How To Fall Asleep Fast: 26 Expert Tips for Sleeping
How to fall asleep fast? You’re certainly not alone. People across the globe sometimes find themselves staring up at the ceiling, longing for that restful embrace of sleep. Beyond mere annoyance, a delay in falling asleep can affect one’s overall well-being and, yes, even that zest for life’s most enjoyable moments.
BUT there is a silver lining: apart from buying the right mattress for your taste, here is a guide to getting you there sooner. Stepping into the realm of science and common sense, we picked out the most practical changes and expert tips that’ll get you ready to snooze quickly.
Maybe a little bedtime routine and a few tried-and-true relaxation techniques will be the ticket to that easy, swift slide off to dreamland. So let’s dive in and unpack the nuances to help you fall asleep faster and get a better night’s sleep.
1. Keep a Regular Schedule
Ever have the feeling that your internal clock somehow missed a beat or two? The body loves a little routine, especially when it comes to sleep. Think of your circadian rhythm as a clock that’s fine-tuned to rise with the sun and dim with the moon. When you stray away from regular sleep schedules, it has a tendency to leave you feeling foggy the rest of the day.
Get to bed at the same night every night and wake up at the same time every morning you help anchor this internal clock. In return, sleeping hours become much more predictable and mornings groggy-end. Unsure of when you should go to bed or wake up? Use our sleep calculator to learn how many doctors recommend that you sleep for your age group, and what your ideal sleep schedule should be. Trust us, your body and mind will thank you for it.
2. Be Mindful of How You’re Using Screens
Something that most people really need to hear: it might be time to cut back on screen time. Research points to the possibility that your phone, laptop, and even your tablet is actually sleeping with your enemies. All of the appliances emit blue light, which works against the production of your melatonin levels – that elusive hormone which leads us into dreamland.
That is simply to say you are not to swear off technology altogether but to create a healthier alliance with it. Try to stop using screens at least an hour before you go to bed. Think of it as a way of digital detox for your sleep hygiene. That late-night scroll or one more episode might seem tempting, but the sleep quality you gain in return? Priceless.
3. Purchase the Appropriate Mattress Support
At the end of a long day, a bed can be a haven for your body. So, the proper firmness and support is not a luxury, but rather a requirement to even wake up properly aligned with no awful aches and pains.
For side sleepers, softer mattresses alleviate pressure points. Meanwhile, beginners for learning how to sleep on their backs would depend on a medium-firm mattress, which precisely encompasses that elusive balance between snug and support. 4. Watch What You Eat
The old adage “You are what you eat” is quite applicable to the relationship between food and sleep. Imagine preparing your body just so it purrs like a well-tuned engine, guiding it into a sound night’s rest. But the wrong fuel? It can leave the engine stuttering and restless.
4.Some foods to watch
Heavy or spicy foods: They can be the cause of heartburn or acid reflux, jolting you awake when all you crave is serenity.
Coffee or tea: Your go-to pick-me-up could keep you awake, even if you no longer feel the buzz. Try cutting out caffeine at least eight hours before you turn in.
Alcohol and nicotine: Though they can be considered as relaxing agents, they actually serve more like detrimental ones concerning the quality of sleep.
Hungry for more insights on what to chow down on (or avoid) for a blissful night’s sleep? Read our article on foods to help you sleep better.
5. Use the Military Method
Sometimes, necessity is the mother of inventions. Soldiers, for instance, with their irregular and unforgiving sleep patterns, have only managed to perfect a practical method to sleep called the “military method.” This has been a proven success in getting people to sleep within less than two minutes in hostile environments.
Want to try it?
Relax and focus on how every tension from your jawline, your cheeks, and your mouth starts to melt away.
Let your arms fall loosely at the sides, starting at the shoulders.
Take deep breaths to relax the chest muscles.
Imagine a peaceful scene for yourself, a warm fireplace or a secluded beach. If your mind starts to wander into stress-permeated thoughts, listen to them and gently invite them out the door and bring your peaceful scene back into focus. No visualizer? That’s okay. A lively simple mantra phrase, such as “Time to rest,” can be enough.
For many, a military method has turned out to be a faithful companion on the way toward a good night’s sleep. Why not see if it becomes yours?
6. Practice Meditation
Meditation helps the mind anchor, so to speak; it is there to root us in the present moment and dispel the churning thoughts that seem to wake everyone up. You don’t try to stop thoughts but just observe them. That way, you can find peace even in the storm.
Mindfulness meditation has been a good fit for those who often get entangled in worries or stress that refuse to let go. By attending to our breath or the rise and fall of our chest, we make a space between us and the on-rushing thoughts. Concentrating and deconcentrating is so delicate an action, yet it does magic for the brain. In fact, studies suggest that during these meditation stages, our brains indeed get tranquilized and better geared for rapid flow into dreamland.
7. Practice the 4-7-8 Breathing Technique
When the world is go-go-go, our minds often gallop away when we need them to slow down. But suppose there were a slow-motion button for life? That’s where 4-7-8 breathing comes in – the rhythm of inhales and exhales – basically, the lullaby of your overworked brain.
Inhale: Breathe in deep, quiet through your nostrils, with mouth open enough to just make a little face and count until four.
Hold: Keep the breath there, filling every square inch of lungs, counting until seven.
Exhale: Now let lips open a hair’s breadth, letting that breath leak out while keeping whoosh at end of breath, counting until eight.
By repeating this cycle, you are breathing in and out but telling your nervous system to take a break, calm down, and get ready for rest. It is a real lifesaver if you are always feeling particularly tense or anxious before bed.
