{"id":1400040,"date":"2022-03-25T08:44:52","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T12:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1400040"},"modified":"2022-03-25T08:44:56","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T12:44:56","slug":"train-yourself-to-fall-asleep-in-just-two-minutes-using-this-technique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/train-yourself-to-fall-asleep-in-just-two-minutes-using-this-technique\/","title":{"rendered":"Train Yourself to Fall Asleep in Just Two Minutes Using This Technique"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftrain-yourself-to-fall-asleep-in-just-two-minutes-using-this-technique%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1400040&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/health\/need-more-zzz-s-try-7-day-sleep-plan-t211148\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Falling asleep\" class=\"link\">Falling asleep<\/a> is a pain point for many of us. Tossing and turning \u2014and spending the next day feeling like a walking zombie \u2014 is something we all dread. That\u2019s likely why a technique that promises to help you fall asleep in two minutes flat has gone viral.<\/p>\n<p>The technique was originally described in the book \u201cRelax and Win: Championship Performance\u201d by Lloyd Bud Winter, first published in 1981. But it recently came back into the limelight thanks to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@justin_agustin\/video\/7054744760099130629\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:viral TikTok video from Justin Agustin\" class=\"link\">viral TikTok video from Justin Agustin<\/a>, a fitness coach with over 1.7 million TikTok followers. His video, which walks you through how to perform the technique, has racked up over 10 million views since it was posted in January.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the military sleep method?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>In the video, Agustin says the trick was developed in the military, as a way for soldiers to fall asleep anywhere, anytime. The tactic allows you \u201cto calm your body and systematically relax and shut down each part of your body from head to toe, literally,\u201d he said, by following these steps:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"caas-list\">\n<li>\n<p><strong>Relax:<\/strong> Augustin demonstrates relaxing every muscle in the body, starting with the forehead and working your way down to your toes. \u201cStart by relaxing the muscles in your forehead. Relax your eyes, your cheeks, your jaws and focus on your breathing. Now, go down to your neck and your shoulders,\u201d he added. \u201cMake sure your shoulders are not tensed up. Drop them as low as you can and keep your arms loose to your sides, including your hands and fingers.\u201d Then, he instructs us to imagine a warm sensation going from the top of your head to your fingertips. Begin taking deep breaths, relaxing the muscles from your chest down to your feet, and then reimagine that warm sensation, but this time going from your heart all the way down to your toes.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Breathe:<\/strong> Make sure your shoulders and hands stay relaxed and take deep breaths, exhaling slowly.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Clear your mind:<\/strong> \u201cNow while you\u2019re doing this, it\u2019s really important to clear your mind of any stresses,\u201d added Agustin, encouraging you to think of two scenarios: lying in a canoe surrounded by only clear lake water or lying in a black velvet hammock in a pitch black room. \u201cAt any time when you start thinking of anything else or you start getting distracted, repeat these words for 10 seconds: \u2018Don\u2019t think. Don\u2019t think. Don\u2019t think,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If done right, this technique can help you fall asleep faster \u2014 but you have to practice. According to Agustino, if you practice this every night for six weeks, you should be able to fall asleep within two minutes of closing your eyes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/health\/mind-body\/sleep-important-want-lose-weight-rcna19186\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Can the way you sleep affect your eating habits? A nutritionist weighs in\" class=\"link\"><strong>Can the way you sleep affect your eating habits? A nutritionist weighs in<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Can you really train yourself to fall asleep?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This technique may sound too good to be true. But according to Dr. Sanjiv Kothare, sleep specialist and head of pediatric neurology at Cohen Children\u2019s Medical Center in New York, it is possible to train yourself to fall asleep faster using this technique.<\/p>\n<p>Training your brain to fall asleep faster is \u201ccognitive behavioral therapy and what\u2019s being shown in that video is exactly what I do with my patients,\u201d Kothare told TODAY. He said there are two important principles to keep in mind when training your brain to fall asleep.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"caas-list caas-list-bullet\">\n<li>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t try to fall asleep when you\u2019re not tired.