How To Fall Asleep Fast
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Updated
December 22, 2022
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Sleeping is crucial for your body and brain to function correctly. But what if you spend the entire night waiting for sleep to kick in?
Some nights sleep comes slowly. You may keep tossing and turning all night and still fail to sleep. It’s frustrating, especially if there is an important test or meeting the following day. How to fall asleep fast? You think. You wish for a secret magic trick that could make you asleep in seconds.
Well, it’s possible. Sleeping faster is not that difficult if you know the proper sleep hacks to make that happen.
Continue reading to learn how to sleep better, how to sleep faster, how to go to sleep, how to make yourself fall asleep, how to put someone to sleep, how to fall asleep instantly, and everything related.
How to Fall Asleep in 10 Seconds
If you are concerned about falling asleep fast, 10 seconds may sound magical to your ears. It’s entirely possible.
1. The Military Method
The Military method is the fastest way to fall asleep. It is the best way to fall asleep. This popular method by Lloyd Bud Winter was first mentioned in the book Relax and Win: Championship Performance. It was said that there was a routine by US Navy Pre-Flight School which could help pilots sleep under 2 minutes. After six weeks of practice, pilots were finally asleep in under 2 minutes, even with noise in the background.
If the military method could not help you fall asleep, consider taking deep breaths and muscle relaxation. If you have any condition like anxiety or ADHD, it could be harming the method’s effectiveness.
This method focuses on muscle relaxation, breathing, and mental visualization.
Steps to perform the military method:
- Sit or lie down on your bed to relax your muscles.
- Starting with your face, tighten your muscles, and then slowly relax them. Take deep breaths.
- Repeat these steps until you are completely relaxed.
- Visualize one of the following scenarios:
- You are calmly lying on a canoe on a quiet lake.
- You are gently rocking in a dark room. Clear your head for 10 seconds.
- If none of this works, repeat “don’t think”, “don’t think”, “don’t think”, for at least 10 seconds.
How to Fall Asleep in 60 Seconds
How to fall asleep fast with anxiety? Two sleeping techniques can put you in a deep sleep in 60 seconds. However, if you are a newbie, it may take around 2 minutes.
2. The 4-7-8 Breathing Method
What helps you fall asleep? Calmness. The 4-7-8 breathing method is based on the pranayama method, a yoga routine that makes you calm. This method helps you get rid of anxiety and put you in a peaceful state to fall asleep quickly. It’s a mixture of meditation and visualisation, which is perfect for sleeping.
If you are dealing with COPD or asthma, consider talking to your doctor before trying this technique. Here’s how you can use this technique:
- Lay down on your bed, and place your tongue behind your front teeth, touching the roof of your mouth.
- Gradually, exhale through your mouth, emptying your lungs.
- Breathe in (through your nose): 4 seconds,
- Hold your breath: 7 seconds,
- Breathe out: 8 seconds. Hence, the name of this technique.
- Repeat this process four times.
3. Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)/Deep Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation is good for loosening up. By this trick, you focus on different areas of your body to get into a relaxed state. But before relaxing your muscles, you need to tighten them. Let’s quickly learn to perform this technique:
- Raise your eyebrow to tighten the muscles, then relax the eyebrows. Focus on the release of tension from the concerned area.
- Squeeze to close your eyes, then let them relax, focus on how your eyelids rest over your eyes.
- Smile widely to feel the tension in your cheeks, then allow your cheeks to relax. Focus on how each muscle within your face interacts.
- Repeat the process with your every body part, including shoulders, arms, legs, and feet, in the end.
How to Fall Asleep in 2 Minutes
How to induce sleep? If the previous methods didn’t help, don’t lose hope. You can still fall asleep in under 2 minutes if you try out these tricks.
4. Try to Stay Awake (Paradoxical Intention)
Try doing the reverse; try to stay awake. For some people, try to fall asleep can cause performance anxiety.
According to the researchers, people who try paradoxical intentions fall asleep faster than those who don’t. If you find yourself stressing about being unable to sleep, you need to try this method.
5. Engage Your Mind in Imagination
If traditional tricks like counting or anything else is not working for you, try to immerse yourself in visualizing.
Many people believe that visualizing something can make it look natural; the same goes for sleeping too. So, imagine yourself sleeping calmly amid the coziest bedding.
A 2002 research claims that people who indulge in imagery distraction fall asleep faster than the others who don’t.
6. Try Acupressure for Sleep
How to fall asleep with insomnia? There are not many studies to back up that acupressure helps sleep, but the available research is solid.
