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A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

independent.co.uk

141–150 of 238 posts

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#141
Sounds suspiciously like a technique I saw on Sesame Street as a toddler. I'm 42 now and I still use it.

In the episode, Big Bird (I think) would say goodnight to each of his body parts...so "Goodnight toes, goodnight foot, goodnight leg, goodnight knees" and so on.

I think what ends up happening as you say goodnight to each body part, you subconsciously "relax" them, so to speak. And by the time you get to your upper torso...you're pretty much drowsy enough to nod off.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#142

Military for 24 years, never heard of this, but I learned to take naps in crazy situations: next to a hot landing zone, under an aircraft catapult, in cargo planes, etc. Only common denominators I can think of: exhaustion, a clear conscience, and trust in those around me.

It's a UK website, they're talking about the UK military.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#143

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…

I also do this. Time-travel to Ancient Rome, winning the lottery, pandemic survival, going to Mars. I find I just start the scenario, and the imagination takes its own turns. It's like daydreaming and it's an enjoyable way of falling asleep quickly.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#144
> You say “don’t think, don’t think, don’t think” to yourself over and over for about 10 seconds.

I do this pretty much every night. Instead of 10 seconds I just do it until my thoughts start getting weird and not making sense. Usually when that’s happening I’m starting to fall asleep.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#145
post #9

This is good stuff. But for fighter pilots and such, who are sometimes on call 24/7, the use of "go pills" (formerly methamphetamine, and now modafinil) and "no-go pills" (such as zaleplon and zolpidem) is quite common. But then, no-go pills aren't so great, because it takes hours for effects to wear off. So modafinil plus relaxation training seems like a great solution. I can say from personal experience that modafi…

Yeah modafinil is a weird one, it just feels to me like I've had 4 or 5 coffees, but can sleep alright in the evening. I find it makes me grumpy if I get interrupted though so it can make working on some teams harder.

I get irritable if I take more than 100 mg per day. But then, I've always been short-tempered.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#146
post #30

> A secret military technique that is said to help anyone fall asleep in just two minutes has recently been revealed. and > The secret is detailed in the book Relax and Win: Championship Performance, which although first published in 1981 I guess 37 years is "just" for the author.

I think you mean "recently". It didn't take 37 years to fall asleep!

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#147

I nap for 20 minutes every day at work (at my previous company, for 4 years or so and now since I'm working remotely). Here are my steps for taking a nap: 1. Find a good place to nap. Use the same place every day. I used to nap under my desk on a lazy bag at my last job. 2. Quickly find a comfortable position. Quickly fix everything that bothers you (like watch on your wrist or anything else that's making you uncomfo…

> 5. Start removing thoughts from your brain. As you start thinking about something, just stop. Another thought comes in. Kill it. Just kill thoughts. You can think only about your breathing. Nothing else.

If only it was this easy!! It almost feels like a variation of "start outlining the owl... now when you have the outline, just draw the rest of the owl". :-)

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#148

I nap for 20 minutes every day at work (at my previous company, for 4 years or so and now since I'm working remotely). Here are my steps for taking a nap: 1. Find a good place to nap. Use the same place every day. I used to nap under my desk on a lazy bag at my last job. 2. Quickly find a comfortable position. Quickly fix everything that bothers you (like watch on your wrist or anything else that's making you uncomfo…

> 5. Start removing thoughts from your brain. As you start thinking about something, just stop. Another thought comes in. Kill it. Just kill thoughts. You can think only about your breathing. Nothing else. If only it was this easy!! It almost feels like a variation of "start outlining the owl... now when you have the outline, just draw the rest of the owl". :-)

I actually can do that, but instead of falling asleep I go into a not very pleasant "meditative" state that I have to exert effort to exit (a bit like sleep paralysis).

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#149

I nap for 20 minutes every day at work (at my previous company, for 4 years or so and now since I'm working remotely). Here are my steps for taking a nap: 1. Find a good place to nap. Use the same place every day. I used to nap under my desk on a lazy bag at my last job. 2. Quickly find a comfortable position. Quickly fix everything that bothers you (like watch on your wrist or anything else that's making you uncomfo…

> 5. Start removing thoughts from your brain. As you start thinking about something, just stop. Another thought comes in. Kill it. Just kill thoughts. You can think only about your breathing. Nothing else. If only it was this easy!! It almost feels like a variation of "start outlining the owl... now when you have the outline, just draw the rest of the owl". :-)

It's more like taking steps that eventually equate to running a marathon. Drawing an owl has many different actions that you can fail to adequately describe. Here the task itself is very simple. You just need to repeat it many more times than seems reasonable to you in your untrained state.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#150
post #146
post #30

> A secret military technique that is said to help anyone fall asleep in just two minutes has recently been revealed. and > The secret is detailed in the book Relax and Win: Championship Performance, which although first published in 1981 I guess 37 years is "just" for the author.

I think you mean "recently". It didn't take 37 years to fall asleep!

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