<\/strong> Make you are \u201cphysically tired or feeling sleepy,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, this doesn\u2019t apply to armed forces trying to sleep at times under stress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Practice sleep restriction<\/strong>. \u201cIn a conventional patient with insomnia, we say don\u2019t go into bed early and go to bed only for falling asleep,\u201d said Kothare. \u201cDon\u2019t do other activities like reading a book or watching TV, those things are sleep associations and not good. The bed should be associated only with sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cOnce you\u2019re ready to fall asleep, dim the lights so that melatonin starts surging, close your eyes, breathe with your mouth, focus on your abdomen and do exactly what is shown in that video, which is relax your entire body, get some pleasant thoughts in your mind, imagine darkness,\u201d said Kothare. He also agrees that for the racing mind, repeating \u2018don\u2019t think, don\u2019t think\u2019 is a way to replace or quiet competing thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEventually you learn to welcome that and hopefully fall asleep,\u201d said Kothare. \u201cIt\u2019s a programmed way of thinking. You need to program your brain to relax and over a period of time, it will learn to relax.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And you may start to see the effects even sooner than six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSix weeks may be generous \u2026 I think within two weeks you\u2019ll start seeing the effect,\u201d said Kothare. \u201cBut the most important thing is motivation; you want to be motivated to fall asleep. If you do it without motivation, it\u2019s not going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Other tips to help you fall asleep <\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The best technique to fall asleep is to \u201cgo to bed only when tired and do it at a consistent basis every night &#8230; and no nap during the daytime,\u201d said Kothare. Some other factors that he suggested people consider to help them doze off more easily:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"caas-list caas-list-bullet\">\n<li>\n<p><strong>Check your sleep environment.<\/strong> \u201cTry to maintain a dark environment,\u201d said Kothare. \u201cNot too hot; it should be cool and noise-free as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Rule out medical conditions. \u201c<\/strong>Medical conditions need to be ruled out before you treat the primary insomnia,\u201d said Kothare. \u201cMedical disorders like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/health\/high-functioning-anxiety-8-tips-dial-down-stress-today-t236521\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:anxiety\" class=\"link\">anxiety<\/a> or depression need to be addressed; if you snore you need to consider obstructed sleep apnea; if you have restless leg syndrome sensations in your legs may make it difficult to fall asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Consider melatonin.<\/strong> He also recommends <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/health\/sleep\/melatonin-sleep-side-effects-rcna18300\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:one milligram of melatonin\" class=\"link\">one milligram of melatonin<\/a> \u2014 \u201cthe hormone of the dark\u201d \u2014 along with this cognitive therapy, within one hour of sleep. \u201cA milligram of melatonin will probably help with the cognitive behavioral therapy initially. Later on, you can stop once your brain is programmed,\u201d said Kothare. \u201cPeople think they need 10, 20 milligrams, you don\u2019t need it. One milligram of melatonin one hour before sleep onset is as good as 10 milligrams. And then do exactly what is shown in that TikTok video and you\u2019re good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What to do if you can&#8217;t sleep<\/h2>\n<p>Having tools to encourage sleep is great, but Kothare encouraged people to not let them create too much pressure or anxiety around the ritual of sleeping, which he days, is a very common issue that people run into.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s say that you need to wake up at 5 a.m. and do something really important like, for example, catch a flight and then give a big talk. You will think, \u2018OK I need seven hours of sleep, which means I should be asleep by at least 10 o\u2019clock, so let me wind down by 9 o\u2019clock and try to fall asleep.\u2019 Well, if you don\u2019t fall asleep in an hour you look at the clock and think, \u2018one hour is gone, I will now only get six hours.\u2019 You again try to fall asleep, one more hour is gone and so your anxiety (increases). Or you do sleep, and you wake up at 3 a.m. and think, \u2018I only have two more hours of sleep.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve all experienced this anxious spiral at some point. To avoid it, Kothare recommends being timeless. \u201cPut an alarm on your phone and turn it around so that you don\u2019t assess time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He also encourages people to not lie in bed for hours trying to force sleep. \u201cLet\u2019s say you go to bed at 10 o\u2019clock and you do all this cognitive therapy and you don\u2019t manage to fall sleep in 20 minutes,\u201d Kothare said. \u201cGet out of bed, go to a different area, read a book in dim light \u2014 do something boring, come back to bed. In 20 minutes, do it again and keep doing it back and forth until you fall asleep.\u201d But stay away from the electronics: \u201cdon\u2019t do anything stimulating, don\u2019t go in front of the TV, because the bright light tells your brain to stay awake and suppresses melatonin,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Shifting your perspective on sleep \u2014 or lack thereof \u2014 can also help. \u201cTrain your brain and say, even if I don\u2019t fall asleep, I\u2019ll be OK the next day. I won\u2019t die,&#8221; said Kothare.&#8221;Slowly your brain will relax and you will be able to fall asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Falling asleep is a pain point for many of us. Tossing and turning \u2014and spending the next day feeling like a walking zombie \u2014 is something we all dread. That\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":505,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1400040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}