211–220 of 238 posts
https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/fall-asleep-fast/
For me, none of the imagination techniques work, but mindfulness meditation - simply focusing on my breathing - does the trick.
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I have heard about that method, too. If I remember it correctly then that exercise can be used to both calm you down and energize you. It all depends on the direction, if you breath in with your left or your right hole. Unfortunately I don't remember which direction is aligned with the calming effect. This can be an advantage: on different days, try out either way and observe what happens. If this method is more than…
That seems quite at odds with how nostrils work. Your nostrils alternate opening and closing autonomically. http://mentalfloss.com/article/30363/why-does-your-nose-get-... " Throughout the day, they each take breaks in a process of alternating congestion and decongestion called the nasal cycle. At a given moment, if you're breathing through your nose, the lion’s share of the air is going in and out of one nostril, wi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have heard about that method, too. If I remember it correctly then that exercise can be used to both calm you down and energize you. It all depends on the direction, if you breath in with your left or your right hole. Unfortunately I don't remember which direction is aligned with the calming effect. This can be an advantage: on different days, try out either way and observe what happens. If this method is more than…
Given that there's no real physical notion of "alignment" at work here, this does seem to sound suspiciously like some pseudo-spiritual entertainment.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I just do abstract absurdism, like: what if a space ship was propelled by teddy bears? Bright lances of ionized teddy bears cleaving the sky in twain from distant torchships pulling out of parking orbit. Power armor visor stress test. Hammer. .50 cal. RPG. Someone just spilled neutronium. It eats through to the Earth's core. An algorithm iterates over all the atoms in the Universe, replacing every other with its anti…
I sometimes speculate that your brain comes up with absure ideas all the time, and a "reality checker" would dismiss those ideas without you realising it when you're awake? Perhaps the absurd thoughts come out only when you're tired (checker running low energy) or falling asleep? May be some types of psychological dieases are due to this checker not working properly?
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…
Relax the muscles in your face, including tongue, jaw and the muscles around the eyes
Drop your shoulders as far down as they’ll go, followed by your upper and lower arm, one side at a time
Breathe out, relaxing your chest followed by your legs, starting from the thighs and working down
You should then spend 10 seconds trying to clear your mind before thinking about one of the three following images:
* You’re lying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but a clear blue sky above you
* You’re lying in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room
* You say “don’t think, don’t think, don’t think” to yourself over and over for about 10 seconds.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just do abstract absurdism, like: what if a space ship was propelled by teddy bears? Bright lances of ionized teddy bears cleaving the sky in twain from distant torchships pulling out of parking orbit. Power armor visor stress test. Hammer. .50 cal. RPG. Someone just spilled neutronium. It eats through to the Earth's core. An algorithm iterates over all the atoms in the Universe, replacing every other with its anti…
As my mind falls between asleep and awake my brain would start coming up with absurd thoughts as well. This would also happens when I'm too tired (think you haven't sleep for 24+ hours). I sometimes speculate that your brain comes up with absure ideas all the time, and a "reality checker" would dismiss those ideas without you realising it when you're awake? Perhaps the absurd thoughts come out only when you're tired…
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 introsp…
I have to hold myself as perfectly still as possible, not scratching any itches that might come up, or letting anything else cause me to move a muscle. Or, if I do have to move, get it over quickly and then go back to being still.
After a long enough time, I can sometimes notice that I have lost awareness of where certain parts of my body are located. I know that I still have an arm, but it’s not tingling or anything and I don’t have a somatic sense of where it is. Same for other parts of my body. Sometimes I have this awareness multiple times in a night, and it’s like someone is slowly dimming the lights on all those circuits until they finally extinguish, one by one.
By the time I was in high school, I discovered Dungeons & Dragons, and it was easier for me to fall asleep by imagining what my favorite characters would do in various scenarios. And over thirty years later, I continue to use that same basic concept — different RPG characters now, but the same concept.
One of the best things I discovered recently is the “Stillness Moves You” class that my friend Ariana Armistead taught a few years ago. She later developed that into the “InStill Movement” method (see http://instillmovement.com). It is simultaneously the most relaxing AND the most energizing thing I have ever done in my life.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I just do abstract absurdism, like: what if a space ship was propelled by teddy bears? Bright lances of ionized teddy bears cleaving the sky in twain from distant torchships pulling out of parking orbit. Power armor visor stress test. Hammer. .50 cal. RPG. Someone just spilled neutronium. It eats through to the Earth's core. An algorithm iterates over all the atoms in the Universe, replacing every other with its anti…