Sleeping and breathing well directly affects your mental and physical health. Fall short and it may take a serious toll on your daytime energy, productivity, emotional balance, and even your weight. Yet many of us regularly toss and turn at night, struggling to get the sleep we will need.
Unhealthy daytime habits and lifestyle choices can make you tossing and turning at night and adversely affect your mood, brain and heart health, immune system, creativity, vitality, and weight.
By experimenting with the following tips, you can know about how to improve sleep quality and breathing, boost your health, and improve breathing how you think and feel during the day.
1. Try to go to sleep and get up at the same time regularly.
It helps set your body’s internal clock and enhance the quality of your sleep. Choose a bedtime when you normally feel tired, so that you don’t toss and turn. If you’re getting proper sleep, you should wake up naturally without setting an alarm. If you need an alarm clock, then you may need an earlier bedtime.
2. Bhramari pranayama breathing exercise
These steps will help you to perform the original Bhramari pranayama breathing exercise. You will have to close your eyes and breathe deeply in and out. Cover your ears with your hands. Place your index fingers one each above your eyebrows and the rest of your fingers over your eyes. Next, put gentle pressure on the sides of your nose and focus on your brow area. Keep your mouth closed and breathe out slowly through your nose, making the humming “Om” sound. Repeat the process 5 times. Bhramari pranayama has been shown to quickly improve breathing and heart rate. This breathing exercise for sleep tends to be very calming and can help to improve breath quality.
3. Avoid sleeping in—even on weekends.
The more your weekend/weekday sleep schedules differ, the worse the jetlag-like symptoms you’ll have to experience. If you need to make up for a late-night, choose for a daytime nap rather than sleeping in. This permits you to pay off your sleep debt without disturbing your natural sleep-wake rhythm.
4. Diaphragmatic breathing exercise
To do diaphragmatic breathing exercises, you will need to lie on your back and either bend your knees over a pillow or sit in a chair. Place one hand flat against your chest and the other on your stomach. Take slow, deep breaths through your nose, keeping the hand on your chest still as the hand on your stomach rises and falls with your breaths. Next, breathe slowly through pursed lips. Eventually, you want to be able to breathe in and out without your chest moving. This technique slows your breathing and decreases your oxygen needs as this breathing technique for better sleep is also strengthens your diaphragm.
5. Be smart about napping.
While napping is the best way to make up for lost sleep, if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night, napping can make things worse. Limit naps to 20 to 25 minutes in the early afternoon.
6. Buteyko breathing
To practice Buteyko breathing for sleep, you have to sit in bed with your mouth gently closed (not pursed) and breathe through your nose at a natural pace for about 30 seconds. Breathe a bit more intentionally in and out through your nose once. Gently pinch your nose closed with your thumb and forefinger, keeping your mouth closed as well until you feel that you need to take a breath again. With your mouth still closed, take a deep breath in and out through your nose again.
Many people don’t realize that they are hyperventilating. This breathing exercise for better sleep also helps you to reset to a normal breathing rhythm.
7. Three-part breathing exercise
To practice the three-part breathing exercise, follow these three steps like you will need to take a long, deep inhale. Exhale fully while focusing intently on your body and how it senses. After doing this a few times, slow down your exhale so that it’s twice as long as your inhale. Some people choose this technique over others because of its sheer simplicity.
8. Spend more time outside during daylight.
Take your work offs outside in sunlight, exercise outside, or walk your dog during the day instead of at night.
These steps can be helpful to reduce stress and anxiety and help you to relax at bedtime. These can all be done easily on your own to help encourage your body and mind to breathe and make sleep easier.