Breathing To Improve Your Sleep

I have seen an increase in my one to one wellbeing sessions for helping people improve their sleep. Good breathing is a fundamental to a good night's sleep and in turn supports the desire to live in a healthy emotional, mental and physical state

How Important Is Sleep?
Well you may know that a lack of sleep is far worse than not eating. We can not eat for days or even weeks before there are serious consequences for our health but our health can deteriorate quickly due to a lack of quality sleep. Sleep is essential for brain function, memory consolidation, emotional regulation, and body repair. Without it, the brain and body don’t have a chance to recover fully

Immediate Impact of Sleep Deprivation:
A lack of sleep quickly impacts mental and physical functioning. Within 24-48 hours without sleep, cognitive abilities, mood, memory, and physical coordination deteriorate significantly. Prolonged sleep deprivation can lead to imflammation, mistakes, accidents and severely weaken the immune system.

Long-Term Effects:
Chronic sleep deprivation has wide-reaching effects, including an increased risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, dementia and mental health disorders

The Importance of Correct Breathing for a Good Night's Sleep:
Breathing correctly is essential for good sleep because it directly affects how well the body and brain relax, oxygenate, and repair overnight. It stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (the "rest and digest" mode), reducing stress and anxiety. This helps the body and mind relax, creating the ideal conditions for falling asleep and staying asleep
Breathing correctly provides a steady flow of oxygen to the body and brain, supporting cellular repair and maintenance
Correct breathing also leads to REM (deep sleep stage) which occurs about 90 minutes after falling asleep and repeats every 90 minutes, getting longer in later cycles and helps process emotions, memories and learnings and dreams. Of course, being awake or having shorter cycles of sleep prevent accessing REM

What is Poor breathing?
Shallow or erratic breaths predicated by mouth and upper chest utilisation, can lead to fluctuations in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, disrupting sleep patterns and having less time in REM sleep stage
Poor breathing promotes sleep-related issues, such as sleep apnea and snoring. There is a clear correlation between sleep apnea and cardiovascular failings including heart disease, erectile dysfunction and high blood pressure

Action:
Practising good breathing during the day can reduce the severity of these issues, and breathing exercises may help improve respiratory function over time.

Beyond breathing, my Sleep Toolkit and advice also includes tips on eating and drinking patterns, other lifestyle suggestions, bedroom hygiene factors and some easy-to-access tools

Everyone deserves the gift of a good night's sleep and you can reduce the suffering of a poor night's sleep and enhance your short and long term health