
How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less - rhapsodic
https://www.artofmanliness.com/2018/03/21/fall-asleep-fast/
======
yacse
Any steady stream of thoughts can stop me from falling asleep, even for hours.
I have noticed that long hours of programming or programming late in the day
causes this state of constant hard thinking that keeps me awake. It can be
really exhausting and even end in nightmares.

I think that the article is right that you need to stop this cycle before
falling asleep. Meditation practice helps to stop your thought cycle by
focusing on your breath. As soon as your focus shifts away to any new thought,
and you recognize it at some point, then you try to refocus again on your
breath.

However, meditation is done while being fully awake. You want to feel the mind
stopping, being fully present in the moment.

I found a trick, that helped me to find sleep, even when having the hardest
thought cycles. Lying on the back in the bed, I try to focus on my breath just
like being in meditation. After a while I slow down my breath as much as I
can. It does not take long and I'm fully asleep.

I use this trick everytime I have a hard time finding sleep. And it always
worked for me. Its one of the most valuable tricks in the toolbox of my life.

~~~
ams6110
What works for me is to just put on a documentary and something about the
monotone narration voice just shuts my brain down. I don't even pay attention
to the words. I'm generally asleep within minutes. I assume audio books might
have the same effect.

I guess it might be related to my young childhood as I had parents who would
almost always read to my brother and me at bedtime. So possibly there's a part
of my brain that has associated falling asleep to the sound of a voice
speaking.

~~~
robocat
My girlfriend trained herself to sleep with movies. Now she can't watch movies
without falling asleep.

~~~
dvtv75
Mine does exactly the same thing. If she's on the couch watching a movie,
she's a goner, but the moment she moves to bed, "it's too loud! Turn it down!"
even when it's at 1/10th of the volume when she was drooling on the couch.

------
gilbetron
I have had weird sleeping issues all my life, and the key for me to falling
asleep was when I found out that our body gets tired not when it is warm, but
when it warms up.

So next time you can't fall asleep, take off the blankets, make sure your room
is cold, and then get really, uncomfortably cold, and stay that way for at
least 15 minutes. Then, and this is key, cover your whole body only with your
sheet, and then pull the blanket just over your legs. You'll warm up and fall
asleep. If you pull the blanket all over yourself and "mummify", then you'll
risk getting too warm, which will wake you right up again.

I'm sure this doesn't work for everyone, but I think many people get too warm
and comfortable, and that will keep you awake.

Get cold, warm up, and snooze!

~~~
weavie
A quicker way to get cold is a really cold shower just before bed. It works
really well for me, and I believe there are many other benefits to cold
showers beyond just getting to sleep.

~~~
bergerjac
This makes sense... because muscles contract

The cold water grabs the brain's attention. So the brain doesn't let the mind
latch onto thoughts... energy contracts rather than scatters

~~~
weavie
I find there are two ways you can go with a cold shower.

One is to really tense up and to fight the feelings of cold. I don't think
this is too beneficial. The other is to really relax and embrace the cold.
Taking deep breaths and focusing the mind inwards allows you to accept the
cold for what it is. It takes a little practice, but once you are in that zone
the shower becomes rejuvenating and relaxing at the same time and really helps
shake off the day and get me in the zone for sleep.

------
peterburkimsher
The relaxation method in the article requires physical comfort, which isn't
always available. I used to lie awake for hours when I was younger; now I can
fall asleep quickly in all places (bus seats, desk chair, etc). What changed?

I ride a bicycle. That fixed my blood circulation, so I don't get cold feet.

I also read the Bible and pray. It's very easy to fall asleep in church on a
hard wooden pew. The same approach works at bedtime.

Sleeping less once a week (CouchSurfing meetup from 9 pm to 1 am on
Wednesdays) builds sleep debt. That increases my emotional extremes, but the
prayer handles the low points, so I end up happier. It also makes me pretty
tired, so I'm able to sleep more easily on Thursday & Friday.

~~~
d23
Bold move being honest about your religiousness here. I respect that.

~~~
busterarm
It's also interesting to hear that the CouchSurfing community still exists. 10
years ago I had friends that used it a lot but left because it got flooded
with guys trying to get laid. If it returned to what it was, that'd be pretty
cool.

