How to fall asleep quickly - exercises, techniques and medical advice

Many are familiar with the unpleasant situation when they cannot fall asleep at night - 30 minutes of tossing and turning in bed do not lead to the desired result, and in the morning there is only a feeling of weakness and lethargy. Special techniques and exercises that are effective for falling asleep can help with the problem. Learning the correct breathing technique, finding the most comfortable body position, and sometimes using additional stimulation to relax the brain in the form of auto-training: all this will allow you to fall asleep in just one to five minutes and provide a sound and healthy sleep.

How to prepare for sleep

Proper preparation for sleep, consisting of a number of simple rules, determines half the success in the process of fast falling asleep.

• With the exception of healthy snacks, the last, hearty meal is important 3 hours before bedtime.
• A day full of physical activity or just spent in active mode will provide a good sleep. Even a short walk at night will help to properly prepare the body for the upcoming relaxation.
• It is important to ventilate the bedroom on the eve or even leave the window slightly ajar at night, as fresh air most favorably affects the quality of sleep and the speed of falling asleep.
• The atmosphere of twilight will help to adjust the body to the upcoming dream, while bright light, on the contrary, will “deceive” the brain, giving the impression that the time for a night's rest has not yet arrived. So, the muffled glow of a desk lamp or the bluish light of a night lamp will help you fall asleep soon.
• If the room has an electronic alarm clock or watch with a display that emits light, it is worth reducing the brightness.
• Pillows should be whipped before bedtime. Sometimes a roller placed between the knees helps to fall asleep quickly. It is also worth changing bed sheets as often as possible in order to go to bed in freshness and cleanliness.
• It is important to choose the most comfortable posture for sleeping - body positions on the back or side are the most ideal options so that the spine can relax as much as possible, and the airways are not compressed.
• Residents of large cities are often disturbed by extraneous sounds coming from the street. Therefore, the installation of a generator that creates white noise in the room helps a lot - it can be a splash of the sea wave or birdsong, cicadas chirps or whale songs.
• You can enable recording with classical music. It is important to listen to audio exclusively through the speakers. Since falling asleep in the headphones, there is a risk of getting entangled in the wires at night, and thereby disturb a fragile dream.
• When nothing helps at all, you can go the other way - get out of bed and engage in some relaxing activities, for example, reading a book.

Following the general guidelines will help put your sleep cycle in order, ensuring you fall asleep quickly every day. However, in some cases, the classic rules of competent preparation for night relaxation are not effective enough for people with severe symptoms of insomnia. But even for such a problem, you can find the right solution by trying one of the relaxation techniques.

Effective Relaxation Techniques

1. Slow counting, combined with deep and equally slow breaths, will help to relax the brain, preparing the body for sleep.The first breath is carried out after the count approaches the number four, then the breath is held for several seconds, then a quiet exhalation is performed along with the count to eight. It is important to focus only on your own breathing and counting - so the heartbeat will slow down, and unnecessary thoughts will leave your head.
2. Mentally presenting a relaxing landscape panorama, one can practically enter into a meditative state, as the pictures of nature visualized in calm and pleasant images contribute to mental and bodily relaxation.
3. Progressive muscle relaxation also helps to fall asleep quickly. This technique involves a series of sequential actions - deep breathing, followed by tension in one muscle group. It is important to feel this growing tension with each cell of the body, and then relax the muscles as much as possible and imagine how this “tension” smoothly leaves the body.
4. Reception before going to bed a hot bath or shower warms up and relaxes the body. Contrast temperatures - hot water and cool air in the room, will favorably affect the speed of falling asleep.
5. Management personal diary can be a specific nightly ritual that helps you fall asleep. Often, obsessive thoughts and pondering of situations that occurred during the day interfere with relaxation. Therefore, it is worth “throwing” them out of your head onto the paper, thereby getting rid of stress provoking insomnia.

What can I eat at night?

A number of well-known "unwritten" rules say that before going to bed, it is better not to eat anything and go to bed with an empty stomach. The maximum that can satisfy the feeling of hunger is a glass of water. However, such judgments turn out to be fundamentally wrong, since there are many useful products that will not only help to fall asleep, but will also help to improve well-being, properly relax the nervous system and not harm the figure.

