A Sleep Trick
Your nervous system is comprised of several components. The stuff that goes on without your conscious control is dictated by your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
These two systems control different and often opposing actions within the body. The sympathetic system is known as the "fight or flight" system and dictates the physiological processes we associate with stress. The parasympathetic, sometimes referred to as the "rest and digest" system, works to slow the heart rate and breathing and regulate the digestive process. It's the dominant system when you sleep.
The two systems don't just turn on or off, though. They are both active throughout the day. The variation between them is a matter of which is exerting more influence.
Interestingly, there is a constant back and forth between the two systems during respiration. When you inhale, the sympathetic system picks up slightly, causing an increase in heart rate. When you exhale the parasympathetic system momentarily up-regulates which, via the vagus nerve, slows things down.
This means that the length between heartbeats is shorter when you're inhaling than when you're exhaling. This is known as Heart Rate Variability, or HRV.
This variability is an excellent indicator of nervous system fatigue levels, as it illustrates whether the parasympathetic is functioning well to mitigate the sympathetic system and slow your heart rate. A diminished parasympathetic system is incapable of countering the "fight or flight" nervous system and the heart beats on steadily, without fluctuation.
This is part of why guys like Joel Jamieson pay such close attention to HRV and various measures of nervous system status. A healthy nervous system is much more effective at athletic movement and recovering from it.
I've been dabbling with this though, for its potential use as a sleep aid.
Your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are at work all day, effectively battling each other. If you're a stressed, caffeinated kind of person, your sympathetic system is likely dominant throughout much of the day.
Sleep, however, is not going to happen until your sympathetic system can shut down and allow the parasympathetic to take over, slowing your heart and respiratory rate and in general putting you into recovery mode.
Often, this process takes much longer than we'd like, and we end up staring at the ceiling in the dark doing math to figure out how much sleep we'd get before morning if we just fell asleep right now.
Here's the thing though, the fluctuating predominance between the two nervous systems is tied into your breathing and you have control over that. On inhalation, the sympathetic system runs the show. On exhalation, the parasympathetic takes over.
If you're rooting for the parasympathetic, all you've got to do is give it more time on the field. Do this by controlling the duration of your inhalations and exhalations.
To minimize sympathetic input, make your inhalations quick and deep. Then, take a very slow, drawn-out exhalation. I've been using an exhalation of around eight seconds, with an inhalation of maybe two. As I get more relaxed I draw out the exhalations to ten to fifteen seconds.
It generally won't take long before you're yawning between breaths, noticeably more relaxed and trying to decide if you can stop putting so much thought into breathing because you've almost got to struggle to stay awake enough to do so.
Try it, and let me know what you think.
Comments for This Entry
hey, great, I\'ve been doing this for years but not understanding why it worked! If you exhale and then hold it your heartbeat continues to slow - I also do this before big presentations or seminars to relax me. And now I know why.....
Posted on 05:42AM on June 14, 2011 [permalink]
Good timing: I've been having trouble sleeping lately, and last night was the worst one yet. Tossed and turned until about 3:00AM and woke before six. I rolled over, checked my phone for the time, then saw this in my inbox. I'll be trying it starting tonight. Thank you!
Posted on 06:33AM on June 14, 2011 [permalink]
Good stuff as usual Craig.
I've used the same technique for freediving. 5 sec inhale, 10 sec exhale for minutes on end before a deep dive.
Never thought of it applying to sleep though, will give it a go for sure...
Daz
Posted on 01:23PM on June 14, 2011 [permalink]
Great article, Craig. I try to do some breathing exercises before bed on most nights, so it's nice to know that it's doing something.
Question: do you immediately exhale after inhaling or do you hold your breath for a certain length of time? I'll also try Duncan's tip.
Posted on 07:48AM on June 16, 2011 [permalink]
Rob,
I don't hold the inhale on this one, but I do sometimes hold the exhale. I have both habits from Dave Grossman's "Combat Breathing" which entails a four second inhale, four second hold, four second exhale and a four second hold. I think that holding the inhale would keep you in a sympathetic dominant state, so I avoid that for sleep.
As I get more relaxed I'll hold empty lungs for quite a while sometimes. I've actually startled myself with the realization that I was tuning out and had just forgotten to inhale.
Posted on 11:43AM on June 17, 2011 [permalink]
Great post. Breathing, or rather concious breathing is one of the most under rated things we can do to aid rest and recovery. It is the only autonomic function we can control but its influence is profound.
I teach foundational breathing drills at my workshops and we revisit them thoughout the day, particularly when folk become stressed in training. These simple drills can carry oever to all manner of situations. Using this for aiding sleep is very interesting. I will report back!
An old meditation teacher encouraged us to pause rather than think of holding the breath. It's a subtle distinction but for some breathing drills it gives a better sense of control rather than feeling bound up in the breath.
Aloha
Rannoch
Posted on 12:28PM on September 13, 2011 [permalink]
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