Weeks, or maybe even a couple of months ago, I first heard about 4-7-8 breathing. An author I’m friends with talked about using the technique to help her with stress-induced insomnia. I saw her post about it on Facebook a few times and that motivated me to investigate on the internet.
I’m not prone to insomnia when I first go to bed. Truth be told, I’m so brain tired by 10-10:30 most nights, I fall asleep on the couch. There are some nights when I look at the clock and wonder if 9 p.m. is too early to go to bed.
The sleep interruption affects me when I’m dealing with stressful stuff during the day, or have something bothering me and happen to wake up in the middle of the night. Even if I just wake up for a quick trip to the restroom, if the stressful situation comes to mind, I can’t get rid of it. I will think about it and think about it non-stop. Sometimes the same phrase, sentence or conversation just repeats like a thought-hamster on a wheel. I believe this might be something called “inefficient worrying”. Honestly, when it happens, it does not accomplish anything positive. I’m not working through the issue or resolving anything. I’m just repeating thoughts, creating more stress, and depriving myself of much needed recuperation and sleep.
When I looked into 4-7-8 breathing, I found articles that described it as being helpful for reducing stress and anxiety. I found a video of Dr. Andrew Weil talking about and demonstrating the technique which, if I correctly remember, originated in yoga practice. It seemed easy enough so the very next time I experienced that middle-of-the-night hamster-thinking, I tried it for myself. It worked! I remember doing it three times and that’s all.
After that first night, I tried it again the next time I couldn’t fall back asleep and achieved the same result. As I’ve whined about discussed several times, I’ve been experiencing a fair amount of extra stress in recent weeks, so I’ve had ample opportunity to demonstrate that, for me, the 4-7-8 technique isn’t a fluke.
I’ve done some additional investigation into it and have seen some suggest that it might be able to help me with some of my compulsive eating disorder. For example, if I can be aware enough to do some 4-7-8 breathing when the urge to eat compulsively hits, or even if I’m still wound up when I sit down to a meal, the technique might help me settle before I reach for food.
Every day, I practice the technique at least twice a day, as Dr. Weil suggests. I’d like to develop it as a great and consistent tool. It would be great if I could train myself to engage in this as a natural reflex. Actually, I believe that with practice, I can do just that. Any tool is a good one in this journey.
Do any of you do any kind of meditation or breathing technique? Have you heard of 4-7-8 breathing and, if so, does it work for you? I’d love to hear what things you’ve tried and found useful.
In the meantime, if you’d like to read more about it, this link will take you to the place on Dr. Weil’s site where it’s described. From there you can also click a link to watch the video of his demonstration.
Weighty Matters 
This is very helpful. Thank you. I especially like his quote that when dealing with breathe work, all trails lead to ancient India. So glad I started meditating 30 years ago.
Thank you for this, Mary. Feel good, for you have done a good deed.
This is very cool– I haven’t heard of it! Nicely written 🙂