Does anyone out there have suggestions as to how I might force myself to fall asleep faster at night? I’m definitely a ‘night owl’ and I seldom make it to bed before midnight. When I do, I find it nearly impossible to get to sleep, even if I’ve woken up very early on the preceeding morning. I’d love to have the ability to fall asleep quickly, at will. That would make WILD a more practical idea for me.
I’ve heard some people say self-hypnosis can help… anyone know anything about this or other methods. Any resources that would help out here? Post links please! THANKS
Do you sleep at all during the day? Cus if you do, then this is your problem. Don’t do it and you’ll get to sleep so much easier and earlier at night.
Or, try going to bed earlier every night for a week or so. After a while, you’ll find you get used to going to bed earlier and so you get tired and want to fall asleep at earlier times.
Don’t think about going to sleep, that just makes it harder. What I often do is just meditate, but then let my thoughts wander, until I fall to sleep. It works well.
I find that I can fall asleep much faster if I visualize something in my mind. I would say that the less you focus on the real world the faster you can fall asleep. I would say I fall asleep somewhere between 2 and 4 times faster when I visualize something. I think you can think of almost anything, but you could try with a few different things and see if there’s any difference. I just found out that I can fall asleep faster while also keep my mind active by counting from 1 to 200 while I’m visualizing the numbers.
And if that doesn’t work, try putting honey in milk and heat it up and drink it right before you go to sleep. That should work, I haven’t tried it, but milk contains tryptophan and the honey helps to get it through the blood brain barrier. Tryptophan makes you sleepy, so that will work if nothing else does
I learnt somewhere on LD4all ( but where ? ) that someone could hypnotize himself in visualizing an hypnotizer. Strange method indeed, but he told it works
When I was about 18, I had sort of little insomnia, cause “I am a night bird, I am not much good in the day time” too.
One told me about phosphenes and HI that you see just before sleep and, as I’m curious, I tried. So I learnt a relaxation method. But practising a boring relaxation method and trying to focus on HI had mainly the side effect of making me sleep !
From my experience, ( I try to WILD every night without success ), if you have such problems when getting to sleep, it will be better for you to try to focus on phosphenes and HI than to count, because counting will keep your mind awake. ( Researchers at Oxford University have recently found that insomniacs are more likely to fall asleep by imagining a relaxing scene than by counting sheep )
nice methods everyone i too have big problems with falling asleep, like today i tried to fall asleep for 2 hours, then went to eat something, then again tried for 40 minutes but i don’t remember how i actually fell asleep
anyway i’ll try to visualize something, but i don’t think that will work for me(nothing works for me;-) ), i’ll probably just get bored and start turning in bed and spend 2+ hours like that
Thanks for all the great links and ideas, everyone!
Baloogan - Hypercube eh… I’ll give it a shot this weekend
No, I don’t nap during the day. As for getting to bed earlier, like I said, it’s usually a fruitless pursuit. It’s more of a mental barrier, I believe.
JaRoD - Milk and Honey that sounds tasty. I didn’t know milk had tryptophan in it. Turkey has it too I know. Does honey weaken the blood brain barrier in general… like would it be a bad idea to eat honey and then get real drunk or eat a bunch or doritos or other food with MSG?
Basilus West - yeah, I like my avatar Thanks for those links, I’ll puruse them when I get back home next week!
visualizing is good, but I think I need to find a better method or combine visualization with other methods, because I can lay in bed and visualize stuff for extended periods and just not get tired or bored enough to fall asleep. Then my mind wanders and I’m back to square one. ANy other thoughts, anyone?
), if you have such problems when getting to sleep, it will be better for you to try to focus on phosphenes and HI than to count, because counting will keep your mind awake. ( Researchers at Oxford University have recently found that insomniacs are more likely to fall asleep by imagining a relaxing scene than by counting sheep )