------
p0ints
Regarding falling asleep - I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in myself.
Usually it takes me around 30 minutes to fall asleep, during which period I
seem to gradually mellow, my internal narrative becomes weaker until I finally
fall asleep. During the final stages of that process, I sometimes imagine
beautiful and quite complex music or art that I like a lot (unfortunately, I'm
nowhere skilled enough to try to create actual pieces based on this). This
does not happen to me in any other state - it's as if there's a temporary
imbalance between my mental functions (perhaps the logical brain shuts off
first) that generates this unsolicited creativity.

~~~
cryptonode
Sounds very similair to Dali's process. Where he would meditate holding a
kitchen utensil on top of a pan. And when he would fall asleep it would fall
making a sound and wake him up with i inspration for his next painting.

[http://www.creativitypost.com/authors/profile/33/mmichalko](http://www.creativitypost.com/authors/profile/33/mmichalko)

~~~
gus_massa
It sound interesting, but I never have heard it before and I can't find it in
the link or in Google. Is it in the book? Is there other source? (Creativity
advisors are sometime too creative.)

~~~
indigochill
This is also mentioned in the Coursera course "Learning How to Learn"
([https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-
learn](https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn)). Though I don't
recall/know what their source is. "Dali Sleep Technique" turns up many hits in
your favorite web browser, however.

------
bryanlarsen
I'm one of those that can fall asleep anytime, anywhere. The technique I use
is to work on my "novel". I guess my mind knows I've been "working" on it for
over twenty years, it's not important. At this point it's just a fantasy
environment in my head I can drop into where the stresses of the real world
don't exist.

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
I can do this too! I was born with a superpower, one that ensures I can fall
asleep anywhere, anytime - untreated obstructive sleep apnea!

With obstructive sleep apnea, you too can fall asleep in those stressful
situations like driving, in the middle of a fire drill at your desk, and while
attending an important work presentation!

(On the serious, I have an appointment to get a CPAP tomorrow and in the
meantime I sleep sitting up with my feet elevated and avoid most of the ill
effects, but it's only a short term solution because it must be weighted
against the possibility of a DVT or other blood clot.)

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_I have an appointment to get a CPAP tomorrow_

Make sure they give you one of the newer machines that has an SD card in it.
And it must be an APAP machine, not CPAP. The APAP continuously adjusts air
pressure to match your current needs.

The SD card records details of every breath you take. You then plug that info
into SleepyHead software and see what's happening to your body.

This is important, because in general the insurance companies only care that
you use your machine 4+ hrs per night. They are happy if your AHI (a measure
of how bad your apnea is) is below 5. But that still means you are having 5
serious events per hour. Which is bad, unless you're an insurance company.

Go to cpaptalk.com and apneaboard.com and learn how to interpret your
SleepyHead data and fine tune your machine to get your AHI down to 0. Works
for many younger people. Old folks tend to have other medical issues that keep
them from getting full benefit from CPAP. Even they can still be helped; e.g.
there are more sophisticated machines that will even help people breathe in
and out if their body/brain can no longer do it automatically.

Here is a starting point:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_airway_pressure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_airway_pressure)

~~~
cuckcuckspruce
Went to my appointment, doctor wrote an order for an APAP machine, called the
medical supply company who is working with the insurance and will call me
later today (or will receive a call from me tomorrow morning when they open).
Thanks for the advice.

------
Waterluvian
Just this year I learned an invaluable lesson about falling asleep. When my
brain starts "daydreaming" random chains of thoughts, just let it do that. I
used to try to clear my mind, but the opposite seems to work much better for
me.

~~~
dqpb
I was just about to post the same thing.

Sometime over the last few years I started to notice I was moments away from
falling asleep because my stream of consciousness would become nonsensical. I
then discovered I could fall asleep faster by purposefully daydreaming
nonsensical sceneries.

~~~
bhouser
Obligatory XKCD: [https://xkcd.com/313/](https://xkcd.com/313/)

------
kqr
I'll mention something related, just to see how widespread my experience is.
Sometimes when I am just about to fall asleep, I suddenly become very aware of
my receding consciousness. It's a strongly uncomfortable feeling accompanied
by a rush of energy that wakes me up instantly.

It feels almost like my body thinks it's about to die, so it does a desperate
hail mary to stay alive, or something. Very unsettling.

Does anyone know what this might be about?

~~~
0xcde4c3db
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk)

~~~
kqr
I have always mentally separated what I described in my first comment from
what I have come to associate with the term hypnic jerk.

