The Happiness Prescription
As we sleep our breathing changes. Try this exercise to slow down your breathing and have a restful night.
Controlled breathing lowers your heart rate and blood pressure, helping to also banish anxiety and allow us to settle down easily for sleep.
By learning a few techniques, you can reset your body and prepare it for a good sleep.
Body-led psychotherapist and breath expert Oliver James, author of 21 Breaths (Unicorn Publishing, £12.50), says: ‘Hundreds of millions of us suffer sleep disorders every day. The greatest challenge we face is finding a remedy that is less impactful, in terms of side effects, than the disorder itself.’
Oliver believes breath work is the answer ‘by using breathing movements, tension release and visualisation to induce a good night’s rest’.
TRY THIS
Here’s an exercise to help you focus on drifting off to sleep.
Before getting into bed, open your window and say:
‘I welcome in some fresh air to breathe this eve, the world of wakefulness I shall take my leave and ensure that tonight I shall take in good rest, and when I awake tomorrow, I’ll be at my best.’
After closing the window, lie down on your back, shut your eyes and breathe deeply into your lower belly.
Hold your breath, squeeze every part of your body until you need to breathe, then exhale as you say in your head, ‘I am breathing out all my worries and fears.’
Feel your body relaxing. Let the next inhale be slower than the one before; filling your body up from your lower belly to your collarbone. Feel it stretch every part of your lower torso and each rib in turn.
As this wave-like sensation meets your collarbone, visualise the inhale continuing upwards. Pause again as your inhale peaks. Squeeze your entire body and then, as your exhale begins, let yourself shed yet more tension.
Notice how each inhale can be used to breathe into new areas of your body. Each time it
reaches your collarbones, let it continue upwards, as before. Repeat for 10 breaths. Return to your natural breathing pattern for a few minutes and repeat three times.
Don’t worry if this doesn’t appear to work the first few times. Oliver says, ‘Developing a sense of acceptance is an essential piece of the restful night’s sleep puzzle and supercharges the effectiveness of this breathing exercise.’