7 methods to fall asleep quickly.

Quality sleep is the basis for well-being and proper functioning of our body during the day. Without sleep there is no energy. You can even say that there is no life without sleep ( you can read why sleep is so important in this article ). However, many people have trouble falling asleep and, not knowing how to help themselves, turn to medications. Sales of sleeping pills have increased by 20% in recent years ¹ , and the number of people with sleep disorders is constantly increasing ( read more here ). If you also have trouble falling asleep quickly after going to bed, try one of the following sleep methods. We do not recommend counting sheep. As scientific research shows, this is ineffective ² .

Falling asleep method number 1. Imagine a relaxing place.

Compared to counting sheep, this method has shown greater effectiveness in studies involving people struggling with insomnia. By imagining a quiet, peaceful place, such as a forest, a waterfall or a beach, study participants fell asleep 20 minutes earlier than usual. However, counting sheep caused study participants to take even longer to fall asleep ³ .

Falling asleep method no. 2. Counting backwards.

This task engages your brain and is boring enough to make you want to sleep. Imagine a number, e.g. 60, and count down to 0. If this task seems too easy for you, try counting only with even or odd numbers, also backwards. This is a more complicated option than simply counting sheep, because it allows you to switch your mind to solving tasks and cuts you off from anxiety and worries.

Falling asleep method no. 3. 4-7-8 breathing exercise.

The method is to inhale through the nose for a count of 4, then hold the breath for a count of 7, and exhale through the mouth for a count of 8. The entire cycle must be repeated at least 4 times. This method is based on breathing techniques taken from yoga - it helps release tension and bring the body into a state of relaxation. ⁴ .

Falling asleep method no. 4. Ujjayi breathing.

Also known as "ocean breath", it helps relieve muscle tension, overcome anxiety, optimize the heart rate of ^5.6 and mentally disconnect from problems. This breathing technique is also taken from yoga. It is sometimes called "Lord Vader's breath" ⁷ because of the sound that accompanies it. It is similar to saying the letter "h" or breathing on a window. For beginners, it is recommended to perform this breathing with your mouth open, first trying to make the "ocean sound" on the exhale - it is easier to learn this way. Then you can also try inhaling. As you exhale, try to make the sound at the back of your throat. When you become more practiced, you can also do it with your mouth closed, breathing through your nose, but the "ha" sound should still come from your larynx. If this instruction sounds abstract to you, you can easily find plenty of video tutorials on how to perform ujjayi breathing on the Internet.

Falling asleep method no. 5. Worry diary.

If you can't sleep because of all your thoughts and you tend to worry about everything while lying in bed, try keeping a diary. Before you go to bed, take a moment to write down everything that makes you anxious. In this way, you symbolically throw away these problems and your mind feels relieved. It's even better to finish writing down your worries with a list of things for which you feel grateful at this particular moment. In this way, you change the focus of your attention and set yourself up for a peaceful sleep without worries. The effectiveness of the method is confirmed by scientific research ⁸ .

Falling asleep method no. 6. Meditation.

It has been scientifically proven that practicing meditation has a beneficial effect on the quality of sleep, helps reduce the feeling of stress and tension, which allows you to fall asleep faster ⁹ . Meditating supports the secretion of melatonin, a sleep hormone that puts our entire body into a state of rest and prepares the brain to fall into sleep mode. One type of meditation that is particularly effective and well-researched for its impact on sleep is mindfulness ¹⁰ (read more about mindfulness in a separate article ). If you're new to meditation, you can start by installing a guided meditation mobile app. All you need to do is turn on this meditation through your smartphone's speaker before going to sleep. It is worth trying different types of meditation, because each of us has a different effect - some people prefer meditating surrounded by the sounds of nature, others - simply following the voice of the leader, and for others meditation with relaxing music in the background works best.

Falling asleep method no. 7. Word game.

The proponent of this method is Canadian cognitive scientist Luc Beaudoin ¹¹ . He claims his technique helps turn off the brain's "alert mode." To fall asleep, we need a state of "mental distraction", so it is worth trying to occupy our mind with something other than looking for solutions to serious everyday problems. Luc Beaudoin proposes a word game. We start by choosing a word that we associate rather neutrally with. It has to be a word with at least 5 different letters. For example "tree". Then we start thinking of other words starting with the first letter of this word and for 5-10 seconds we imagine the object or person that this word names.

TREE. We imagine a tree.

HOUSE. We imagine what the house looks like for 5-10 seconds.

WAY. We imagine what the road, route, etc. looks like for 5-10 seconds.

RUG. We imagine what the carpet looks like, its shape and color - for 5-10 seconds.

DOROTHY. We imagine a person (maybe a friend) named Dorota.

e.t.c.

When we get tired of playing with the letter D, if we haven't fallen asleep yet, we need to start thinking up new words starting with the second letter of the first word. So in the case of the word "tree" it will be the letter "r". The fun should continue until we fall asleep.

Bibliography:

1. Mandelkorn U., Genzer S., Choshen-Hillel S. et al., “Escalation of sleep disturbances amid the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional international study.” Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, January 1, 2021.
2. Harvey AG, Payne S. The management of unwanted pre-sleep thoughts in insomnia: distraction with imagery versus general distraction. Behavior Research and Therapy. 2002;40(3):267-277. doi: 10.1016/S0005-7967(01)00012-2.
3. As above.
4. Jenna Fletcher, “How to use 4-7-8 breathing for anxiety,” February 12, 2019, medicalnewstoday.com.
5. Rashmi A Bapat* and Tanvi Londhe, Pre-post Case Study of the Psycho Physiological Effects of Ujjayi Breathing on Covid-19 and Hypothyroidism, Acta Scientific Women's Health (ISSN: 2582-3205) Volume 3 Issue 10 October 2021.
6. PARAJULI NIRANJAN1 , Pradhan Balaram2, Immediate Effect of Ujjayi Pranayama on Attention and Anxiety among University Students: A Randomized Self-control Study, Psychiatry/Mental Health Section, DOI: 10.7860/JCDR/2022/51480.15934
7. Ujjayi breath, or ocean breath for peace and concentration, jakmedytowanie.pl, May 23, 2020
8. Digdon, N. and Koble, A. (2011), Effects of Constructive Worry, Imagery Distraction, and Gratitude Interventions on Sleep Quality: A Pilot Trial. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 3: 193-206.
9. Nagendra Ravindra, Maruthai Nirmala, Kutty Bindu, Meditation and Its Regulatory Role on Sleep, Frontiers in Neurology, V3. 2012, ISSN=1664-2295.
10. Rusch, Heather & Rosario, Michael & Levinson, Lisa & Olivera, Anlys & Livingston, Whitney & Wu, Tianxia & Gill, Jessica. (2018). The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials: Effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1445. 10.1111/nyas.13996.
11. Luc Beaudoin, “The possibility of super-somnolent mentalation: A new information-processing approach to sleep-onset acceleration and insomnia exemplified by serial diverse imagining”, Simon Fraser University, 2013.