The first is more of a mental, physically still thing. The other is, for me, a
sudden motion of a large body part, usually linked to dreaming about falling
off something. More importantly, the latter is emotionally neutral. I wake up
going "oh, I didn't really fall. It was just a dream."

When the former happens, it is very emotionally uncomfortable. It's a feeling
of pure dread, but sort of wrapped in cotton.

~~~
0xcde4c3db
It's not a terribly precise term, to be sure. The physical jerk and anxiety
aspect are often lumped together.

------
chrisvalleybay
I’ve found a simple approach to falling asleep.

I close my eyes, and start trying to hear instruments. I start with the bass
drum, add some hi-hats. It’s difficult at first, but as my mind drifts off,
other instruments start appearing, and I hear a voice singing, a melody. Songs
I’ve never heard before.

I do this every night now, and I drift off nearly right away. Sometimes I’m
jolted by the complexity of the songs, and return to reality to check if I’m
not just hearing music coming from my neighbour.

------
empath75
I have podcast subscriptions to like 10 different history podcasts and they
put me to sleep within 5 minutes most of the time. The key is that it has to
be interesting enough to engage me, but not so interesting that it keeps me
awake.

The History of English podcast is my favorite for that. It’s the entire
history of English from Indo-European onwards. It’s 100+ hours of readings
from old English poetry or medieval monastic rule books interspersed with word
etymologies (Did you know that ‘green’ and ‘grow’ and ‘grass’ are all from the
same root word?). Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely fascinating but I
challenge anyone to stay awake longer than three minutes listening to it in
bed.

~~~
amitp
This is my favorite podcast of all time. It's completely fascinating and yet,
as with other history podcasts, it puts me to sleep in 5 minutes. I listen to
them over and over to catch bits in those 5 minutes.

You get to learn thing like the connections between father/pater/vader and
brother/frater/bruder (f/p, th/t/d, b/f), the reason many plurals with 'f'
become 'v' (elf/elves, wolf/wolves, half/halves), why 'x' at the beginning of
the word sounds like 'z' but in the middle of a word like 'ks'. Or how some
languages have more than singular/plural [1]

Unexpected word connection: 'c' in Latin/Spanish to 'h' in English:
century/hundred, cornu/horn, casa/house, caliente/hot

Unexpected word connection: 'w' in German-to-English words and 'g' in French-
to-English words: warranty/guarantee, warden/guardian (also seen in
English/French: William/Guillome, war/guerre)

[1] [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/Localizatio...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Mozilla/Localization/Localization_and_Plurals#List_of_Plural_Rules)

------
joveian
It should be noted that the military and athletics are both areas that tend to
select for people with good sleep to start with (since poor sleep has negative
impact on the things they look for) and then often overwork people. So the
high success rate is not surprising in those conditions. Sleep is not just the
result of both physical and mental relaxation, although most people are likely
to be able to sleep in that situation. Every self help book on sleep has
varitions of this technique and many people find it helpful, but not everyone
is able to sleep quickly even with relaxation.

------
zwischenzug
I have two 'tricks' to falling asleep (but this article looks better).

The first is to play the 'unrelated words' game, where you think of a word as
completely unrelated to the last word as possible.

The second is to count up and work out whether the current number is prime.

Both occupy the mind while minimizing stress, allowing the body to relax into
sleep.

I'm definitely going to try the techniques in the article though.

This also made me think of Feynman's sleep experiments:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1p1107/richa...](https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/1p1107/richard_feynmans_account_of_his_investigations/)

~~~
allenbrunson
i had trouble falling asleep for about the first 35 years of my life. then i
hit on a technique i call “scenarios.” i have various made-up fantasy
settings, like an island nation surrounded by a sea of mud, and i make up
stories about its inhabitants, building on whatever stories i made up last
time. this seems to short-circuit the problem i had earlier, where i could not
get my brain to stop racing, worrying about various real-life issues.

i have always considered my technique to be so weird and awkward that i have
never discussed it with anyone. but now i see, from reading the comments here,
that other people have similar techniques. who knew.

~~~
bergerjac
What a gift!

... to be able to imagine wild scenarios.

I'm guessing you're a fantasy writer...

If not, I've never seen a more obvious sign..

