Breathing Exercises for Anxiety at Night: 5 Techniques That Work in Minutes

# Breathing Exercises for Anxiety at Night: 5 Techniques That Work in Minutes

It's 11:30 PM. You're exhausted. And your brain just decided now is the perfect time to replay every awkward conversation from the last decade.

Your chest tightens. Your heart speeds up. You're wide awake — and anxious about being wide awake, which makes you more anxious, which makes sleep feel even further away.

Sound familiar?

Nighttime anxiety is incredibly common. And while there are many long-term strategies for addressing it, right now — at 11:30 PM with your heart pounding — you need something that works in minutes.

These five breathing techniques are your emergency toolkit.

Why Anxiety Gets Worse at Night

Before we dive into the techniques, it helps to understand why your brain does this.

During the day, you're busy. Your mind has tasks, conversations, and distractions competing for attention. Anxiety still exists, but it gets drowned out by activity.

At night, the distractions disappear. You're lying in a dark, quiet room with nothing to do but think. Your brain, suddenly free from tasks, defaults to its evolutionary job: scanning for threats.

There's also a physiological component. Cortisol — your primary stress hormone — follows a natural daily rhythm. It should be lowest at night, but for people with chronic stress or sleep anxiety, this rhythm gets disrupted. Cortisol stays elevated, keeping your nervous system in alert mode precisely when it should be winding down.

The result: rumination, racing thoughts, physical tension, and that awful feeling of being tired but unable to sleep.

Breathing is the fastest way to interrupt this cycle because it's the only autonomic function you can consciously control. You can't will your heart rate down. You can't think your cortisol lower. But you can change your breathing pattern — and your nervous system will follow.

Technique 1: Extended Exhale Breathing

Best for: General nighttime anxiety, the "can't settle down" feeling

This is the simplest technique on the list and often the most effective starting point.

How to do it:

• Inhale through your nose for 3 counts
• Exhale through your mouth for 6 counts
• Repeat for 8-12 breaths

Why it works: Exhaling activates the parasympathetic nervous system. When your exhale is longer than your inhale, you shift the balance from "fight or flight" to "rest and digest." There's nothing to memorize, nothing complex. Just breathe out longer than you breathe in.

Pro tip: Make the exhale audible — a soft "haaa" sound. The vibration adds gentle vagal stimulation.

Technique 2: Humming Breath (Bhramari)

Best for: Racing thoughts, mental chatter that won't stop

This ancient yogic technique uses sound vibration to calm the mind. It sounds unusual, but it's remarkably effective.

How to do it:

• Close your eyes and take a normal breath in through your nose
• As you exhale, keep your lips gently closed and hum — a low, steady "mmmmm" sound
• Feel the vibration in your face, throat, and chest
• When the exhale ends, inhale normally and hum again
• Repeat for 5-8 breaths

Optional enhancement: Gently press your index fingers against the small flaps of cartilage that partially cover your ear openings (the tragus). This muffles external sound and amplifies the internal vibration.

Why it works: The humming vibration directly stimulates the vagus nerve through the muscles of the throat and face. Research published in the International Journal of Yoga found that Bhramari breathing increased parasympathetic activity and reduced heart rate more quickly than silent breathing. The vibration also gives your mind a sensory anchor — it's hard to ruminate when you're focused on a hum resonating through your skull.

Technique 3: 4-7-8 Breathing

Best for: Falling asleep when you're anxious but physically tired

The 4-7-8 technique is one of the most widely recommended breathing exercises for anxiety. Here's the condensed version:

• Inhale through your nose for 4 counts
• Hold for 7 counts
• Exhale through your mouth for 8 counts
• Repeat for 4 cycles

Why it works: The long breath hold gently raises CO2 levels, triggering a natural calming response. The extended exhale activates the vagus nerve. Together, they create a potent "neural tranquilizer" effect — Dr. Andrew Weil's term.

Anxiety-specific tip: If the 7-count hold intensifies your anxiety (some people feel panicky holding their breath), shorten it to 4 or 5 counts until you're comfortable. The exhale length matters more than the hold.