8. Try PMR with Progressive Muscle Relaxation
The body and mind are intricately linked. Indeed, it is with the unraveling of our tensed muscles that we find the key to calm a restlessness of thought. And it is on this very principle that PMR works, giving you the chance to intervene and let go of stresses of the day to make a smoother transition into the night.
Well, the PMR is a little bit like a nice guided tour of your own body, visiting all of it systematically and relaxing every group of muscles.
Do the following:
Get into a comfortable lying position. Close your eyes. Take some deep, grounding breaths.
Tense up the facial muscles, holding for about 10 seconds and then releasing the feeling of relaxation just flood into you. Continue with some calming breaths.
Stretch down to your shoulders. Squeeze them for a quick 10 seconds and then release, letting relaxation in. Take long smooth breaths.
Continue the cycle of tension and release, working from torso outwards through legs and finally to feet. Don’t forget, this whole exercise is about relaxation, so you can skip any part that’s giving you a hassle.
It is a mini-massage inside with the hands removed-replace them with your mind. You relax your mind to disencumber yourself of any built-up tension. For most, PMR is an intimacy that forms part of one’s sleep arsenal, signaling to the body that it is time to unwind.
9. Soothing music
There’s magic in music-there seems to be the weaving of an atmosphere of serenity, covering one with a soothing envelope. For others, gentle humming tunes become their lullaby, urging them to dreamland far from the buzz of daily tasks.
Noise can easily creep into our sleep sanctuary, whether it’s a partner’s sneeze or that night owl upstairs. Introducing some calming music into your bedtime routine can actually create an apparatus to drown out those pesky disruptive sounds.
Of course, everyone’s sensory preferences vary. If melodies become more of a midnight dance party than sleepy serenade, white noise might be up your alley. It is uniform in sound, so the audio blanket is just fine for sleep. So be it the strumming of a guitar, pitter-patter of the rain, or the steady hum of a fan, look at that and determine what sounds resonate with the sleep of your inner night owl and let it guide you to dreamland. 10. Follow Guided Imagery
It is in such bustle that our minds reach out to serene and still surroundings. For as long as history can recall, guided imagery offers a mental space or getaway to these havens of serenity without ever having to pack a bag or book a ticket.
10. Follow Guided Imagery
Imagine: dappled sun in a forest clearing, birds singing from the leaves of trees; soft whisper through the leaves from a breeze; afar, the gentle sound of a babbling brook. Or perhaps: a secluded beach, where waves dance upon the sand, leaving their tracks as they ebb and flow, and a gentle, salty breeze carries the fragrance of the wide ocean.
By focusing your mind on these peaceful scenes and distracting yourself from the stress of the day, you settle your mind into the present, relieving worries and encouraging relaxation. As you drift deeper into these peaceful scenes, your breath naturally becomes in sync, becoming deeper, slower, ushering in sleep’s gentle embrace.
11. Weighted Blanket
Imagine a blanket that’s not only warm but also cooes you in with the occasional nudge toward better, richer sleep. That is a weighted blanket.
Using the power of Deep Touch Pressure (DTP), Bearaby designed its weighted blankets to be roughly 10% of your body weight, making for that gentle yet persisting hug.
But it doesn’t snuggle you just close. It turns on a biochemical ballet, which may reduce the levels of cortisol, your stress hormone, but increases serotonin and melatonin production in your body. The result is as if your own magic sleep potion has been stirred and calms that restless mind and gently nudges you deeper, even more restorative sleep. Weighted blankets aren’t just another bedding addition-they’re an entire self-care experience. Therefore, with your journey toward nirvana, consider letting this gentle giant be your guide. And isn’t that, after all, what sleep is meant to feel?
More Sleep Methods
On your way to achieving a perfect night’s sleep, you often find yourself on some sort of winding road of remedies, routines, and rituals.
We’ve seen a few strategies yet, but here’s some more advice on what to do when you can’t sleep:
12. Start your bedtime rituals early: Brush your teeth and wash your face adequately before bed so you don’t wake yourself up with a cold splash.
13. Take melatonin: This is nature’s nudge toward dreamland. Take only what your doctor has ordered.
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14. Wander around during the day: Tired out by daylight hours will ensure a good night’s sleep.
15. Don’t look at the clock: No watching of the clock. Ignorance is bliss in bed .
16. Trickery with reverse psychology: It’s playfulness. The more you resist it, the more you may be welcoming sleep.
17. Reduce stressors in the life of one’s mind: A quiet mind is a rested one. Skipping the quotidian stressors makes the road to sleep easier.
18. Reading a book: Replace the glow of a blue screen with the light of a book. Paper makes thoughts become dreams.
19. Get up and take a little walk: Clear out and breathe. Often, a new setting can bring clarity, so set it up for sleep.
20. Avoid doing work in the bedroom: Work should not be performed in the bedroom. This gives the impression to the brain that it is the sole place meant for sleep.
21. Warm bath/shower: Warm water relaxes muscles. The body is prepared to prepare its muscles for sleep.
22. Cool bedroom: Cooler temperatures closely represent the regular mode of the body, and the body triggers sleepiness.
23. Use gentle yoga or stretching. Sleep yoga is the “goodnight” message from your muscles, so rest like your brain.
24. Dim lights when setting your bedtime: When the lighting gets dimmed, a human subconscious assumes others are sleeping, too.
26. Test scent-calming oils: Lavender or eucalyptus is the sleep sonnet nature wrote to lull you into serenity.
Sleep like it was an important ritual. Much more than closing those eyelids, it is a doorway to renewal.
