Breathe to Calm Your Nervous System Before Bed

Fed up with lying awake, staring at the ceiling?

Tossing and turning or lying awake at night is more common than you might think. Around one in three adults reports at least one symptom of insomnia, and it’s more common in females and older people.[1] [2] This might mean difficulty falling asleep, waking up during the night, or feeling tired even after a full night’s rest.

In today’s busy world, many people carry stress and tension from the day straight into bed, leaving their minds racing and their bodies too wired to relax.

Here’s the good news: your breath can help you switch gears. With a few simple breathing techniques, you can calm your nervous system, quiet your mind, and ease your body into a restful, ready-for-sleep state.

How Your Nervous System Affects Sleep

When you're stuck in "on" mode, whether from stress, scrolling, or even just poor breathing habits, your body’s sympathetic nervous system stays activated. That’s the "fight, flight, or freeze" mode, and it makes sleep feel out of reach.

On the flip side, slow, light, and nasal breathing activates your parasympathetic nervous system, also known as "rest, digest, and repair" mode, making it easier to fall and stay asleep.

How Breathing, Sleep & Mental Health Are Connected

Did you know that how you breathe could be affecting your sleep and mental health?

When breathing is fast, shallow, or through the mouth, it puts your body into a stress state—even when you’re trying to relax.

And it becomes a frustrating cycle:

• Feeling anxious? Your breathing speeds up and shifts into your upper chest.
• Struggling with sleep? You wake up tired and wired, making breathing more erratic.
• Over time, poor sleep and poor breathing feed off each other, leading to even more stress, tension, and exhaustion.

This cycle is often tied to hyperarousal, a state where your nervous system stays stuck in “on” mode. Your body can’t fully relax, even at night, and levels of stress hormones like cortisol stay elevated. This is common in people with insomnia, PTSD, anxiety, and other stress-related conditions.

The solution? Use your breath to break the cycle.

Light, slow, and deep nasal breathing tells your brain: “You’re safe.” It switches on the parasympathetic nervous system (your "rest, digest, and repair" mode), helping you relax and finally drift into deep sleep.

Breathing this way doesn’t just help you sleep better, it can also improve your mood, ease anxiety, and support your mental health overall.

Why Nasal Breathing Matters for Sleep

Nasal breathing is key to fostering light, slow, and deep breathing—each of which plays an important role in stabilizing the airways and promoting better sleep.

• Nasal breathing supports optimal tongue and jaw position, keeping the airway open.
• Light breathing reduces airflow intensity, minimizing negative pressure in the airway and reducing the risk of collapse.
• Slow breathing calms the nervous system and makes waking from sleep less likely.
• Deep breathing improves diaphragm movement, which helps stabilize upper airway muscles that support breathing during sleep.

Balancing the Autonomic Nervous System

People with insomnia, upper airway resistance syndrome, or sleep apnea often experience heightened sympathetic drive. This keeps the body stuck in a state of hyperarousal, making it difficult to wind down and stay asleep.

The exercises in the Breathing Cure for Better Sleep help tilt the balance toward the parasympathetic "rest, digest, and repair" state by slowing the breath, lowering the heart rate and blood pressure, and signaling safety to the brain. This shift supports more stable sleep and reduces the chance of waking from minor disturbances.

Breathing Exercises to Calm Your Body and Mind

Gentle breathing before bed doesn’t just help you fall asleep faster, it sets the stage for deeper, more peaceful rest all night long. Here are two simple techniques from The Breathing Cure for Better Sleep that you can start using tonight:

1. Breathe Light

This Buteyko exercise is designed to quiet your breathing and settle your nervous system. It encourages light, nasal breathing and helps your body relax naturally.

Practice during the day, right before bed, or if you wake during the night and need help falling back asleep.

How to do it:

1. Sit or lie comfortably in bed.
2. Gently close your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose.
3. Take smaller, quieter breaths—almost as if you’re breathing less than normal.
4. Focus on making each breath light, slow, and controlled.
5. Continue for 3–5 minutes or until you feel relaxed and sleepy.

Goal: Practice 5 minutes, 4–6 times a day, and a full 10 minutes before bed.

🎧 Click here to practice the Breathe Light Exercise guided audio session.

2. Breathe Slow to Relax and Sleep Better 

Looking for a simple way to unwind before bed, or anytime stress hits during the day? Breathe Slow is a powerful breathing exercise that helps calm your nervous system, lower stress levels, and prepare your body for restful sleep.

When you slow your breathing to around 4.5 to 6.5 breaths per minute, your body naturally shifts into “rest, digest, and repair” mode. This gentle rhythm balances the autonomic nervous system and tells your brain: it’s safe to relax.

How to Do It:

1. Bring your attention to your breathing. Feel the slightly colder air coming into your nose and the slightly warmer air leaving your nose. Hold your attention to your breathing for a few moments, observing the air as it flows into and leaves your nose.
2. Begin to slow the speed of the air as it enters and leaves your nose. The breath should be through the nose, soft and silent.
3. As you breathe out, bring a feeling of relaxation to the body and allow a slow and gentle breath out.
4. Continue to practice this exercise for 5 minutes, or longer.

Helpful Tips:

• Go at your own pace. Slow your breathing only to a level that feels comfortable. The goal is to find a rhythm that feels natural and sustainable. Avoid taking big breaths. The key is to take a soft breath in and allow a relaxed and slow breath out.
• Always breathe through your nose. Your breathing should stay light, silent, and fully nasal throughout the exercise.

When to Practice:

Use Breathe Slow during the day to reset your nervous system during moments of stress or include it in your evening wind-down routine to help you fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply.

Aim for a Control Pause Score of 20+ seconds

Your Control Pause score is an indicator of how efficient and calm your breathing is. It’s a good way to track your progress with the Buteyko Method exercises.

How to Do the Control Pause Test:

1. Sit down comfortably and breathe normally for a minute or so.
2. Take a normal breath in (not a big inhale), then a normal breath out.
3. Hold your breath after exhaling and start a timer.
4. Stop the timer as soon as you feel the first urge to breathe, this could be a slight movement in your throat or a twitch in your diaphragm.
5. Breathe in gently through your nose and return to normal breathing.

Your Control Pause score is the number of seconds you can comfortably hold your breath after a normal exhale.

A Control Pause score of 20 seconds or more is a great sign that your breathing is calm and your nervous system is settling. With regular practice, your score will go up, and so will your sleep quality.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve tried all the usual sleep tricks but still can’t drift off, your breathing might be the missing piece of your sleep puzzle.

Want to get started? Try the [Guided Audio for Insomnia] or check out our other guided breathing audios.

Want to learn more? [Discover The Breathing Cure for Better Sleep by Patrick McKeown →]