I swear my old laptop has developed a personality and it's petty. It gets slower and slower throughout the day and then picks the worst possible moment to completely freeze up, like it knows exactly when to cause maximum stress. I'll sit there just staring at that spinning wheel, waiting and waiting, until I finally give up and just restart the whole thing.And then suddenly it's working perfectly again. Wouldn't it be amazing if our bodies had a reset button like that? When you're feeling wired, stressed, unable to sleep, you just hit reset and instantly feel calm. Well it turns out we actually do have something like that.It's called your vagus nerve. And tonight I'm going to show you exactly how to activate your body's built-in reset system. Your vagus nerve is actually one of the most amazing parts of your body.It's your body's master relaxation system, a massive nerve that starts in your brainstem and travels down through your entire body, connecting to your heart, your lungs, and so much more. When your vagus nerve is activated, it literally tells your entire body to shift into rest mode. Your heart rate slows, your breathing deepens, your muscles relax, and your brain gets the message that it's safe to sleep.It's like having a built-in off switch for stress and an on switch for deep restorative rest. This nerve has been quietly working for you your entire life, but most of us have no idea it exists. Quite a few things can activate this incredible system.Cold showers, certain exercises, singing, meditation, and even laughing. I probably have zero chance of getting you to laugh or sing yourself to sleep tonight, so instead we're going to activate your vagus nerve with something more practical, a special breathing technique called lateral breathing, followed by a hypnotic visualization. Lateral breathing works because when you expand your ribcage outward, you're engaging your diaphragm in a way that directly stimulates the vagus nerve, but before we start, as always, please make sure that you're somewhere safe to fall asleep. This episode is designed to deeply relax you, so you want to be in your comfortable bed, not anywhere you need to stay alert, and please consider following the show. It's good to support at least one small independent podcast, someone not affiliated with a big media company, and I would love it if you pick this one. It's what helps the show grow, and it's what helps me create these episodes for everyone who needs better sleep.So now let's start with this lateral breathing technique. In other episodes, I've often encouraged you to breathe into your belly, but that can be a little challenging for some people to breathe that deeply. Lateral breathing is different.Instead of trying to push the air down into your belly, you're going to expand your ribcage outward, like you're opening an accordion. It's often much easier to do, and it still gives you all the benefits of deep breathing. While directly stimulating your vagus nerve, and here's why it works so well. When you expand your ribs outward, you're engaging your diaphragm. That's that large muscle beneath your lungs. You're expanding it in a way that sends calming signals through your vagus nerve.The expansion tells your nervous system that you're safe, and that you have space to breathe, space to relax. Let's try it together. First, place your hands on either side of your ribcage.Your fingers should be pointing toward your back, and your thumbs toward the front. This way, you can feel what's happening as you breathe. Now, take a slow breath in, and as you do, focus on gently expanding your ribs outward into your hands.Just think about widening your ribcage, like you're stretching the space between your ribs. Feel your hands being gently pushed apart as your ribcage expands. Hold that breath, for just a moment, and then exhale slowly, letting your ribs settle back inward. Let's do that again. Breathe in slowly, expanding your ribs outward into your hands. Hold for a moment, and exhale, letting everything settle.Beautiful. Notice how that feels different from regular breathing. You're getting a much fuller breath, and with each expansion, you're gently massaging your vagus nerve, sending those calming signals throughout your body.Continue this pattern at your own pace now. Now, breathe in, expanding your ribs outward. Hold briefly, and exhale, letting your ribcage settle in and out, each breath telling your nervous system that all is well. As you continue this lateral breathing, notice what's happening in your body. Feel yourself starting to relax. Notice how your heart rate begins to slow, and this is your vagus nerve responding to the signals you're sending, beginning its work of shifting your entire body into rest mode.Keep breathing this way, expanding your ribs gently outward, with each inhale, releasing with each exhale. Feel how your muscles are beginning to soften. This simple technique is activating one of the most powerful relaxation systems in your body. Continue breathing in and out, feeling your body settle deeper into relaxation, with each gentle expansion and release. Perfect. Feel how your body has settled, how your breathing has found that deep, rhythmic pattern.What you've just experienced, that conscious breathing into your ribcage, that progressive release of tension, has awakened your vagus nerve. Your body's most important communication highway is fully activated. Your vagus nerve is now quietly humming with activity, sending streams of calming signals throughout your entire body.And tonight, instead of just feeling these effects, I'm going to take you on a journey to deep sleep, to witness this process happening inside you. Close your eyes now, if they're not already closed. Feel how heavy your eyelids have become. They're growing heavier still, so heavy that even if you wanted to open them, they would simply be too comfortable, too weighted with relaxation to lift. Let them stay closed, sealed with this perfect heaviness. Listen carefully to my voice now. My voice is your guide, your anchor in this peaceful darkness. Let my words carry you deeper into relaxation, deeper into this tranquil space where anything is possible. Trust my voice to take you exactly where you need to go, no matter what other sounds capture your attention. I want you always to return to the sound of my voice. And now imagine that you're shrinking down from your normal size, becoming smaller than a coin, smaller than a button, smaller than a grain of rice. Keep shrinking until you're microscopic. So tiny, you could travel through the pathways of your own nervous system. You're now the perfect size to take an extraordinary journey, a voyage along your own vagus nerve. In your imagination, you find yourself floating gently at the base of your skull, right where your brainstem meets the top of your spinal cord. This is where your vagus nerve begins its journey. Around you, you can see the most beautiful sight, a luminous highway of intertwined nerve fibers stretching out before you, like a tunnel of light. The walls of this neural highway shimmer with countless pinpoints of silver electricity, pulsing gently in waves that carry you forward.It's like being inside a living constellation, surrounded by bursts of electrical energy that dance and sparkle around you. And floating alongside