Michael Breus

Like, am I going to get something out of this?

So I think we will.

And breathing is actually kind of an interesting one.

And to be fair, it was the one that I was the least familiar with, but actually had the most experience with.

Let me explain.

So most sleep doctors work in pulmonary offices because pulmonary doctors or lung doctors usually own most of the sleep labs here in the United States.

And so we end up dealing with patients that have got asthma, COPD,

all kinds of breathing related issues.

And so understanding how the lungs function becomes very, very important.

Also, sleep apnea is arguably the number one diagnosis in terms of sleep labs.

So certainly something that I've had a lot of experience with.

But thinking about breathing differently, not on the medical side, but thinking about it on the, hey, could I do it better side?

And what good would that do me?

Here's one of the techniques that I learned that actually turns out to be incredibly helpful, not just for me, but for my patients with insomnia.

It's called four, seven, eight breathing.

So this is an interesting technique, and it's exactly like what it sounds like.

You breathe in for a count of four, you hold for a count of seven, and you breathe out for a count of eight.

If you do this 10 to 12 times, your heart rate will drop to about 60 beats per minute.

The reason this becomes so interesting and important is because 60 beats per minute is exactly the place where your body can enter into a state of unconsciousness.

Anything higher and it cannot.