Sleeping should take about one-third of every adult’s day, and healthy and good sleep is a necessary factor for a healthy and well-balanced life. While some are lucky enough to fall asleep at just a sight of a blanket and a pillow, others experience trouble falling asleep fast and staying asleep, as well as poor sleep quality. In fact, research has shown that about one-third of the population has to fall asleep at least once during their lifetime.
Struggling to fall asleep can be extremely frustrating, especially if you have to get up early in the morning and finish all of your responsibilities that require focus, such as working, going to school, or taking care of children. Luckily, we can help you with how to fall asleep fast. Here are some tips and tricks, as well as some techniques on how to fall asleep fast and much more efficiently.
A healthy sleep latency period (which is the time required to fall asleep) ranges from person to person, but the average person needs from ten to about twenty minutes to fall asleep.
This sleep latency period does include the time spent trying to sleep once you are in bed, but it does not include getting ready for bed and other pre-sleep bedtime routines such as brushing your teeth or showering.The sleep latency of less than thirty minutes is relatively standard, while the sleep latency of longer than forty-five minutes is an issue and a clear indication of poor sleep quality.
Excessively long periods of sleep latency can indicate issues with sleep health and sleep routine, and sleep disturbances should be corrected to improve sleep quality, sleep efficiency, and quality of life.
There are some relaxation techniques used by people who have trouble sleeping all over the world. These relaxation techniques and breathing techniques can be used to fall asleep quickly and ensure restful sleep. Some of these relaxation techniques and ways to fall asleep quickly might not work for you, as they do not work for everyone, but you might find the ones that help you fall asleep, finally stop difficulty falling asleep, and have better sleep overall.
People worldwide swear by the military method, which is a falling asleep method that focuses on breathing, muscle relaxation, and mental visualization, providing better sleep.
Here’s how to use the military method to fall asleep fast.
-Make yourself completely comfortable and as warm as you would like. Turn off your phone, any bright light, and take away all of the distractions.
-Lay down on your bed, and focus on slowly relaxing each muscle in your body. Muscle relaxation is the key point of this method.
-Take a few deep breaths.
-Start with your face; tense your facial muscles, and then release, allowing the forehead muscles to loosen and relax naturally.
-Begin to take calming, long, relaxing, deep breaths.
-Repeat this part of the process on all of your muscle groups until your entire body feels completely rested, relaxed, and at ease.
-Now is the time for the most challenging part for most people: try pushing all of your thoughts from your head for ten seconds. For ten or so seconds, try thinking about absolutely nothing at all. This concept might feel a bit difficult at first, but keep doing it until you manage to clear your mind completely.
-However, if you are unsuccessful in clearing your mind like this, try mentally repeating “don’t think, don’t think” for at least 10 seconds, and then try clearing your mind entirely once again until you succeed.
– When your brain feels clear, picture gently rocking back and forth in a completely dark room or peacefully lying in a canoe on a calm lake. These scenarios are comforting and peaceful and should put you right to sleep.
The 4-7-8 method is based on a traditional yoga technique called Pranayama. This method can lull you into a state of calm, and it can help ease anxiety, which is perfect for those who struggle with their worries, keeping them awake. The 4-7-8 technique is based on shifting one’s focus from anxiety to counting, making it easier to fall asleep.
Here’s how to use the 4-7-8 method to ease your own anxiety and fall asleep much, much faster.
-Turn off your phone, dim the lights in your room, and get rid of any distractions that might take your mind away from falling asleep.
-Lay down in your bed, make yourself comfortable, and choose your preferred sleeping position.
-While you are lying down in bed, allow your tongue to rest on the roof of your mouth and relax behind your front teeth.
-Completely empty your lungs by slowly exhaling all of the air from them through your mouth.
-Breath in through your nose for four seconds while counting in your mind, hold your breath for seven seconds, and then exhale all of the air for eight seconds.
-Repeat this process at least four times, and welcome the feeling of dozing off into sleep.
This might sound a bit contra-productive, and it might look like a silly and unexpected strategy for trying to fall asleep fast. However, trying your best to stay is a very efficient way to fall asleep.
While sounding counterintuitive, trying to stay awake can help you lessen the anxiety around falling asleep, which will allow your body to relax and give into sleeping. Falling asleep is an involuntary process, which is why taking your mind off that task can give your brain a break it needs.
However, it is essential not to take on any activity while “trying to stay awake” to trick your brain into falling asleep. Try not to use your phone, too, since it can provide more stimuli for the brain. Your best bet is putting on a boring movie you have already seen before and just tricking your brain into falling asleep out of boredom.
