Anyway, the technique consists of breathing in through your nose to a count of four-Mississippi, holding your breath for a count of seven-Mississippi, and then exhaling through pursed lips, in little reverse sips, for a count of eight-Mississippi. You do three cycles. Weil talks about it somewhere online as if it is almost dangerously powerful, as if breathers should be careful not to do too many cycles at one sitting.

It is effective! For a while, I had the idea of writing a blog post where I rated and evaluated it and other breathing techniques with vocabulary borrowed from reviews of jazz and diabetes medication—riffs and rises and highs and slides—but Weil’s 4-7-8 is the only breathing technique I know intimately enough. Paradoxically, while you’re doing it, you notice that early on, your heart rate spikes, I’m not sure why. Maybe some kind of alarm system is triggered by the sudden limitation in oxygen intake? But when you let yourself go, at the end of the third cycle, it’s like you’re on a bike at the top of a hill. You’re speeding down, almost effortlessly, drawn by gravity, and what careens you into sleep, in the end, is the long, slow, gentle coasting that follows.

✉️

FROM:

Leaflet

How to Go to Sleep

The Weil breathing technique to induce calm and reduce anxiety.