Breath AS Medicine: HOW You Breathe Is Key To Restorative Sleep

Sleep is the time for our physical, mental and emotional selves to restore and repair through important biological and physiological functions. There are several stages of sleep that we go through during the evening.  Often these stages are interrupted because our modern schedules aren’t operating in conjunction with the body’s natural rhythms and cycles.  In an overly stressed culture, we’re living in autonomic imbalance in the nervous system.

Among those with sleep health issues, we see the same symptoms in the body including overbreathing (or disordered breathing), autonomic dysfunction, low vagal tone and diminished cognitive function. All of this can be shifted by correcting our breath rates and patterns.

Sleeplessness Is Rooted In Our Daytime Activity

Conscious breathing exercises are a wonderful tool for improving sleep patterns resulting in a more restorative sleep.  “How” we breathe during the day plays a large role in balancing our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).