Sleep exercise

Sleep exercise:

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• Shake up your duvet so that it feels nice and fresh (if you sleep alone).

• Lie down in a comfortable position.

• Focus your attention on your breathing.

• Breathe calmly from your stomach. Breathe in calmly, exhale calmly and pause at the end of the exhalation.

• Wait until this is easy and smooth

• Then you can decide not to breathe anymore, just to stop. Then you will notice that after a while a new breathing wave will occur automatically. You don't breathe but you are breathed.

• Let this breathing wave be natural, not controlled. Once the wave is over, you simply wait again and do not make the decision to start breathing. Think of each wave as a gentle massage, feel how the wave extends through your entire body.

• Now you can measure the time between breathing waves each time by counting. You will probably notice that the time between waves becomes longer (and you become calmer). But it's not a competition to not breathe for as long as possible.

• Counting it every time leaves less room to think about anything and everything.

• If your thoughts wander: don't worry, just pick up the thread again.

• This exercise further activates the parasympathetic nervous system ('rest and recovery').

• Do you wake up once in the night and can't fall back asleep right away? Then that is not a sin  of time but a great opportunity to get better at this exercise.

 

The more often you do this breathing exercise, the better it is likely to work. The brain rediscovers the path to sleep.

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The best way to breathe is 'not breathing' 

Although we speak of breathing, you do not have to breathe

If you just wait, you will automatically be 'breathed'

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