How to Fall Asleep: Fast and Easy Breathing Exercise
This simple breathing exercise, "How to Fall
Asleep Fast", was developed and used by over 150 Soviet and Russian
doctors. They applied this technique on thousands of patients, with striking
success. With this breathing exercise, virtually all patients reported that they could fall asleep
way faster than usual (about 5-10 times faster), even though many patients had problems with cold
feet and hands, chronic coughing, or a blocked nose.
These Soviet and Russian MDs found the following relationship between automatic (or unconscious) breathing patterns (how you breathe during sleep), the morning results for the body-oxygen test and the quality and natural duration of sleep.
| Respiratory Frequency |
Body oxygen test result |
Duration of sleep |
Quality of sleep |
| >26 breaths/min | <10 s | Often >10 hours | Often very poor |
| 15-26 breaths/min | 10-20 s | Often >9 hours | Often poor |
| 12-20 breaths/min | 20-40 s | 6-8 hours | Insomnia possible |
| 7-12 breaths/min | 40-80 s | 4 hours | Excellent |
| 5 breaths/min | 2 min | 3 hours | Excellent |
| 3 breaths/min | 3 min | 2 hours | Excellent |
The exercise is based on the physiological law that slower and lighter
breathing at rest provides more oxygen and CO2 for the
brain cells, producing a positive effect on faster natural sleep.
Conditions for "how to go to sleep quickly" exercise
- Go to bed when you are really sleepy and with no food in
the stomach.
- Before and during sleep, breathe only through your nose (if you
cannot, learn the "Breathing
exercise to unblock the nose").
- Do not sleep on your back (avoid supine sleep) at all. If this is a problem
for you, learn the therapy and method “How
to prevent sleeping on the back”. (If you are not sure about the negative
effects of supine sleep, visit the web page
Best sleeping
positions medical research summary", with 24 clinical references. It
analyzes the best postures to sleep and how
to fall asleep fast.)
Steps to follow (How to get to sleep fast)
Relax
all your muscles while you are lying in bed on your stomach or left side.
Focus on your breathing pattern. Next, instead of taking your
usual inhalation, take a slightly smaller inhalation (only about 5-10% less) using the diaphragm and then
immediately relax all body muscles, especially the upper chest and all other respiratory
muscles. Take another (smaller) inhalation and again completely relax.
With each breath, take a smaller or reduced inhalation (in comparison with your usual breathing) and then completely relax. You will soon experience a light shortage of air or an air hunger. Your goal is to preserve a mild, but comfortable, level of air hunger which helps deal with not being able to fall asleep. Here are the changes from your previous (black line) to your new breathing pattern (blue line):
If
you are in poor health, your breathing can be frequent during this
reduced breathing and this is ok. This exercise will still help you with
how to fall asleep fast. If you do this exercise correctly,
you will notice the following signs:
- Your arms and feet will get warmer quickly (in about 1-2 minutes) after
starting the reduced breathing (this is the main sign)
- Your nasal passages will become moister and the nose colder in about 1 min.
How to fall sleep instantly (in 1-2 min) each night
Therefore, if you want to learn how to fall asleep very fast, you should
improve your body-O2 content by slowing down your breathing. There are
many lifestyle changes that increase body-O2 content and improve
your sleep quality. A short summary of these factors is in the Table below.
Warning. Calcium
deficiency can make the quality of your sleep much worse. Learn the
methods and ways how to check and correct this nutritional deficiency:
Major
Nutrients Guide for Body Oxygenation.
Video instructions by Dr. Artour Rakhimov: How to fall asleep fast
Why modern people cannot go to sleep fast
The norm for breathing at rest is 6 L/min, while people
breathe 2 times more air. Therefore, they have 2 times less for partial O2
pressure in the brain cells.
As a result of heavy breathing, people have low CO2 and low O2 concentrations in the brain. Carbon dioxide is a potent sedative and tranquilizer of the nerve cells (see links to web pages with medical studies below).
Table. Summary of How to Sleep Better (Good Sleep Hygiene Guide)
| Parameters | Sleep quality: | |
| Good | Poor | |
| Allergic reactions during the day |
Avoided | Present |
| Time spent outdoors | Up to 2-5 hours daily | Less than 1 hour |
| Physical exercise with strictly nasal breathing | Up to 1-3 hours daily | Less than 1 hour |
| What to do before sleep | Walk for 15-20 min outdoors or even light jogging: 15-20 min breathing exercises; have a meal earlier; cold shower; correct posture | Watching TV, playing games or working on a computer, overheating or having a late meal, overeating, slouching in an armchair, on a couch or sofa |
| When to go to sleep | When really sleepy | By time |
| Type of materials that are in touch with skin during sleep | Natural (cotton, hemp, wool, ...) | Synthetic (polyester, acrylic, nylon, ...) |
| Air quality in the bedroom | Excellent | Poor |
| Thermoregulation |
If your current CP<20 s, feel normal or little warm during sleep If your CP>20 s, feel little on the cold side during sleep |
Too warm blankets, too warm room |
| Surface of the bed | Hard (the same as when 2 thin blanket layers are lying on a hard surface) | Soft |
| Sleep positions | Sitting, prone, left side | On one's back, right side |
| What to do to fall asleep | Buteyko reduced breathing exercise | Worry about life problems tomorrow and poor health now |
| What to do, if no sleep for more than 10 min | Get out of the bed, go for a walk outdoors or do a breathing session | Continue to suffer |
| What to do in the morning | Measure the CP and get out of the bed | Continue to lie horizontally |
| What to do during the day in case of mild sleep deprivation or over 40 s CP | Get a short nap (e.g., 5-20 min) sitting (e.g., in an armchair) | No nap or napping in a horizontal position |
| What to do during the day in case of severe sleep deprivation | Try to sleep sitting, if possible for as long as the body needs with all correct rules | Get upset by sleepless night and try to sleep without sleep hygiene care |
Or go back to Hyperventilation symptoms
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