’m amazed at how
well it worked.