The impact of lifestyle on sleep quality

The speed of falling asleep determines the adherence to a constant regimen, so it is so important to get into bed at night and get out of bed in the morning at the same hours daily. Having developed such a habit, the body will already understand when to give a signal of fatigue for the upcoming vacation. Wake up on time will always help setting the alarm, even on a day off.

So that the process of falling asleep does not bring discomfort, you will have to change the attitude towards your own bedroom. You should not spend too much time there during the day - do business or just “sit out” the clock. The bedroom should be associated exclusively with night relaxation. Regular maintenance of cleanliness and a neat appearance of the room also contributes to the creation of conditions for quick falling asleep.

One of the reasons for the difficulty of falling asleep is the overuse of modern technology. Electronic gadgets completely bring down the sleep cycle, because many people like to lie in bed at night with a mobile phone, looking at news feeds of social networks. It is strongly recommended that all devices be turned off an hour before going to bed.

A feeling of heaviness in the stomach due to an overloaded digestive system after a hearty dinner also causes insomnia. It is worth giving up heavy food a few hours before preparing for bed.

Dynamic workout training should also be rescheduled for the morning. Sports activity leads to an increase in body temperature, acceleration of the heart rhythm and stimulates the chemical processes in the brain that make it difficult to fall asleep.

Many people prefer to sit on the couch during the day to take a nap. This habit adversely affects the quality of night sleep. It is worth overcoming yourself and abandoning the "quiet hour" so that at night there are no problems with falling asleep.

Taking certain medications can also cause insomnia, so you should always consult a doctor.

What to do if you can’t sleep and thoughts interfere

The most common cause of problems falling asleep is when a person speaks an internal monologue. Obsessive thoughts that require rethinking arise against the background of emotional experiences associated with past events or from anxiety about upcoming affairs. The following techniques will help distract from such discussions and “digging oneself”.

1. Ball against the lambs. Everyone is accustomed to counting sheep before going to bed, but the visualized image of the ball turns out to be a much more effective means. The ball seems to sway smoothly. In this case, the object propagates a wave around itself.
2. Mental game with a mouse. You can imagine in front of you any object that will move away and approach, as if it is rotated using the wheel of a computer mouse. Such a mental focus on action will help to distract from restless thoughts.
3. To do as a scout. It is necessary to take a supine position, stretch and relax.Then roll your eyes (the eyelids should be closed), but do not overdo it with stress. So the eyeballs will be in their natural “place” when the deep sleep phase begins.
4. 4 - 7 - 8. The technique is based on proper breathing: you need to inhale your nose for four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds, and then calmly exhale with your mouth for eight seconds. Such breathing will reduce adrenaline and slow down the pulse.
5. Training for dynamic balance. It is necessary to take a comfortable position on your back, stretch and begin to mentally spread heat waves and a feeling of heaviness throughout all parts of the body. It is important to experience in detail how the sensation spreads throughout the body, affecting the tips of the fingers, the crown of the head, chin and even ears.
6. Journey to the past. Having discarded all emotional assessments, scroll through the events of the past day in your head. Watch everything that happens from the side, as if in a movie.
7. Dream restoration. You can recall the most pleasant dream that I have ever seen. If it’s hard to remember, come up with your own “memory”, paying attention to the sensations when building a picture where everything is utopian perfect.
8. Reverse blinking. Close your eyes, open them for a moment and close again. Repeat the exercise after 10 seconds. Such a “blinking on the contrary” will help to relax and cause a drowsy state.
9. Alphabetical words. An interesting and relaxing occupation before bedtime is inventing for each letter of the alphabet a word consisting first of three letters, then four, and so on. No need to try to ponder the words - just read them as they came to mind. Monotonous work simply “disconnects” a tired brain.
10. The music of silence. Learn to listen to silence, this is the key to a quick onset of sleep. It is important to be distracted from extraneous noise from the window, and listen to it in silence.
11. Hypnosis on oneself. In the most relaxed position and with calm breathing, mentally repeat the settings according to the type: “My body is becoming more light and relaxed”, “I will fall asleep sweetly as soon as I count from one hundred to zero,” and then start this countdown of my own exhalations.

