How to Fall Asleep Fast: 15 Science-Based Ways

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Eat properly, blow bubbles, warm up, and then freeze. Scientists have proven that it works.

Use these 15 methods individually or combine them as you like.

1. Take a warm shower an hour or two before bedtime

An easier option: make a warm foot bath. Doctors recommend splashing for 20-30 minutes. Research shows Effects of bathing and hot footbath on sleep in winter., people warmed up shortly before sleep relax and fall asleep faster.

If you have regular trouble sleeping, make a warm shower or bath an evening tradition. And the body will get used to falling asleep immediately after water procedures.

2. Lower the temperature

Otherwise special thermosensitive cells Thermoregulation as a sleep signaling system. in the brain, they simply will not start the mechanism of falling asleep.

The body removes excess degrees with the help of the limbs (therefore, the arms and legs warm up before going to bed. Warm feet promote the rapid onset of sleep). To help him, it is enough to open the window, balcony door or set the air conditioner at 15-19 ° С. The Ideal Temperature for Sleep. The spread is associated with the individual characteristics of the organism: for someone, even 19 ° C is already cool. So be guided by your own feelings.

By the way, a warm shower or bath, mentioned in the previous paragraph, helps to sharpen the drop in body temperature. This means you will fall asleep faster.

3. Take a foot warmer to bed

It will dilate the blood vessels in the lower extremities and allow the legs to dissipate heat more efficiently. This will speed up Warm feet promote the rapid onset of sleep falling asleep.

4. Drink something warm before bed

This is another way to sharpen the temperature difference. A cup of warm milk or herbal tea will not only warm you but also help you relax. Physiologists consider Chamomile: A herbal medicine of the past with bright future to be especially effective in combating mild insomnia. Herbal drinks based on lemon balm, fennel, hawthorn are also suitable.

But it is better to refuse coffee and tea (black and green) before going to bed. They not only invigorate, but also have a diuretic effect. It may be very light, but enough to wake you up in the middle of the night with a urge to use the toilet.

The same goes for alcohol. Alcohol speeds up falling asleep, but worsens sleep, which will make you feel overwhelmed in the morning - as if you had not slept for half the night.

5. Try Melatonin

Melatonin is called the sleep hormone. Normally, it begins to be produced in the dark and methodically prepares the body for falling asleep: it lowers blood pressure, body temperature … A healthy body produces melatonin in the required quantities. But sometimes things go wrong.

Several studies show The effectiveness of melatonin for promoting healthy sleep: a rapid evidence assessment of the literature that melatonin supplementation significantly reduces difficulty falling asleep. As a rule, Effects of bathing and hot footbath on sleep in winter is enough. 2-3 mg of melatonin at bedtime.

However, it is important to consider that science still knows little about the long-term and, possibly, negative effects of taking dietary supplements. Therefore, indulge in self-medication is not worth it. If you are interested in trying melatonin, be sure to check with your therapist.

6. Have dinner right

You don't have to take pills. Melatonin is also found in Dietary Sources and Bioactivities of Melatonin in affordable and safe foods. It is abundant, for example, in bananas, oranges, pineapples, cherries, tomatoes, cow's milk, rice and oatmeal.

7. Do not use gadgets for at least an hour before bedtime

The advice is hackneyed, but you have to repeat it over and over again. Light suppresses the production of melatonin. And the blue light from the screens of electronic devices, including TVs, does this especially effectively, reducing the level of the sleep hormone in half.

If you don't have the willpower or the ability to give up your smartphone, tablet, or computer, compromise. Use apps to help you change the color temperature of your screen.

8. Take care of cozy lighting

This should also be done at least an hour before bedtime. In the twilight, disturbed only by a floor lamp or a dimmed table lamp, the production of melatonin will be more active and, as a result, will help you fall asleep easier.

9. Try progressive muscle relaxation

The progressive muscle relaxation method consists of tensioning the major muscle groups and then relaxing them in sequence. It helps to effectively and quickly relieve stress, as well as cope with Progressive Muscle Relaxation for Stress and Insomnia with insomnia.

The progressive muscle relaxation technique involves a gradual ascent from the lower limbs to the upper limbs. So take a deep breath and tighten your toes at the same time. Hold your breath to feel this tension. Then exhale and slowly relax your muscles, imagining the tension going out of your body.

Now consistently tighten and relax your calves, hips, buttocks, and so on.

10. Find yourself a boring activity for 5-10 minutes

This is advice for those who have already counted all the sheep, reread the list of contraindications to sleeping pills ten times, but could not fall asleep.

Get out of bed (this is important: you should associate it only with sleep!), Sit down at the table and, for example, paint a picture from a relaxation book. Or open a math problem book and try a tricky example. Or (easiest way) make a to-do list for tomorrow.

As found out The effects of bedtime writing on difficulty falling asleep: A polysomnographic study comparing to-do lists and completed activity lists. scientists, anxiety about unfulfilled tasks often prevents us from falling asleep. When a person makes a to-do list, the brain decides that everything is under control and calms down. Well, you can fall asleep.

11. Immerse your face in very cold water for 30 seconds

Another, albeit slightly extreme, way to calm down and tune the nervous system to sleep.

Immersing your face in a bowl of cold water triggers the so-called Your body’s amazing reaction to water reflex in mammals: heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature decrease … In general, the body enters a soothing pre-sleep state and falls into oblivion more easily.

12. Use method 4 - 7 - 8

Its essence lies in a special way of breathing: we inhale deeply through our nose for 4 seconds, then hold our breath for 7 seconds and exhale slowly through our mouth for 8 seconds. The exercise should be performed lying down.

Breathing at this rate is the most effective sedative exercise. It helps to calm the nervous system very quickly and fall asleep.

13. Breathe in lavender

You can put a pillow filled with the inflorescences of this plant in your bed, or just breathe in the aroma of the essential oil for a couple of minutes.

A 2005 study found An olfactory stimulus modifies nighttime sleep in young men and women. that the scent of lavender has a pronounced calming effect and can be used to improve sleep and prevent insomnia.

14. Blow bubbles

Rachel Marie E. Salas - MD, professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - justified Can't fall asleep? Try blowing bubbles - seriously blowing bubbles like this: “This is a deep breathing exercise that soothes the body and mind. And since this is a rather stupid activity, it can also distract you from disturbing thoughts that can disturb falling asleep."

15. Try not to sleep

Yes, paradoxically, but the law of meanness still works. A small study, Initial Insomnia And Paradoxical Intention: An Experimental Investigation Of Putative Mechanisms Using Subjective And Actigraphic Measurement Of Sleep, conducted by scientists from the University of Glasgow, showed that if you ask a person suffering from insomnia to try to keep their eyes open, they will fall asleep faster than their colleagues. who weren't asked for anything like that.

“Sleep is almost the only activity in life where the more you try, the higher the risk of failure,” other scientists comment on this fact. So we relax and fall asleep.