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A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

independent.co.uk

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Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#121

Post by lloeki »

Fnoord wrote: post #77
nitins wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this a form of meditation? Stay still and focus your mind on nothingness

> Isn't this a form of meditation? Yes, it is a form of mindfulness. > Stay still and focus your mind on nothingness "Nothingness" is the most difficult way to meditate. Its often seen as the way one meditates by people who are ignorant about meditation and mindfulness. Generally, there is one focus point. This could be sounds, it could be breathing, it could be visualisations, it could be focusing on walking. It cou…

I practiced mindful meditation to overcome sleeping issues. The technique was as follows:

- Lie down on the back, in a way that feels like you can release body tension in limbs, neck, and back.

- Take a couple deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling fully. Then, focus on your natural breath: breathe normally for about a minute; don't try to control its rhythm, rather observe it (is it slow? fast? deep? shallow?) and acknowledge it without judgement, focusing on the flow of air in your lungs or throat, or the area in your chest that goes up and down with each breath (whichever is easier for you).

- Focus on body contact with the bed. Feel the weight of the different parts of your body pushing down against the mattress.

- Focus on your feet, and relax just this part by consciously observing how it feels (is it tense? at ease? hot? cold? restless? it doesn't matter, just notice it) and acknowledging it, not combating it. Then consciously think "ok, I'm turning that part off".

- Move gradually upper (lower legs, thigh, and so on), repeating the "observe, acknowledge, turn it off" process, until you reach your head.

- If you're not asleep at that point, focus on the breath again and take note and acknowledge the difference from when you started. Then proceed with the body again.

- if you mind wanders off at any point from your body, observe and acknowledge the thought you just had, then focus on a couple breaths again as previously described, and simply resume where you left off.

The key is being observing, not judgemental about your state (whatever it currently is), realising that thinking "I shall sleep" or "I shall relax" only makes you more aware of you not sleeping, and more tense, thus isn't going to go anywhere.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#122

Post by lawlessone »

W4ldi wrote: post #103

I read about a method years ago. I usually don't have problems falling asleep. But when I do, I do the following: Try to breath in through one nose hole and breath out through the other. This may sound stupid, but there are two reasons why this works: 1. You focus on doing something else than thinking about stuff that worries you. 2. While doing this your eyes move from left to right. You might remember what hypnotis…

>Try to breath in through one nose hole and breath out through the other.

wait can everyone consciously do this? i can't

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#123

Post by epanchin »

muterad_murilax wrote: post #117
W4ldi wrote: post #103

I read about a method years ago. I usually don't have problems falling asleep. But when I do, I do the following: Try to breath in through one nose hole and breath out through the other. This may sound stupid, but there are two reasons why this works: 1. You focus on doing something else than thinking about stuff that worries you. 2. While doing this your eyes move from left to right. You might remember what hypnotis…

What if only one nostril is "open" at any given time? That is usually the case for me.

Concentrate on breathing in and out of one side of that nostril. Sounds pretty stupid but it’s no different to OPs suggestion - it will cause the same reactions.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#124

Post by mjlee »

mywacaday wrote: post #119

I'm not convinced its a military trick rather something forced by necessity. I used to be a terrible sleeper, it usually took an hour to fall asleep and would regularly wake for multiple 30-40 min periods during the night and wake up exhausted. We're now on baby no.2 and I can fall asleep in a few minutes any time from 6pm on. Just close my eyes and expect sleep and it comes. 10 minute power naps are great. The abili…

This rings true for me - I had difficulty getting to sleep until I joined the military. Once I had to be able to get sleep where and when I could I learned how.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#126

Post by seszett »

lawlessone wrote: post #122
W4ldi wrote: post #103

I read about a method years ago. I usually don't have problems falling asleep. But when I do, I do the following: Try to breath in through one nose hole and breath out through the other. This may sound stupid, but there are two reasons why this works: 1. You focus on doing something else than thinking about stuff that worries you. 2. While doing this your eyes move from left to right. You might remember what hypnotis…

>Try to breath in through one nose hole and breath out through the other. wait can everyone consciously do this? i can't

You don't have to be able to do it (you can't).

But if you try to do it, you will concentrate on each nostril in turn and little else, in synchronisation with your breathing, which leads to the kind of mild auto-hypnosis that the GP is talking about.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#127

Post by dingaling »

davedx wrote: post #63
linker3000 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only works for me if I think of Vanta Black! Must try this though - my wife is often asleep in a minute or so while I take tens of minutes. I wonder how much using mobile devices in bed at night has affected sleep patterns.

Mobile devices- anything with a screen that emits blue wavelengths IIRC - are terrible for getting to sleep. I avoid mine except for turning my alarm on.

Yet for centuries people have taken siestas in the blueish noon Sunlight, 5500 to 9000 Kelvin.

Why the sudden claimed sensitivity to blue light at night? Correlated to the ubiquity of indoors electrical lighting mimicking the colour of candlelight perhaps?

Or perhaps Westerners aren't going to bed physically tired after a day of sedentary work?

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#128

Post by dingaling »

qualitative wrote: post #125

Okay, so what's the secret military method for curing hiccups?

Drink a mouthful of vinegar, in one go. The reflex defibrilates the diaphragm.

I used to a sachet of vinegar in my daypack for that reason and it had 100% success with colleagues.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#130

Post by mattlondon »

fzeroracer wrote: post #76

Usually when I suffer from an inability to sleep it's because my mind ends up focusing too hard on things that ground me to reality. Existential dread, worrying about work, thinking about technical problems etc. So often my technique to fall asleep has been to focus my mind on the fantastical. Stimulate my imagination a bit, like what if I was a dwarf in a fantasy universe. This tends to focus my thoughts inwards and…

+1 - imagining myself in some sort of benign make-believe world and what I'd be doing rapidly sends me to sleep. Personally not dwarfs for me, but could be anything - e.g. if I were a living in a TV show/movie's world how would I act?, or if I won the lottery tomorrow what would I spend it on?, or if I could just snap my fingers Magic Genie-style to do things what would I do with that power?

I guess it is the introspection part that concentrates the mind on something totally frivolous and non-productive that allows you to just drop off.

Whatever the root-cause, usually it is a matter of just rolling over, shutting my eyes, then I get maybe 30-90 seconds of make-believe time and I am off and asleep. Probably works about 90-95% of the time - there are off days where I really cant sleep and now I just get up and do something instead.

Doesn't seem to work on planes though! :(

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