- Point areas that you feel are tensed, like your temples or the upper part of your nose bridge.
- There are specific areas that can help you with insomnia.
- Spirit Gate
- Inner Frontier Gate
- Wind Pool
Other Ways to Fall Asleep Fast
Are you still wondering how to fall asleep quickly? These sleep tips to fall asleep might help you.
7. Turn Off the Technology
It has become a ritual to check the phone before trying to sleep in this advanced age. However, it’s not a good bedtime practice. Electronic devices emit blue light, which may keep you awake for longer. It can also affect the quality of your sleep.
The best practice is to turn off your devices at least half an hour before bedtime. It can save you from tossing and turning throughout the night.
8. Use a Heavy Blanket
Weighted blankets are used in the form of pressure therapy. The weight causes a calming effect on your body and stimulates the release of serotonin in your brain. The ideal weight of a heavy blanket is 10% of your body weight. Make sure it’s not more than that, or you will feel restricted and suffocated at night.
9. Try Yoga
Everyone is aware of the wonders of yoga. Research shows that yoga before sleeping has improved the sleep quality of people who have insomnia. How to sleep longer? Yoga is an excellent solution to any sleeping problem. Next time if you cannot sleep, consider spending time doing a child’s pose or other yoga poses.
10. Put Socks On
Cold feet can keep you awake. As per studies, when you have cold feet, your blood vessels tighten, making it difficult for blood to circulate and sending signals to your brain to stay awake. Wear socks to solve this problem.
11. Dim the Lights
What makes you fall asleep? Darkness. It’s challenging to sleep in a room with bright lights. Bright lights signal your body to be awake, while a room with dim or no lights can make you fall asleep in seconds, most of the time.
A quick tip is to start dimming the lights after dinner. By bedtime, you would be ready to dive into a deep sleep.
12. Avoid Caffeine
Unless you wish to stay awake all night, avoid caffeine after 4 PM. Caffeine is known for keeping you active and alert. So, it’s definitely not among things to help you sleep. Caffeine can worsen pre-existing insomnia. So, it’s best to avoid it to get a good quality sleep. It can disrupt your sleep-wake cycle.
As per research, caffeine can impact your sleep up to 6 hours before bedtime. You can have chamomile or lavender tea, water, juices, or other drinks with low caffeine.
13. Take a Warm Bath
A warm bath before bedtime can take away all your troubles. Those who take warm baths or showers at night, fall asleep 36% faster. Relax yourself with a quick warm bath, and sleep like a baby.
14. Ignore the Clock
Looking at the clock when you can’t sleep is doing nothing but adding worries for you. Avoid the watches if you don’t want to feel anxious and delay sleeping further.
15. Make a Bedtime Routine
Everyone keeps asking to create a sleep routine as it’s crucial. A consistent bedtime routine can help you set your internal body clock. It should be according to your self-care preference; you don’t need to imitate someone else’s bedtime routine.
16. Avoid Napping
Napping is sometimes unavoidable, but sleeping for long periods of time during the day can prevent you from sleeping at night. To be safe from the risks of napping, try to avoid sleeping in the evening. If you cannot prevent napping, make sure the naps are not extended. Twenty minutes is an ideal nap duration; it makes you feel energetic, and it’s not long enough to disrupt the sleep-wake cycle.
17. Watch What You Consume
The food that you eat before bedtime can affect your sleep. A high-carb meal is not so good for good quality sleep. Even though a high-carb meal will make you fall faster, it won’t be a good quality sleep.
If you still want to eat a high-carb meal, eat it at least 4 hours before bedtime.
Conclusion
Good quality sleep is terrific for your health. So, you should get it. Instead of spending the night waiting to be asleep, fall asleep ASAP with these tried and tested techniques to falling asleep.
FAQs
Generally, an average person falls asleep within 10-20 minutes of lying down. Some nights it may take more or less time. If it takes more than that, there might be an issue you should take care of.
To make a baby fall asleep fast:
- Swaddle
- Sing a lullaby
- Massage
- Dim the lights
- Play soft music
A healthy adult needs to sleep for 7-8 hours every night. More or less can have adverse effects on their health.
Things you can do when you can’t sleep:
- Write a journal entry
- Listen to white noise or soft music
- Dim the lights
- Try to stay awake
The recommended sleep duration for adults is 7-8 hours. Sleeping for a lesser period may not be suitable for your health in the long run.
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