Breathing is such a fundamental function for our life that we do it automatically and without paying attention to it. Obviously we cannot be aware of our way of breathing while we are immersed in all the daily hustle and bustle, but it turns out that breathing consciously would help us, and a lot, in our battle against insomnia. We can spend a few minutes a day “learning” to breathe to sleep well.
The importance of breathing exercises
- Conscious breathing is the best way to relax, relieve muscular and emotional tension, reduce stress, and manage anxiety. In addition, it is a true ally in the fight against insomnia since just a few minutes of conscious breathing will predispose you to sleep and enjoy an excellent quality of sleep. And it is that breathing relaxes you.
- Many people claim that they are unable to practice relaxation techniques and one of the main impediments is that they do not know how to breathe correctly. With abdominal breathing you can relax not only before going to bed, but it is also effective in the moments before an anxiety attack, to lower the tone of an argument or even to reduce anxiety.
Steps to relax with abdominal breathing
- Lying on your back in bed, get ready to fall asleep. The first step is to place your hands on your abdomen and breathe slowly and deeply, in and out. This way you will begin to feel the movements of your abdomen. Concentrate on what you are doing, that is, breathing, and your worries will go away from the bedroom as soon as you stop paying attention to them.
- Continue breathing in this way and relax the muscles of the body. Now you are going to take one more step in your breathing exercise. Inhale and hold the breath for a count of 4. Then slowly exhale that breath so that the process lasts again for a count of 4.
- With this simple breathing exercise you can get great results against insomnia. And if you want to boost it, you can try mentally repeating to yourself an encouraging phrase that calls for sleep while you breathe. It also gives very good results to practice this abdominal breathing and at the same time visualize yourself sleeping peacefully.
