How to Sleep Deeper: Sleep Better with this Breathwork
How are you sleeping? Maybe you fall asleep easily and then wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back down. Maybe you're tired and wired, exhausted all day, but when it's finally time to sleep your mind is racing. We've all been there, and honestly, so were we the night before we recorded this one.
In this episode, Kathy and Mike share the breath and sleep-hygiene tools they actually use, from resetting after a bad night to how your breathing during the day shapes your sleep at night, plus a guided 4-7-8 breathing exercise you can use at bedtime or when you wake up at 3 a.m.
How do I recover after a bad night's sleep?
Keep your normal wake-up time, even though you'll want to stay in bed. It's good for your circadian rhythm, and Kathy finds that sleeping in often interrupts a different sleep cycle anyway. Then get outside for some sunlight on your face. Mike adds a few more resets: a short, intense workout or a cold shower, and going to bed about 15 minutes earlier that night, a tip he heard from Dr. Rhonda Patrick. Kathy even used a different breathwork that morning, some Wim Hof-style over-breathing, to wake up and change how she felt on the inside.
How does my breathing during the day affect my sleep at night?
If you breathe all day in a way that keeps your nervous system switched on, it's hard to flip into a calm, parasympathetic state when you get home. Mike suggests quick check-ins through the day: Am I breathing through my nose? Am I breathing low and slow? Just a minute or two lets everything settle, like silt in water, so it's much easier to wind down at night. Kathy says many people realize they're barely breathing at all during the day, and that ties directly to how deeply they sleep.
Is nasal breathing better than mouth breathing for sleep?
Breathing in and out of your nose calms your nervous system far more than mouth breathing, which signals fight or flight. If you snore, drool, or wake up with a dry mouth, you're probably sleeping with your mouth open, and if you wake up unrested, it's worth testing. Mike's teacher Patrick McKeown uses a mouth tape called Myotape, and some people they know have trained their night breathing that way. Kathy never used it because it feels claustrophobic to her. Instead, she trained herself to breathe through her nose during the day and in workouts, and it carried over to her nights.
What should I do before bed to sleep better?
Kathy and Mike each have a nighttime ritual. Kathy writes her 3 wins and her one thing to improve in a notebook, which also helps close the loop on ruminating thoughts. Mike looks out at their garden, offers gratitude, and sets his intention for the next day with the kids. On top of that: set Do Not Disturb to start automatically in the evening and actually leave the phone alone, keep the room dark and cool, and don't eat or drink right up to bedtime, since your body spends that energy on digestion instead of deep sleep. Mike calls it full day sleep prep, because staying hydrated and nourished during the day keeps it all from spilling over at night.
What breathing exercise helps me fall back asleep?
Try 4-7-8 breathing, a technique Mike learned from Dr. Andrew Weil. Breathe in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold for 7, and exhale for 8. The long exhale is what calms your nervous system and activates the vagus nerve, which Kathy calls the brake pedal of your nervous system. Use it before bed or when you wake up in the middle of the night, and just press play and follow along so you can stop counting and let your body relax.
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Don't let it take your exhale. Noses are for breathing, mouths are for eating — come breathe with us live.
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