------
balabaster
As someone who falls asleep in roughly 15 seconds of putting my head on the
pillow, it's fascinating that people have to adopt strategies to fall asleep.
I wonder what's different about me than other people. I know of insomnia of
course, and know plenty of people with it, but it still seems utterly alien to
me to not be able to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

I don't _particularly_ have any bedtime rituals, but I often have a cup of
caffeinated black tea right before bed. I don't know whether my ability to
sleep at the drop of a hat is physiological or psychological. I'd be
interested to figure it out... once I fix the 831 unit tests I just broke by
upgrading all the nuget packages in this solution XD

~~~
bergerjac
Same here.

I'm 31. My mom said... even when I was a baby, she would lay me down at
10:00pm, I'd fall asleep almost immediately and wake up at 6:00am like
clockwork.

On the ultra-rare occasions I don't fall asleep...

Instead of trying to relaaax... first I tense the muscles, then relax.

The contrast is key. Tension, release.

It's almost like sticking your hand in bucket of room temp water.

If you would've stuck your hand in an ice bucket for 5 seconds, THEN put your
hand in the room temp... different feeling.

------
tvanantwerp
Sounds like meditation techniques. I often practice mindfulness meditation in
a dark room for ~10 minutes in the mid-afternoon when I get tired. It usually
gives me new energy and focus similar to if I'd napped.

~~~
bsaul
After having one course of zen meditation, it seems to me meditation is pretty
much the complete opposite of falling asleep. You want to stop thinking about
anything, but only to feel perfectly aware of the current time and place. And
your mind becomes completely focused and concentrated on.. nothing.

In particular, the part in the OP where you "picture yourself being on lake,
etc" looks to me as completely anti-meditation.

~~~
mirceal
Anecdotal evidence: meditating in the evening helps me fall asleep. Don’t know
if it’s the breathing part or clearing my mind but it works really well 90% of
the time.

The trick is that I do it laying down instead of a more conventional
meditation position.

~~~
bsaul
i believe it's pretty easy to fall asleep after step 1 . I suspect the
uncomfortable sitting position is made to help you stay awake. In the course i
took, people could even ask for someone to hit them on the shoulder with a
stick, to help them keep themselves awoken.

------
pthreads
Those who are keen on exploring more should look up various relaxation methods
that fall under the umbrella of Yoga Nidra. The technique described here is
generally a preparatory exercise for a following 61 point or 31 point
relaxation method (usually done lying down on the back).

As one makes progress in their practice they will find that their body and
mind will start experiencing deeper rest for the same or lesser amount of
sleep.

Some of the relaxation methods can be done upon waking up too -- gets rid of
grogginess.

------
pmoriarty
There's a new trick I found that's been working out pretty well for me
recently.

To backtrack a bit, I've been having decent success with meditating to fall
asleep. Namely, the basic technique is to simply focus on my breath --
specifically, on the very point at which I can feel my breath entering and
exiting my nostrils (or wherever the outermost point of my body is that I can
feel my breath going in and out of), and whenever I notice my attention drifts
away from my breath to just gently, without reproach, to focus it back on my
breath again.

That technique usually worked for me, if I wasn't too agitated. The problem
was that sometimes I'd have thoughts really rushing through my mind when I
tried to fall asleep, and then even meditating like that wasn't enough. I
analyzed what was going on and decided that just focusing on my breath was too
monotonous, and gave me too much time for my mind to drift away to thinking
about other things. What I needed was a better way to keep my mind busy with
something monotonous, but not too monotonous.

So I came up with a small modification which has worked better. It's basically
the same as above, except on every other breath, instead of focusing on the
breath, I'd focus on whatever sensation in my body that's most noticeable.

For instance, I might feel a lot of pressure on a body part that I'm lying on,
like a certain part of my left arm or something. So every other breath, I'd
focus on that. Whatever that is that is most noticeable might change from time
to time, so I'd just go with whatever it happens to be. And every other
breath, I'd focus on the sensation of my breath as usual. So effectively, I'd
be alternating from focusing on my breath on one breath, and on the next on
whatever sensation in my body was most noticeable, and then back to my breath.