Breathing exercises - exercises that will help you fall asleep in 1 minute

Asleep in just one minute is not only possible, but also a fairly simple task. Using special breathing techniques, you can achieve excellent success in the practice of fast falling asleep in just sixty seconds.

How to help your child fall asleep quickly

Healthy and high-quality children's sleep is an important component of the growth and development of the child. As a rule, for young children, the optimal time for rest is considered to be 12-14 hours a day. For older age - 10-11. The causes that cause sleep disturbance can be hidden in illness, malnutrition, or psychological factors. Use the following tips to help your baby fall asleep.

1. Turn on a relaxing melody or play a lullaby for your child. The voice of parents is the most pleasant sound that provides peace, protection and safety.
2. Sometimes a child cannot fall asleep due to fear that his parents will not be around when he wakes up. Promise during laying that you will be near at the moment of its awakening. And be sure to keep your word. Repeat this procedure periodically, increasing the terms of "promises." So the child will be able to gradually get used to falling asleep and waking up without parents.
3. Reading good, children's books at night is an effective family tradition that can work a miracle and quickly put an anxious baby to sleep.
4. Warmed milk is a classic way to fall asleep quickly. Dairy products contain L-tryptophan, which is responsible for the activity of serotonin and melatonin in the brain. The psychological aspect also works here, because it was mother's milk that helped create a cozy warmth along with a sleepy, pleasant feeling in infancy.
5. Convenience and comfort in the nursery plays an important role for the quality sleep of the child. It is important to monitor the temperature in the nursery, air humidity, lighting and comfortable bedding, pajamas.
6. The game technique of counting five things is that a child can see, hear and feel. This will help the baby brain to relax and immerse in a sweet dream.
7. A too busy schedule of the daily routine can affect children's sleep, so it’s useful to “slow down” extracurricular activities to avoid nighttime disturbances.
8. It is important for a child to feel not alone during a night's sleep, so many children like to fall asleep with their favorite toys. Do not rid them of this habit, but, on the contrary, make sure that the faithful “friend” is always there.

How to recognize insomnia - symptoms and signs

A worldwide problem is the violation of a healthy regime of day and night. The concept of insomnia implies not only the absence of a prolonged sleep, but also the presence of difficulties with the very process of falling asleep, which provokes poor health in the morning. To restore the supply of energy, an average person needs an average of 5-6 hours of night rest. With excellent health indicators, no more than 10 minutes are spent on falling asleep, and the sleep itself proceeds without awakening with a feeling of cheerfulness in the morning. A completely different picture emerges in people suffering from insomnia. You can cope with such an unpleasant phenomenon yourself with the help of special exercises, various techniques or folk remedies. However, before taking any action, it is important to determine the cause of the problem.

• Conditions in which a person feels uncomfortable - noises, bright light, stuffiness or cold, odors, uncomfortable mattress or bedding.
• Eating food that causes excitability of the nervous system.
• Change of lifestyle, bringing into the usual rhythm of short-term changes - travel, business trips, sleeping outside the house, changing places.
• The presence of stressful situations in life, obsession with anxious thoughts and feelings, a tendency to excessive emotionality.
• Diseases and changes in the hormonal background of the body, taking medications, in the list of side effects of which there is a risk of disturbing the normal sleep regimen.

How to treat insomnia safely with traditional methods

Traditional medicine offers many recipes that will not only help you quickly fall asleep, but permanently get rid of insomnia. And the first thing to do is to reconsider lifestyle and nutrition. Be sure to enter into the daily menu the use of products that contain melatonin - a real natural “sleepiness hormone”, and L-tryptophan: turkey meat, pumpkin seeds, seafood, milk, nuts and eggs. It is also worth consuming cabbage, vegetables and bananas rich in magnesium.

Performing special rituals before going to bed at home will help to establish a healthy sleep: warm relaxing baths, meditation, creating comfort in the bedroom.

A great way would be to prepare herbal infusions of sedative action. They can be used as bath additives or used as aromatic oils.

In cases where all the techniques and folk remedies are powerless before insomnia, you must consult an experienced doctor.