you are thousands of chemical messengers, tiny glowing entities that look like fireflies, each one carrying its own specialized instruction for different parts of your body. You're riding this stream of communication, this river of light, as it carries you outward along smaller branches of this glowing highway.You're swept along by gentle electrical currents as they make their way toward the muscles around your eyes. There you can see the firefly messengers detaching from your convoy, floating toward their destinations like tiny glowing keys as they deliver their chemical instructions. The muscles around your eyes that have been working all day begin to soften and release.The electrical current carries you along other branches across the muscles of your face and jaw. You watch as these tiny chemical instructions tell the muscles of your forehead to smooth your jaw to release any tightness it's been holding. Now the main current of electrical energy carries you back to the central highway and you begin your descent through the luminous tunnel of your vagus nerve.The walls around you pulse with silver light as electrical signals flow like a gentle river carrying you downward toward your neck and throat. You're surrounded by streams of chemical messengers all traveling together on this magnificent pathway of communication. You're there for that moment when the messengers reach their destinations. Your throat relaxes completely. Your voice box settles into peaceful quiet, all orchestrated by this electrical and chemical stream of messengers. The stream of light carries you deeper and now you're approaching one of the most important destinations on your journey. Your heart. The electrical highway here becomes even more magnificent, pulsing with waves of silver energy. You're surrounded by specialized chemical messengers all glowing with their particular instructions for your heart's rhythm.You watch as these firefly messengers flow towards your heart's natural pacemaker. The moment they deliver their chemical keys, you feel your heartbeat begin to slow, finding its perfect resting rhythm. Each beat becomes more steady, more peaceful.You're witnessing your own heart receiving its molecular instructions for rest. The electrical stream branches here, carrying you in waves of chemical messengers toward your blood vessels. You see firefly messengers dispersing throughout your circulatory system like tiny stars, each one delivering instructions that cause your blood pressure to lower.Gently, naturally, the electrical energy around you pulses with this transformation, carrying you on currents of calm. Your journey continues as the luminous highway carries you towards your lungs. Here, the electrical bursts around you create the most beautiful light show as they trigger waves of chemical messengers to flow toward your respiratory muscles.They make breathing become completely effortless. Your vagus nerve is orchestrating the harmonious rhythm between heart and lungs that prepares your body for sleep. The electrical stream you're riding begins to influence something else. You're swept along currents that affect your body temperature. The silver bursts of energy around you trigger the release of chemical messengers that travel to temperature control centers throughout your body. You witness your core temperature beginning to lower slightly. Just enough to signal that sleep is approaching. The electrical highway carries you past pathways where circulation improves, making your extremities warm while keeping your head cool for perfect sleep preparation. Your journey takes you deeper into the deepest effects of this electrical and chemical highway.You're riding currents of energy that reach the very foundations of your hormonal system. Here, the electrical bursts around you create cascading waves of chemical change. You see stress hormones being swept away like debris in a cleansing current, while your firefly companions carry in their place floods of natural calm makers, serotonin, endorphins, another peaceful chemistry flowing like streams of liquid starlight.The luminous highway now carries you along branches that extend toward your arms and shoulders. You're surrounded by chemical messengers flowing toward your shoulders, arms, and hands. You witness these firefly instructions reaching muscles that have worked all day, delivering their molecular message that it's safe to let go of tension.Your final destination approaches as the electrical stream carries you down the longest pathways of your vagus nerve, flowing toward your legs and feet. The silver bursts of energy carry their instructions to muscles that have supported you all day. You watch these tiny glowing keys reach their destinations, your legs, your calves, all the way down to your toes.Everything relaxing, everything slowing down as you reach the very end points of this magnificent highway, the tips of your toes. You're surrounded by the gentle glow of a journey completed. The chemical messengers have delivered their instructions throughout your entire body, from the base of your skull to the tips of your toes.You've traveled the complete network of your body's own healing communication system. And as you rest here at the end of this extraordinary voyage, you begin to return to your normal size, expanding back through microscopic to tiny to small, and growing larger and larger until you're back to your full size, flying peacefully in your bed. But you carry with you the memory of this incredible journey, the knowledge of the electrical symphony and chemical ballet that's working throughout your body right now.Notice how calm you feel, how still everything has become. Your body is heavy and relaxed, sinking into your mattress. Your breathing is slow and steady, in and out.There's something peaceful about being alone with just your breath, just this gentle rhythm that connects you to life itself. This is what true rest feels like. No urgency, no rush, no need to be anywhere else or to do anything else.Just this quiet moment with yourself, breathing easily. The chemical messengers you witnessed continue their work throughout your body. And your heart beats slowly and steadily.Your mind grows quieter. Tomorrow morning, you'll wake feeling refreshed. Your body will have spent the night repairing itself, organizing memories, restoring energy.You'll wake with that wonderful feeling of having slept deeply, truly rested. It's remarkable when you think about it. The simple thing we call sleep. Every night, your body performs thousands of tiny miracles. Cells repair themselves. Your brain processes the day.Your immune system strengthens. And all the while, you simply lie still and breathe. What an incredible thing you are. What a miracle of biology and chemistry and electrical signals, all working together in perfect harmony. You're part of this vast universe, this amazing web of life. And right now, you're exactly where you belong. Let your thoughts begin to slow now. They're becoming softer, blurrier, like images half-remembered from a dream. There's no need to hold onto them and let them drift away like clouds across a quiet sky.Your body knows exactly what to do. Trust it. Trust this ancient process that has carried humans safely through the night for thousands of years.Sleep now. Sleep deeply. Sleep well.