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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

#91

Post by kemenaran »

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…

This is definitely a phenomenon for me.

I remember reading in A study that feet warming up was the factor best correlates to falling asleep (I remember it from only a few years ago, maybe it was a follow-up to this 1999 study? [1])

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/43366

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#92

Post by intrasight »

allenbrunson wrote: post #81
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 v…

I expect there are many who use what you call "scenarios"

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#94

Post by apotheothesomai »

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…

As a supporting aside, sleep requires that blood vessels constrict a bit, and that's what cold does to a persons body, restrict blood flow to the surface. It may go deeper than that, but I lack the knowledge to assert as much.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#95

Post by chris_st »

yacse wrote: post #87

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…

Oh yeah. I think it's almost like there's a really active part of my brain that does programming... If I wake up in the middle of the night, if I start thinking about my latest project, bam, I'm wide awake and going back to sleep is way off.

It's almost like the old crock of "you only use 10% of your brain"... when I wake up, I'm on 10% mode, but programming thoughts spin up the whole engine.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#96

Post by anonuser123456 »

zombieprocesses wrote: post #74

This works for me. Half an hour before I go to bed, I have a glass of wine or a shot of whisky while browsing the web or watching youtube/netflix/etc. Boom, it's lights out as soon as my head hits the pillow. An added benefit is that 8 hours later, I have to pee so bad that it forces me to get out of bed. It's a sleeping aid and an alarm clock all in one.

Alcohol will delay and reduce slow wave sleep. Not an ideal solution.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#97

Post by _0ffh »

kazagistar wrote: post #82
auxym wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Lol, reminds me of my first lucid dreaming experience after a long time of sowing the seeds. The moment I recognized I was dreaming ("I" "was" in my living room) I was very excited and thought "Great, it worked! That means I could try out flying!". So I took off - and bumped my head on the ceiling (1). Woke me right up... :-/

(1) Seems like sometimes dreams /can/ be logical

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#98

Post by yacse »

chris_st wrote: post #95
yacse wrote: post #87

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…

Oh yeah. I think it's almost like there's a really active part of my brain that does programming... If I wake up in the middle of the night, if I start thinking about my latest project, bam, I'm wide awake and going back to sleep is way off. It's almost like the old crock of "you only use 10% of your brain"... when I wake up, I'm on 10% mode, but programming thoughts spin up the whole engine.

And the great thing is that this technique helps even falling asleep in such situations for me. Its like imitating breathing, like you would be fully asleep and the real sleep follows.

You should be aware that this allows me to ignore and procrastinating on pressing issues which I should face head-on. But practicing meditation in the mornings helps with that.

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#99

Post by balabaster »

As someone who falls asleep in roughly 15 seconds of putting my head on the pillow, it's fascinating that people have to adopt strategies to fall asleep. I wonder what's different about me than other people. I know of insomnia of course, and know plenty of people with it, but it still seems utterly alien to me to not be able to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

I don't particularly have any bedtime rituals, but I often have a cup of caffeinated black tea right before bed. I don't know whether my ability to sleep at the drop of a hat is physiological or psychological. I'd be interested to figure it out... once I fix the 831 unit tests I just broke by upgrading all the nuget packages in this solution XD

Re: How to Fall Asleep in Two Minutes or Less

#100

Post by axontaxi »

cryptonode wrote: post #42
p0ints wrote: post #18

Regarding falling asleep - I've noticed an interesting phenomenon in myself. Usually it takes me around 30 minutes to fall asleep, during which period I seem to gradually mellow, my internal narrative becomes weaker until I finally fall asleep. During the final stages of that process, I sometimes imagine beautiful and quite complex music or art that I like a lot (unfortunately, I'm nowhere skilled enough to try to cr…

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

John Cleese mentions this process as being done as well by Thomas Edison in his Talk at Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-p44-9S4O0&t=9m39s
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