Wearing earplugs and a night mask (blindfold) helps too.

~~~
yacse
I think I use the same technique with another variation you might want to try
out. Focus on your breath like in meditation but, at some point, slow it down
as much as you can. So slow that you are on the edge of the body forcing you
to breath again. You may calm down and shift into sleep quite easily.

------
dloss
I use this simple technique, which is a simple technology-assisted hybrid of
mindfulness meditation and counting sheep: [http://www.dirk-
loss.de/calmyourmind/](http://www.dirk-loss.de/calmyourmind/)

------
endymi0n
How to fall asleep in two minutes or less: Have kids.

------
BlackLotus89
The technique described in the article is the common autogenic training [0]. I
was taught this when I was a child, althought it was never of much use to me,
because it didn't seem to help when I tried to use it before tests or when
trying to relax. But it is effective for many people and I was even warned not
to do it while bathing, because of a risk of drowning.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenic_training](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenic_training)

------
njsubedi
When I have to sleep I just start reading comments in a HN post, or start
scrolling 9GAG Cute section with my eyes purposefully half-closed. I don’t
remember when I fall asleep but most of the times I have only scrolled through
less than a dozen posts/comments. Night mode with lowest backlight possible is
what helps. This trick is useless in public where there’s a chance of losing
the grip of your phone; I’ve been using this technique for several years now
after a friend of mine in my Uni taught me.

------
toisanji
I've had various forms of insomnia most of my life. If this could really be
turned into a reliable technique or product for people to fall asleep, they
would become rich. Recently, my bigger problem is I wake up in the middle of
the night and can't fall back asleep easily. Insomnia effects so many people
and it increases to effect more people over time. I have found that reducing
overall internet and computer usage has greatly increased my ability to fall
asleep.

------
Tomminn
Historically, I had the classic problem of instinctively holding on to some
stream of thought which I subconsciously felt the need to unwind before I
would let dream consciousness take over.

I figured out a nice trick to fix this. I close my eyes and visualize myself
in an absurd, impossible fantasy scenario. It's amazing how quickly you will
let dream consciousness kick in, when you subconsciously know _you 're giving
it a job it's actually good at_.

~~~
BirdieNZ
This is exactly what I do! I just start "day-dreaming" some story with myself
as the main character, often with the setting being from a fantasy novel. I
never manage to find out what happens in my story though, because I fall
asleep before getting anywhere

------
odammit
Bookmarked in case I ever have trouble sleeping.

I have the opposite problem, I can just fall asleep pretty much anywhere and
in any position. Just had a triple espresso or four cold brews, no problem.

I frequently take “desk naps” throughout the day. I’ll set a timer for 15
minutes and lay my head down on my wrist rest. I fall asleep in less than a
minute.

Does anyone know if there is a name for that? I generally refer to it as
controllable narcolepsy or “luck”.

~~~
rsyring
My son has narcolepsy. When they tested him using a day time sleep study, it
was his ability to fall asleep quickly, in just a couple minutes, that was the
primary indicator of his condition. I believe the doctor said an ability to
fall asleep and hit a certain deep stage of sleep in less than eight minutes
is what they look for.

In movies and such narcolepsy is often portrayed as uncontrollably falling
asleep mid-activity. Turns out that's not actually narcolepsy but a specific
form of cataplexy. They are often present together, but are distinct. My son,
for example, has very strong narcolepsy but relatively mild cataplexy.

~~~
odammit
Oh so it could actually _be_ narcolepsy and I’ve just been an ass making a
joke about it for years.

I’m not familiar beyond the movie tropes (that I now know are
misrepresentations).

Are there complications or other serious things that it can lead to?

Are people with narcolepsy generally deep sleepers?

~~~
rsyring
I think tiredness and ability to sleep quickly are less binary and more of a
spectrum. My wife, for example, is often tired and can fall asleep anywhere
and relatively quickly. It affects our lives a bit, but it's not life
dominating. She can push through it when needed.

My son, when not on meds, is always very tired, debilitating so. It's life
dominating. He can sleep 12 hours, have breakfast, and sleep a few more hours,
etc. It's not just a matter of being able to sleep or wanting to sleep, he
feels exhausted roughly 20 of 24 hours a day. He would not wake up in 15 mins
because a timer went off.

I, on the other hand, am rarely physically tired, even when I've not got a lot
of sleep.

So, it may be that you are just more on the tired end of the spectrum. If your
tiredness and ability to fall asleep quickly has more than a casual negative
effect on your life, it may be something to talk to your doctor about.

HTH.

~~~
odammit
Thanks for all the info! I’m generally not tired until nighttime. It started
as a way to relax my thoughts when working. I’m going to bring it up at my
next physical though!

------
huffmsa
I've been thinking about my sleep a lot more as of late.

