I have a trick that’s practically guaranteed to get you to sleep within ten minutes — which is especially helpful if you suffer from anxiety like I do.
Here it is: Imagine the day you just had. But don’t just mull over your day — imagine it in real-time. For example, see yourself getting up and splashing water on your face. Imagine how you went downstairs, and every step of preparing a pot of coffee. Then imagine yourself putting in the milk, stirring the coffee, and drinking it. Don’t rush…imagine every aspect as if you were really there right now. How does the water feel? How does the coffee smell?
In most cases, you’ll be asleep before you even get to drinking the coffee. Forcing yourself to imagine each minute of your day keeps distracting thoughts — oh, no, I forgot to pay that bill! — from creeping in, and calms your mind.
I wish I could remember where I read this so I could give credit. But I use it whenever I have trouble falling asleep, and it usually works great. Try it and let me know how it went!
I’ll be trying this tonight! I don’t think I’ve ever fallen asleep in under 10 minutes in my life…
By the time you get to the part where you dominate your readers, you’ll be fast asleep!
Thanks for the tip, Linda! I’m trying to kick my chronic insomnia and I’ve tried a lot of different things, but this sounds like a great strategy for me. I’ll let you know if it works! *fingers crossed*
Yes, please come back and let us know how it worked!
Thanks for this! About to try it. Goodnight.
Let me know how it goes!
I cannot sleep this days at all, even after 5-6 hours I see that I am awake. Any suggestions??
I have never. EVER. Fallen asleep in under 10 mins…am trying it now
I got insomnia for 3 years and now I could sleep under 10 mins every day. Here what I did:
- Change my attitude, well-behave to animals and other people. Note that the frustration, envy,…etc will lead to anxiety and thoughts when you lay in bed. A calm, mindfulness, loving attitude is the key but not overindulgent , just try to be harmless to society.
- Read books or Internet until you feel very tired. That ‘s the key . I found out that if I tried to sleep to early, I hardly fell asleep. If you try to sleep early , that means you get anxiety and that ‘s not good. I used to sleep at 2am.
- try some breathing meditations (such as slow down or hold your breaths and count your breaths, or tongue touching upper teeth…etc) to slow your brain waves to alpha state. I followed the breathing exercises according to Dr.Weil cassette. (I bought it for $5 or sth , but it ‘s greatly help). I used to do this exer around 6pm, but it helps with my sleep at late night.
- When I went to bed, instead of thinking about girls and stuff like before, I just tried to recite what I had learned (school stuff) during the day or previous days (recite in head , imagine the locations and contents of what I read but not have the kind of inner voice reciting). This may be similar to the one-point object mediation in Yoga but I think it ‘s better because focusing on one obj in meditation is so boring and did no help to society.
This helps me to sleep easily since I just try to recite and not worry about whether I could sleep tonight or not, so I wouldn’t feel frustration if I couldn’t sleep. That’s the key since last time I got insomnia coz I worry too much about the outcome.
In short, the key factors are: love, calm, positive, work hard, try to stay up late instead of trying to sleep, breathing focus.
PS: When you want something so much you could never get it (because of anxiety), but if you just trying to do your routine with a beautiful mind then you might obtain it on the way.
Thank you for your thoughtful tips!
Thanks! I’ll try it tonight, it usually takes me 2-5 hours to get to sleep