Like many people, I went through a phase in my life of waking up in the middle of the night [1] and being unable to fall back to sleep [2]. I'd stare at the clock, watching the minutes tick by relentlessly, feeling more and more stressed about how tired and unproductive I'd be the next morning.

When I say "many people," that isn't hyperbole: in one study, more than a third of participants reported waking up during the night [3] at least three times a week, and of those, 43 percent struggled to doze back off. There are a number of reasons you might wake up during the night — it could be that your room is too hot [4] or noisy, or that you're hungry or too full [5]. I tried everything from sleep apps, to white noise, to powering down my devices an hour before bed, but no matter how desperately I tried to solve the problem, it still happened.

Finally, I came across a breathing trick that promised to put me back to sleep in roughly a minute by easing stress [6] and relaxing the nervous system [7]. It's called the 4-7-8 method, and it worked wonders. The next time you're struggling to fall back asleep, try it for yourself, and enjoy how well-rested you feel the next morning. Here's how:

1. Place your tongue just behind your front teeth. Keep it there throughout the exercise.
2. Exhale through your mouth, making a whooshing noise.
3. Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose while you count to four in your head.
4. Hold your breath for a count of seven.
5. Exhale through your mouth, making a whooshing noise to a count of eight.
6. Repeat three more times for a total of four cycles.