I have no trouble being awake and activity 18-19 hours a day, but unless I'm
trying to keep going, around hour 18, I naturally do what Mr Winter describes.
It's lights out for 5-6 hours.

However, I'm told that I'm a frequent sleep talker and have a habit of
standing up, surveying the room, and then lying back down (of which I have no
recollection).

As well it's come to my attention (partly from those who happen to live with
me) that my body seems to "cycle" different sensory groups on and off. The
talking and standing being part of it, but I've also noticed external sounds
influencing my dreams, many of which border on lucidity.

I assume this is abnormal (would like to hear otherwise), probably stemming
from some deep seated need to be in constant control, but I quite enjoy being
able to actively think and remember during my sleep cycle.

Which is a contrast to when I was younger and would have trouble falling
asleep and had to actively drill more or less what Mr Winter taught, to no
avail. Counting sheep just led to an internal Wikipedia dive into sheep and
sheep related topics.

~~~
huffmsa
A fun extension of this I just associated was that in my school years, I'd
fall asleep in class, but my auditory processes would keep piping information
into my brain in such a way that when the teacher thought they'd have me
"caught" by asking me what the answer to the problem on the board was I could
more often than not answer correctly without delay.

------
dude01
I can actually confirm this -- my father served in WWII (but in the Army), and
he came back with this skill to fall asleep quickly. I, sadly, don't really
have it. But this article has given me the idea to work on it more.

The relaxation ideas here, of course, come from Indian yoga techniques, but
maybe they didn't mention the history of it when teaching it. Now that would
be a selling point, ha!

------
chaoticmass
I've started using audiobooks to help me sleep. Listening to the book keeps my
thoughts from wandering and I'm usually able to fall asleep within 30 minutes
or so this way. Podcasts and even a spoken bible work well too. Without these
my thoughts wander too much and it can take an hour or more to fall asleep.

------
manmal
Here’s a trick I‘ve stumbled over a few years ago:

Close your mouth and inhale quietly through your nose to a mental count of
four.

Hold your breath for a count of seven.

Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of
eight.

[http://www.medicaldaily.com/life-hack-
sleep-4-7-8-breathing-...](http://www.medicaldaily.com/life-hack-
sleep-4-7-8-breathing-exercise-will-supposedly-put-you-sleep-just-60-332122)

For me, it does not work immediately, but it makes me fall asleep much faster.
AFAIK this works by calming the sympathetic nervous system, just like
meditation would. A downside I‘ve experienced is that sometimes I‘m very cold
for a while after waking up.

------
mratzloff
I've never been good at taking naps except when exhausted, so I'll have to try
this next time.

I'm very good at getting a good night's sleep, though. I fall asleep within a
minute of my head hitting the pillow. The key for me is to go to bed at a
consistent time (plus or minus 30 minutes or so) every night, get 8 hours
consistently, limit light exposure before bed, eliminate caffeine entirely,
and generally adopt a stress-free mental attitude. I can deviate slightly from
this, but if I deviate too much I start having sleep issues.

As a result I consistently wake up without an alarm at the same time every day
(plus or minus 30 minutes) feeling refreshed.

~~~
moltar
How do you adopt a stress free attitude?

~~~
mratzloff
That's a long answer, but the short version is introspecting about my fears,
separating events from my internal narrative about them, having compassion for
others as well as myself, framing and contextualing issues that come up, and
living in an authentic and vulnerable way. It has been a long journey (still
ongoing) that involved reading, therapy, mentorship, and coaching. The
Landmark Forum (a paid seminar) also produced great results for me.

------
lucidguppy
When I fall asleep I know exactly when I'm going to go off quick - and when
I'll stay awake.

Learning something new of a physical nature (new sport or physical game). That
helps. I can see my mind wander and drift quickly.

You just have to let go of mind concentration and you'll drift off. Now if I
can figure out how to FORCE the drift then I'll be good.

When I can't sleep - my mind is stuck on one thing or another. Like the brain
isn't lubricated.

Sometimes low level pain just perceptible (normally not enough to warrant a
pill) enough to keep you awake.

Delayed onset muscle soreness can keep me up as well - but not exercising can
keep me up too.

------
kaiwen1
Counting increasingly larger numbers as I'm trying to fall asleep will
sometimes make me feel anxious as I become aware that the numbers are getting
large and I'm still awake. So now I just count "one" repeatedly. Works much
better.

The next thing I do is search for patterns in the blackness behind my closed
eyes. Once I find myself following random images into whatever they become I
know sleep is imminent.

Finally, I discovered that mimicking REM by moving my eyes back and forth
usually makes sleep come on even faster.

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pklausler
I always have multiple books going, and I switch to a boring one when it’s
time to shut down. Right now that’s Robert Gordon’s “Rise and Fall of American
Growth”.

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zombieprocesses
This works for me. Half an hour before I go to bed, I have a glass of wine or
a shot of whisky while browsing the web or watching youtube/netflix/etc. Boom,
it's lights out as soon as my head hits the pillow.

An added benefit is that 8 hours later, I have to pee so bad that it forces me
to get out of bed. It's a sleeping aid and an alarm clock all in one.