A body scan is an easy relaxation technique you can do before going to sleep to promote better and faster sleep; even though it does sound a bit medical, it is not at all! A body scan is a check-in with your physical body that can bring awareness and intention to each part of your body, allowing every part to relax, and ultimately, putting you right to sleep.
A body scan method is rather similar to the military method, but it focuses on one part of the body at a time until the whole body feels completely relaxed. However, the body scan is designed to be a little bit slower and more thorough than the military method, taking about ten to twenty minutes to reach the tips of your feet.
Here is how to use the body scan method to fall asleep:
-Turn off your phone, dim the lights in your room, and get rid of any distractions that might take your mind away from falling asleep.
-Lay down in your bed, make yourself comfortable, and choose your preferred – sleeping position.
-Focus on one section of your body, starting with your head, until it feels completely relaxed. Try thinking about your muscles, visualize them completely relaxed, soothed, and completely comfortable.
-Once you are done with that section of your body, move down to your shoulders, allowing them to relax completely, before progressing down to your right arm.
-Once the right side of your body feels relaxed enough, start focusing on the left side of your body.
-After about ten to twenty minutes of this method, check-in with your body to see if you feel completely relaxed. Chances are really high that you will feel completely relaxed and that you will start dozing off really fast. At this point, you have to relax and allow your mind to fall asleep, as your body is entirely ready.
Calming all of your senses before going to bed can be very beneficial, as it allows your body and mind to relax and be at ease completely. Imagery is a mental exercise and mindfulness meditation that can help you do just that, allowing you to fall asleep.
To practice this useful mental exercise for falling asleep, try picturing relaxing scenes, a happy, calming, and peaceful image from your past. Then, try to “paint” the relaxing scene in your mind. Then, focus on painting this picture, and focus on it being realistic and detailed, doing your best to think of every single small detail during this mindfulness meditation.
This mental exercise is going to engage your brain make it focus all of your attention on the image you chose to paint, which is going to promote relaxation and put you in a state of calm. Try breathing exercises to accompany the painting as well, as they will help promote deep sleep.
Apart from those useful techniques, there are some lifestyle changes that can make sleep come more naturally and with more ease. Some of them include:
– Create a consistent sleeping schedule and stick to it.
Sleeping at different times every night can be pretty common for many people nowadays, despite this habit interfering with sleep, as it interrupts the body’s circadian rhythm.
A primary function of the circadian rhythm is determining whether the body is ready for sleep, and producing melatonin, to actually put the body to sleep. Going to bed at the same time every night is going to help your brain, and your internal clock predict when to induce sleep.
– Take a warm shower or bath.
A warm soak has been a sleep medicine after a long day since the dawn of time, and it is for a good reason; taking a warm bath or shower is shown to help you fall asleep much faster, almost like real sleep medicine. Next time you think you might be in for a hard time falling asleep, step into the tub for a nice and relaxing bath or a tub, whichever you prefer, with some soothing music playing in the background. Taking time for a hot bath or shower, even during warm weather, can serve as sleep medicine, lulling you like a baby and improving your quality of sleep.
– Avoid napping during the day.
Taking naps during the daytime, especially if they are longer than two hours, can disrupt the circadian rhythm, robbing you of better quality sleep. After you do not sleep well at night, you will probably feel tired, sluggish, and sleep-deprived, and you might want to take a long nap. However, try your best to put off sleep until it is bedtime, as it can affect a healthy sleep cycle and sleep schedule, and it can be very harmful to your sleep hygiene in the long run.
– Get active during the day.
Getting physical exercise during the day will have a positive impact on sleep quality at night, and your sleep hygiene overall. Try getting moderate exercise a few times a week and seeing how it affects your sleeping schedule.
– Keep it dark.
Light can be a critical clue to your circadian rhythm, helping your body judge when it is nighttime allowing it to produce more melatonin. Darkness can serve as sleep medicine to your brain, giving it signals to fall asleep faster, and improving sleep quality. So, make sure to keep your room as dark as possible before going to bed to help fall asleep faster.
– Get the room temperature right.
Being too hot can significantly impact your ability to sleep, leaving you panting and turning around to find a colder spot on the bed. On the flip side, being too cold will have you putting your head under the blanket, shivering, trying your best to keep yourself warm. The most comfortable sleeping temperature varies, and it is important to experiment with different temperatures and see what works best for you. Start with the recommended one, which is about 60–67°F (16–19ºC), to promote sleep and sweet dreams.
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