Breathing to Sleep - HipSilver Contributor Richard La Plante

 

After the age of fifty and often before, sleep becomes an issue for many of us. Tossing and turning, frequent awakenings, an overly active mind. Stress is the main factor in the inability to fall and stay asleep. Stress and anxiety. Health, money, children, thoughts of tomorrow.

Most of us have been there; many of us have resorted to pharmaceuticals. Problem is most pharmaceuticals impair the natural rhythm of our sleep, cutting into our dream time and shortening the time we spend in deep sleep, which means we do not have the recovery or restoration that a natural sleep provides. 

On top of that, over the long run, pharmaceuticals are addictive. Adding up to a chronically tired body and a tired mind. Creating more stress and anxiety. So how do we enter a stress-free state in which to ’turn out the lights.’ Let’s try breathing to sleep.

Consciously relaxing the body and mind, entering the rest and digest (parasympathetic) section of the nervous system while exiting the fight or flight (sympathetic), or stress section. This video will take you through a few basic exercises in conscious breath, extended exhalations and talking to your body, telling it to relax.

Making friends with the night. Relaxing the mind and body. Using the breath as the key to the door to sleep.