~~~
anonuser123456
Alcohol will delay and reduce slow wave sleep. Not an ideal solution.

~~~
zombieprocesses
If you get drunk, maybe. But having a glass of wine isn't going to affect your
sleep. Also, this is about falling asleep quickly, not the quality of sleep. I
fall asleep within seconds.

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JoshMnem
This might sound strange, but if I focus on a point about a foot in front of
my eyes and hold it there while breathing slowly, I'll often fall asleep
quickly. I don't know exactly how to describe it. It's something like
projecting your thoughts onto that point, not just thinking about the point. I
use the technique when power napping.

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tunabee
This is very similar to what’s known as a body scan meditation, which, if
performed at bedtime, will usually knock me right out after focusing on just a
couple of body parts (you start from the toes of the left foot on up to the
head—I’m usually out before getting to the left knee).

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kmonsen
I have done this for as long as I can remember, except I didn't do the
physical relaxation.

I just close my eyes and think "sleep, sleep, etc". Slowly and methodically to
take away other thoughts. It doesn't work 100% for me. Maybe I will try to add
the physical relaxation.

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qwerty456127
5hz binaural beats may help some lucky people (used to help me greatly once,
stopped working some years later). You can generate them easily with SBaGen,
just make sure to avoid joint stereo mode and bitrates below 192 kbits if you
compress to MP3 then.

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opinali
The mental part is easy, if you can do that: close your eyes and focus on the
background white noise that exists inside your head, until it becomes a
clearly audible buzz that oscillates in sync with your pulse.

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avip
[EDIT: I'm afraid this only applies to men]

Sexual activity also triggers hormonal activities related to sleep. Or, to
quote someone: "Sure there may be a certain outcome, but that's not why we do
it"

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cjbenedikt
Sounds a lot like
this:[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenic_training](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogenic_training)

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jyriand
Easiest method I know: Count up to ten and then down to one again. And repeat.
Other way is to count down from 100, if you make a mistake or get confused,
just start over again.

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arbie
The physical relaxation technique is more akin to self-hypnosis, while the
mental relaxation technique is meditation to clear your mind.

Both techniques require months of practice to get right.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Disagree strongly. That could well be true for some people, but it's a skill I
picked up in just a few days of effort. Relaxing well enough to fall asleep
quickly, that is. You don't need to meditate properly to do that. You just
need enough of it to fall asleep.

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gabiruh
Shit.. that's almost exactly how I've been doing since I was a kid. The
difference is that I do the other way around, starting from my feet.

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magoon
This works for me. I’ve found that it’s all in my head.

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theshrike79
Sleep hygiene worked for me. If I'm not sleeping or having sex, I'm not on my
bed.

This way my brain associates the bed with sleep and nothing else.

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archlight
I am in the minority group of fast sleeper but it is more to do with my blood
stickiness. sometimes I am a bit scared as it is too quick.

~~~
allannienhuis
Why do you believe falling asleep fast is in any way related to how sticky
(thick?) your blood is, and why do you believe your blood is sticky/thick?

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emerged
Reading does it for me. I could be high on 200mg of caffeine, tossing and
turning for hours, but 5 pages into a book and I'm out.

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kyleblarson
I've always been amazed how quickly people can fall asleep on trains in Japan.

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adamonkey
Thank you for recommending this article! Just what I needed!

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anoplus
Don't worry about sleep too much. Let it be.

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esaym
I guess I'll have to try this...

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benmarks
Yes, "Art of Manliness" website, please send me all of your push updates to my
browser

~~~
digi_owl
Honestly the way the page is styled reeks of "overcompensation".

~~~
eeZah7Ux
Starting from the name.

