The military secret to falling asleep is to be exhausted.<p>Ever since I was 13 I've been unable to fall asleep quickly except when exhausted or reading anything by the Bronte sisters.<p>Possibly the most annoying thing about it is the absolute certainty in the presumption of the people making recommendations of how I'm doing it wrong. I've tried, thanks.
> You should then spend 10 seconds trying to clear your mind before thinking about one of the three following images:<p>>You’re lying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but a clear blue sky above you<p>>You’re lying in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room<p>> You say “don’t think, don’t think, don’t think” to yourself over and over for about 10 seconds.<p>So, I only have the last option available for me, due to aphantasia, which, in combination of not being able to just stop having a inner monologue makes the last option basically a no go either.
Pete Holmes, a comedian, talked about how he utilizes this technique. Ironically, instead of imagining himself laying in a canoe, he would visualize himself as a sniper, bundled up in a ghillie suit, hidden to the world while he awaits his prey. I would imagine that the army would not want you to use that specific scenario to help fall asleep.
Isn’t systematic sleep deprivation part of military training too? Or is that just used in training for some branches? If so, I imagine that would be a big driver in rebuilding sleep habits from the ground up. If I’m not mistaken, sleep restriction is a big part of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. People force themselves to only be in bed for say six hours a night, so if they don’t sleep in that window, they are so tired the next night that they are more likely to fall asleep quickly.
This is not the best version of this I've ever seen. It's close but its missing a few key steps.
<a href="https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/fall-asleep-fast/" rel="nofollow">https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/fall-asleep-fast/</a>
I've used this on myself and my kids and it's worked well. There are some extra steps that I think round out the effect. If you've tried similar techniques, but without some of these steps, it might be worth it to add them.
1. Get physically comfortable, usually layout on your back with your arms at your sides, if possible.
2. Relax each part of your body starting with the top of your head and ending with your toes. This should take a good 10min. I guarantee you are clenching your jaw, making a fist, keeping your shoulders up, etc. You need to make each part of your body completely limp dead weight. You should be able to physically feel the unsupported weight of your body parts. I imagine that I am turning into solid lead and sinking into the earth (bed).
3. Focus on your breathing. I don't have any super techniques for how to breath, other than to focus solely on it. Count your breaths and start counting over again as soon as you think of anything else other than your breath. This will take a long time if your mind is wandering. Just start over as soon as you realize you are thinking of anything except counting your breaths. Once you get to 10 move on.
4. This is the end. Imagine yourself floating. You can be floating on a canoe, in a bath tub, on the ocean, in a cloud, it doesn't really matter. Just imagine that you are no longer laying in a bed in a dark room. I call this going to my happy place. Like with the breathing, as soon as you realize you are thinking about anything at all, stop and bring your attention back to the sensation of floating. If I've gotten this far then I will begin counting breaths again, too. But usually I don't make it this far.
Personally I don't have the useful military pre-requisite of physical exhaustion so I just use sleep-phones and Audible with a 30 minute sleep timer and something engaging but not too exciting to listen to; eg. a good history of something undramatic.<p>Slow the reading pace down to match your breathing cycle, and its really effective.
<a href="https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/41528/relax-and-win-classified-military-method-to-fall-asleep-quick" rel="nofollow">https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/41528/relax-and...</a><p><a href="https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/47674/can-you-truly-fall-asleep-in-two-minutes-with-this-military-technique" rel="nofollow">https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/47674/can-you-t...</a><p>I read the book - original source is "Relax and Win". The whole book was fluff for the one-page exercise, and the author has questionable credentials.<p>The technique does not reliably work for me, though I still try it sometimes. I found that the people who fall asleep the fastest just don't think about anything at all, rather than focusing on a technique.
There's this clip of a chicken "sleeping on the job", the first few seconds of which make me sleepy almost instantly:<p><a href="https://youtu.be/u8VDbFUjHmI" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/u8VDbFUjHmI</a>
Same source material, without paywall and more detailed: <a href="https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/fall-asleep-fast/" rel="nofollow">https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/fall-asleep-fast/</a>