4-7-8 breathing for relaxation and sleep
How controlled rhythmic breathing can help you combat insomnia and wind down at the end of a stressful day
4-7-8 breathing is one of the most popular and widespread techniques for helping you get to sleep. Personally, I have some doubts about it which I’ll explain as I go through, but a lot of people swear by it, so here you are.
All you do is sit in a chair or on the floor, or lie down, then:1
Breathe in through your nose for a count of four
Hold for a count of seven
Breathe out through your mouth for a count of eight.2
If you're counting about one beat per second, that means an entire breath cycle will take roughly twenty seconds. In other words, you're talking about three breaths per minute, which is very slow indeed.
Five or ten minutes of breathing at that rate should be more than enough to relax you and help you drift off to sleep.3 It’ll reduce cortisol, blood pressure, heart rate, and anxiety, and help you clear your mind of unwanted thoughts.4
As I said, a lot of people find it a great way to get to sleep within a few minutes. Sadly, I'm not one of them. It does a great job of relaxing me completely, but that doesn't always translate into sleep. I just end up lying in bed relaxed and thinking happy thoughts. But hey, it still feels great, so I'm not complaining. And maybe it does help me to get to sleep faster, even if I don't fall asleep right away.
The effect is very different to box breathing, where the inhale, hold, exhale and hold are all of equal length. Box breathing is fantastic for calmness and focus. It's also great for lowering heart rate and blood pressure, but you end up feeling much more alert and energetic than you do with 4-7-8.
What’s so special about 4, 7 and 8?
The main thing that bugs me with this technique is this it feels overly precise. I don't see why it's necessary to hold for seven and then breathe out for eight. What’s so special about holding my breath for exactly one second less than my exhale? For me, it works just as well if I hold for six and breathe out for seven, or indeed hold for eight and breathe out for eight. I don't think the numbers are actually that critical.5
That said, the fact that it’s such a weird rhythm may be helpful in getting you to focus on your breath. Having to count 4-7-8 leaves no room for other thoughts in your mind.
The important thing is that you’re breathing out much more slowly than your breathing in. Essentially, inhaling puts energy into your system and stimulates your brain. Exhaling gets rid of carbon dioxide and calms the nervous system,6 so when you're spending most of your time exhaling rather than inhaling, the net effect is calming. In addition, when you exhale deeply, you're getting rid of more carbon dioxide, which lowers noradrenaline and reduces stress.
In other words, although the principle is sound, you don't need to get too hung up on keeping the count exactly right. Just make sure you inhale slowly and deeply, hold it for a few seconds, and then exhale as slowly and deeply as you possibly can, aiming for a breathing rate of three BPM or less.
Variants of the 4-7-8 rhythm
I often find myself gravitating naturally toward breathing in for a count of four, holding it for five, exhaling for account of ten or even twelve, and then another short hold for a couple of seconds. When I do that, I can see my heart rate dropping significantly.7 My normal waking heart rate is somewhere in the mid 70s, but after a few minutes of this type of breathing it will usually drop to the low 60s.
You can rapidly create a very similar effect with a much shorter cycle. Inhale for a couple of seconds, hold for a moment and then exhale for a count of five or six. Breathing at that rate isn’t nearly as effective as doing a full 4-7-8, but it will relax you very fast indeed. You're still dropping your breathing rate down to six or seven BPM, and you're still spending three times as long exhaling as inhaling, so the same principles apply.
I’m sure some breathwork teachers would be horrified. But, like I said, this is what works for me. Try it and see.
4-7-8 without counting
It's not even necessary to count, as long as you're breathing mindfully. You can use a mantra instead, provided it roughly fits the right sequence. Try these:
IN: May I be happy.
HOLD: May I be healthy
OUT: May I be safe, peaceful, and free of suffering
Or, for a less ego-centric version:8
IN: May all beings be happy
HOLD: May they have love, warmth and affection.
OUT: May they be protected from harm, and free from fear.
Or there's this one:9
IN: Grant me the serenity…
HOLD: … to accept the things I cannot change..
OUT: …the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference
And my personal favorite, which uses a slightly different pattern, adding a brief hold after the exhale.10
IN: I must not fear.
HOLD: Fear is the mind-killer.
OUT: Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
HOLD: I will face my fear.
IN: I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
HOLD: And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
OUT: Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
HOLD: Only I will remain.
4-7-8 in practice
Experiment with different patterns and see what works for you.
And of course you don't need to keep this purely as a bedtime ritual. For example, I find it works really well at the midpoint of a walk. There's a nice bench by a stream in the woods behind my house: it's great to sit there for a few minutes and breathe, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of nature before heading back home. Or else I'll do it for a few minutes in the evening after dinner while watching TV: it helps me transition from work mode into relaxation mode.
So, despite my reservations about the precise methodology or its efficacy for helping me get to sleep, I wholeheartedly recommend 4-7-8 as a great technique for helping you wind down.
I'm not a doctor, dietitian, nutritionist, therapist, psychologist, psychiatrist, meditation trainer, yoga teacher, or anything else. My academic background is in anthropology, and I've taken some neuroscience courses, but otherwise I'm self-educated. Nothing in this blog constitutes professional advice.
This one doesn’t work well when standing or walking.
How To Do the 4-7-8 Breathing Exercise, Cleveland Clinic, 2022
That’s my personal experience. Breathwork experts say otherwise. According to Raj Dasgupta, MD, pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine specialist at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California, and spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine: “Breathing in this specific ratio—four seconds in, seven seconds of holding at the top, and eight seconds of exhaling—activates the parasympathetic nervous system and helps our body relax, slowing the heart rate, helping with digestion, and lowering stress hormones.” The Simple 4-7-8 Breathing Technique Can Help You Relax and Sleep Better—Here's Why, Health, 2022
Not strictly true from a physiological standpoint, but it’s a useful mental model.
On my Fitbit. I can’t actually see my pulse.
Or alternate between the two.
It can be a little awkward to fit in the final line, but it’s doable.
You probably know this one too. Trust me, it works. I used a modified version of this to help me quit smoking.
I like the mantra at the end. In QEC my practitioner has a similar one around "I'm safe, you're safe, we're safe" and "my autonomic nervous system is in full regulation and ...." can't remember them fully. But I do wonder if, as you say, it is the concentrating on something even if just the counting, that stops the "monkey thoughts" from careering round your brain.
My Fitbit says my resting pulse is generally around 63 which is not bad methinks :)