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How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

artofmanliness.com

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Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#81

Post by allenbrunson »

zwischenzug wrote: post #22

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 t…

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.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#82

Post by kazagistar »

auxym wrote: post #54
jwdunne wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for me. Sometimes on bad nights it can be hours but I need that time to "unwind". The music is awesome. I sometimes get hypnogogia. I can imagine the music and then, as I get closer to sleep, I actually hear the music. If I don't imagine music and I get hypnogogia, I'll hear people chatting next to me. That was quite scary before I understood what was going on. If I don't get hypnogogia, I'll start imagining odd…

While I don't recognise the music/art part, I have this happening pretty regularly: > If I don't get hypnogogia, I'll start imagining odd scenarios. Sometimes I'll recognise that it's a sign I'm about to drift off and then bang I'm awake. Almost like lucid dreaming, but when I'm only half-asleep, and becoming lucid wakes me up.

Lucid dreaming itself woke me up, often in the middle of the night. I had to force myself to forget to ensured I stayed asleep and got a full nights rest, and eventually I stopped remembering dreams altogether.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#83

Post by rsyring »

odammit wrote: post #77
rsyring wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-ac…

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?

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.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#84

Post by homarp »

gus_massa wrote: post #57
cryptonode wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.)

it is in "50 Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship" a bit after the "Three rules for controlling your dreams".

Edit: Search for the sentence "In this posture, you must hold a heavy key which you will keep suspended, delicately pressed between the extremities of the thumb and forefinger of your left hand." and look at the google book result, you can read the page 36.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#86

Post by sdrothrock »

gilbetron wrote: post #71

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…

I can vouch for this too, but the down side for me is that because I've done this for so long, it's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep quickly if the room is remotely warm already...

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#87

Post by 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.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#88

Post by slfnflctd »

sdrothrock wrote: post #86
gilbetron wrote: post #71

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…

I can vouch for this too, but the down side for me is that because I've done this for so long, it's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep quickly if the room is remotely warm already...

This is where strategic fan deployment comes into play. Works for me, anyway.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#89

Post by gilbetron »

sdrothrock wrote: post #86
gilbetron wrote: post #71

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…

I can vouch for this too, but the down side for me is that because I've done this for so long, it's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep quickly if the room is remotely warm already...

Oh definitely - if I'm in a room that is still and is 68+ degrees, I know I'm not really going to actually sleep that night :/

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#90

Post by odammit »

rsyring wrote: post #83
odammit wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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 h…

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!
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