How Your Heart Can Help You Sleep Better

By the Institute of HeartMath

Your heart beats in a rhythm. When you are worried, anxious, stressed or overstimulated, that rhythm becomes irregular. The more stressed you are, the more chaotic your heart rhythm becomes.

So what makes the heart rhythm smooth out quickly? It's sincere positive feelings, like: love, care, gratitude, appreciation, compassion, kindness, peace and ease.

These feelings not only feel soothing and good, but they are good for you. They bring a smooth order to your heart rhythms, reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) to help you sleep more soundly and increase DHEA (the vitality hormone) so you wake up more refreshed.

You can see in the picture below how jagged the heart rhythm pattern is when you're anxious or frustrated and how smooth and sine-wave like (coherent) it becomes when you're bathing in a positive feeling.

Copyright Institute of HeartMath

Both of the above graphs are of the same person feeling anxiety and then using a heart technique to shift to a positive feeling. Their heart rhythm pattern changed within a period of a few minutes!

What's even more important for the sleep deprived is that scientists have found that this smooth, coherent rhythm is the pattern your heart rhythm naturally goes into during deep restful sleep. So why not give it some help? Here's what you can do:

When you close your eyes at night, tell yourself you aren't going to overdramatize your concerns about sleeping. Then do this heart-focused technique we call Attitude Breathing® to help you create the coherent rhythmic pattern that can facilitate deeper and more effective sleep:

* Gently breathe an attitude of calm, ease and relaxation for a minute or two.

* When relaxed, breathe an attitude of appreciation, gratitude or love for someone or something like a pet, a time in nature, etc.

* Do this for a few minutes or more to activate coherent heart rhythms and release beneficial hormones to reduce stress and restore your system.