Insomnia affects the substance and can make you ill. If your head doesn’t want to rest at night, it helps to take a deep breath. This is how the 4-7-8 method works.
Sleep well! – that’s so easy to say, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. A lot of people just don’t sleep well. They lie in bed at night, count the woodchip shavings in the wallpaper, roll from left to right and left again and if they do fall asleep, they wake up every few hours. In the morning, you have dark circles under your eyes and your energy level is below zero. According to experts, a simple yogic breathing exercise should help you fall asleep and also help against anxiety disorders.
“A lot of sleep problems are about people having trouble falling asleep because their minds are buzzing,” sleep researcher Rebecca Robbins, who teaches at Harvard Medical School, told CNN. Exercises like the 4-7-8 method are one way to calm down.
Against sleep problems: 4-7-8 method
- Place the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth and exhale through your mouth with a hiss.
- Close your mouth and breathe in through your nose. Count to four.
- Hold your breath and count to seven.
- Exhale through your mouth with a hissing sound while counting to eight.
- Repeat three times.
At the beginning, an upright sitting position in a quiet place is recommended. Once this has been practiced, it can also be practiced in bed. If the breathing exercise is practiced regularly, it is said to help reduce stress and anxiety. A reduction in depression and sleep disorders has also been observed. A team of researchers from Thailand also found that the breathing exercise led to improvements in the participants’ heart rate and blood pressure readings. However, it was a very small study, only 43 people took part. There are not yet any large studies on the effects of breathing exercises.
Sleep disorders are common
We sleep through about a third of our lives in the truest sense of the word. And that’s just as well. Because people need sleep. The deep sleep phase is the time that the body takes to regenerate – both physically and mentally. The brain organizes the events of the day and tidies them up. Cells recover, hormones are released, wound healing processes are underway.
According to a report by the Robert Koch Institute, around one in four people in Germany is affected by sleep disorders, i.e. they sleep less than 42 hours a week. Eleven percent sleep so badly that they wake up exhausted rather than rested. There are numerous causes of sleep problems. Stress, menopause, depression and shift work are all part of it.
A lack of nightly rest can have serious health consequences. The risk of heart disease or stroke increases, cognitive performance decreases. Chronic diseases and dementia are also associated with frequent sleep disturbances, as well as increased mortality.
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Source: Stern
I’m Caroline, a journalist and author for 24 Hours Worlds. I specialize in health-related news and stories, bringing real-world impact to readers across the globe. With my experience in journalism and writing in both print and online formats, I strive to provide reliable information that resonates with audiences from all walks of life.