Technique 4: Physiological Sigh

Best for: Acute anxiety, panic moments, the "I can't breathe" feeling

This is your fastest option. Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman popularized this technique, which your body actually does naturally during crying and right before sleep.

How to do it:

• Take a quick inhale through your nose
• Immediately take a second, shorter inhale on top of the first (a double inhale — like sniffing twice)
• Exhale slowly and completely through your mouth

One cycle. That's it.

Repeat 2-3 times if needed.

Why it works: The double inhale reinflates the tiny air sacs (alveoli) in your lungs that collapse during shallow, anxious breathing. This maximizes the surface area available for gas exchange, rapidly offloading CO2. The long exhale then activates the parasympathetic brake. Huberman's research showed that even a single physiological sigh can measurably reduce heart rate and stress markers.

When to use it: This is your "break glass in case of emergency" technique. Use it when anxiety spikes suddenly — a panic wave, a jolt of adrenaline, that moment when your heart starts pounding. It works in one to three breaths, buying you enough calm to transition to a longer technique.

Technique 5: Counted Breathing (5-5)

Best for: People who find other techniques too complicated, general anxiety management

Sometimes simplicity wins.

How to do it:

• Inhale through your nose for 5 counts
• Exhale through your mouth for 5 counts
• Repeat for 2-3 minutes

No holds. No complicated ratios. Just slow, even breathing.

Why it works: Research in Psychophysiology shows that breathing at approximately 6 breaths per minute (which a 5-5 pattern naturally creates) maximizes heart rate variability and synchronizes cardiovascular rhythms. This frequency hits what researchers call the "resonance frequency" — the breathing rate at which your body's calming systems work most efficiently.

Anxiety-specific tip: If counting feels too active, try breathing in time with a simple visualization — waves rolling in and pulling back, or a balloon slowly inflating and deflating.

Building Your Personal Panic Protocol

Having five techniques is powerful. But at 2 AM with anxiety flooding your system, you don't want to think about which one to use.

Build your protocol in advance:

Level 1: Mild Anxiety (restless, can't settle)

→ Extended exhale breathing for 2-3 minutes

→ Transition to counted breathing until you drift off

Level 2: Moderate Anxiety (racing thoughts, tension)

→ Physiological sigh × 3 (to break the acute spike)

→ Humming breath for 5-8 rounds (to quiet the mental chatter)

→ Extended exhale until sleep comes

Level 3: Severe Anxiety (panic, chest tightness, can't think)

→ Physiological sigh × 3-5 (stabilize immediately)

→ Sit up if needed — lying down can worsen panic

→ 4-7-8 breathing for 4 cycles (once breathing feels manageable)

→ Lie back down with counted breathing (5-5)

Write this down. Put it on your nightstand. When anxiety hits, you don't want to rely on memory — you want a clear, practiced sequence.

The Bigger Picture

These techniques are emergency tools — and they work. But if nighttime anxiety is a regular visitor, it's worth addressing the root causes too.

The insomnia-anxiety cycle is real: anxiety disrupts sleep, poor sleep increases anxiety, and the loop feeds itself. Breaking it usually requires both in-the-moment tools (like these breathing exercises) and longer-term strategies.

Consider building a complete breathwork practice for sleep — not just for emergencies, but as a nightly ritual that trains your nervous system to expect calm at bedtime.

If anxiety is significantly impacting your sleep and daily life, consider speaking with a healthcare provider. Breathing exercises are powerful, but they work best as part of a comprehensive approach — especially for chronic anxiety. Sleep without medication is possible for many people, but the path looks different for everyone.

Start With One

Don't try to learn all five tonight. Pick the one that resonates most. Practice it three nights in a row.

Once it feels natural, add a second. Then a third.

Within a week, you'll have a personal anxiety toolkit that goes everywhere you go — because it runs on nothing but your breath.

Tonight, when the thoughts start spinning, you have an answer.

Breathe. Slowly. Out longer than in.

Your nervous system will do the rest.