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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

#181

Post by LeifCarrotson »

dataflow wrote: post #147
nstricevic wrote: post #136

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 still helpful to know that this is the "right way" to do it. For years, my wife struggled with falling asleep, and was jealous of my ability to just stop thinking and log out.

She told me that she wasn't able to just stop thinking. She went to sleep by distracting herself with a book, TV, or tablet. Her approach was to do that restful activity until the intense thoughts of the past day and plans for tomorrow dropped off and were replaced with sudoku numbers or the TV program that were calm enough to sleep, or did those things from midnight until 3-5am when she was so exhausted she couldn't think about anything anymore and just slept for a couple hours.

The insomnia got really bad after our first kid. She tried changing diets, cutting out blue lights with tablet apps or bulbs for reading that were so warm they were basically orange-red, changing her soda habit to eliminate caffeine after noon and food after 6pm, changed mattresses and pillows, changed bedroom temperatures, blankets, and sleepwear, took melatonin, benadryl, and other sleep aids, ran white noise and fans...it didn't work.

But eventually (after seeing a doctor) the root cause was isolated to that reading/TV/tablet habit. It doesn't help. What you have to do to fall asleep per this article, the parent comment, and my wife's doctor, is to stop thinking. Meditative breathing exercises were eventually the solution we reached, but it all basically amounts to training your brain to stop thinking thoughts that aren't about your going-to-sleep process. The process, not the annoyance of your inability to sleep and the tiredness you'll feel in the morning and how long has it been and what is that clicking sound and did I forget to lock the doors and I feel a little thirsty but I don't want to have to pee. Kill the errant thoughts, go to sleep.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#182

Post by brennebeck »

armandososa wrote: post #171
dataflow wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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". :-)

Here's a technique that works for me: So, when I close my eyes I can "see" things. I don't know if it's light coming trough my lids or blood vessels or just my mind's eye. I don't know. But what I'll do as a last resource when I have trouble sleeping is to pay full attention to those things and find patterns in them. I even say out loud in my mind like: "oh there's a dog", "a canoe", "a cigarrette". Then I'm dreaming…

I see something as well. I’ll definitely give this a try, thanks.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#183

Post by 24gttghh »

nstricevic wrote: post #136

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.

I prefer the "Mindfulness" method of this technique. It does not involve "killing" the thoughts that pop into your head, but rather acknowledging that these thoughts have distracted you from your breathing, being okay with that, and simply returning to the breath. The distracting thoughts will come back, and that is okay. Just return to recognizing the different parts of your breathing: the points between inhaling and exhaling, the feeling of your abdomen rising/falling.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#184

Post by smittywerben »

mirimir wrote: 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…

> I can say from personal experience that modafinil doesn't prevent sleep.

These effects on sleep are highly dependent on genetics. They couldn't test this stuff much longer than a decade ago.

The difference is large enough that it could potentially improve certain stages of sleep in some individuals. Contrast to caffiene which is detrimental to sleep quality across the board.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#186

Post by claytoneast »

I purchased this book a few months ago after reading about it elsewhere. The book is not worth purchase, the article contains everything you need. The book has a lot of anecdotal tales of athletic relaxation leading to victory (though given the author was one of the greatest coaches of all time, his anecdotes have weight). It has absolutely improved my sleep, and I've been insomniac since a car wreck 11 years ago. You have to do the work though. You can't try it once and claim that "It doesn't work for me." It is a skill for those that don't have it naturally, and thus you have to practice. Thr original cohort of aviators that learned this method in ww2 practiced at least twice a day for 6 weeks straight. If you don't have 42 days straight of doing it, don't complain that it won't work for you.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#189

Post by madeuptempacct »

claytoneast wrote: post #186

I purchased this book a few months ago after reading about it elsewhere. The book is not worth purchase, the article contains everything you need. The book has a lot of anecdotal tales of athletic relaxation leading to victory (though given the author was one of the greatest coaches of all time, his anecdotes have weight). It has absolutely improved my sleep, and I've been insomniac since a car wreck 11 years ago. Yo…

Same exact experience - the book has only one related chapter, and that's paraphrased in the "Art of Manliness" blog. My concern is that I found NO evidence that this program ever took place. I dunno about the technique working.

Re: A military technique for falling asleep in two minutes

#190

Post by AlwaysRock »

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…

Yes. This has been my long time go to method. I think of something spectacular. I'm a caveman and need to find meat in order for my family to survive. I'm a part of a space voyage 1000 year into the future. I'm a billionaire with no responsibilities. It allows my mind to wander and go into a world that similar to dreaming. It helps my racing mind quite a bit at night.
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