4-7-8 Breathing

4-7-8 Breathing settles you, eases anxiety, and helps you fall asleep. It's a calming pattern where you inhale for a count of four, hold for seven, and exhale slowly for eight.

The brief hold and the long, slow exhale dramatically slow your breathing and engage the parasympathetic calming response, easing the body toward rest. You may feel noticeably relaxed and a little drowsy, which makes it well suited to bedtime. Extended-exhale breathing like this has been studied for supporting calm and lower arousal, and it's widely taught as a sleep aid. It was popularized by Dr. Andrew Weil, drawing on traditional yogic breathing. If the practice feels a little awkward or hard to coordinate at first, that's completely normal, it becomes more natural the more you do it.