How To Fall Asleep Quickly

Sleep is both a necessity and a kind of cheat code. The mental and physical benefits that accompany a good amount of good quality sleep are numerous. With so much research and knowledge about the benefits of sleep, its importance should not be understated.

Despite being both incredibly necessary and useful, many people struggle with it. Some people struggle to fall asleep, stay asleep or both.

Some people lack good quality sleep and other people lack a good quantity of sleep. Both are important even though some of us are guilty of giving preference to quantity over quality or vice versa.

While sleep is a complex topic with a lot to talk about, one of the most important first steps is falling asleep. You can be in the comfiest bed, in the comfiest room, with nothing on your mind but if you generally struggle to fall asleep it probably won’t do you any good.

Falling asleep is where sleep starts so being able to do it is crucial.

If you struggle to fall asleep, read on to learn some techniques that may help you.

Possible reasons why you struggle to fall asleep

There are many potential reasons why falling asleep may be a challenge.

Here are some possible reasons why you may struggle to fall asleep:

-overthinking

-hyperactivity

-mental health issues like stress, anxiety, trauma or depression

-inconsistency with your sleep schedule

-not doing much in your day (this could leave you with excess energy)

-caffeine

-napping

-looking at screens for too long

-a medical condition

While this list is in no way comprehensive (there’s many reasons why someone may struggle to sleep), it does capture some of the more frequently occurring reasons.

If you consistently struggle to fall asleep and changes to your lifestyle don’t help, consult with a doctor. Your inability to fall asleep could be the result of a medical condition that needs to be addressed.

Ways to fall asleep more quickly

If your inability to sleep is lifestyle related, making changes to your habits or routine can help fix the problem.

Here are some ways to fall asleep more quickly.

1. Don’t think of anything

One of the biggest reasons why people fail to fall asleep is they stay up ruminating. They lay in bed just thinking about a topic or topics that occupies their mind.

It can be even worse when the topic is stressful or when you jump from one topic to another rapidly. When uncontrolled thoughts are permitted to run wild in your mind they can deprive you of sleep.

It’s very important to keep thoughts under control when it comes time to sleep. When you’re lying in bed, any stresses you might be dealing with should be left out of mind.

I know if you’re going through a difficult situation and you need to address it, getting it off your mind might feel like an arduous task. But you have to keep in mind that stressing about it will probably do little to help, and this is especially true for stressing about it at night.

If losing a few minutes of sleep would solve the problem then by all means think about it. Otherwise, ask yourself if your excessive thinking actually helps.

Not only that, but sleeping is helpful for dealing with life’s problems. Losing sleep is probably not going to help and if anything it’ll likely make things worse. You may just compromise your ability to deal with the problem.

When it comes time to sleep, think of nothing. Empty your mind. If a thought enters your head, calmly let it go and go back to thinking of nothing.

2. Focus on the dark when you close your eyes

You know the darkness that people see when they close their eyes? Focus on that. Really.

Close your eyes and just peacefully watch the dark that the eyelids cause. Focusing on this is a way to focus on nothing.

It’s like watching paint dry. It’s boring, uneventful and can help you fall asleep. It’s one of those weird strategies that work very well.

3. Count backwards from 100

Boring! But here boring things are good because they can help with making you fall asleep. If you’re excited and hyperactive, falling asleep can be challenging.

If you do something boring (like focusing on your eyelids or counting backwards from 100) you can help yourself slow down. Slowing your thoughts, relaxing and boring yourself helps ease your mind.

Count backwards from 100 slowly. This isn’t a math competition so don’t worry about speed (or really accuracy). Counting faster could just end up getting you hyped up. The point is just to bore yourself and slow down your thoughts.

If your mind gets tired stop and try just falling asleep.

4. Gently massage your head

Tension in your muscles in general but your head and face in specific can keep you up. Tensing facial muscles can cause stress and stress can cause facial muscles to tense.

Even when it doesn’t cause stress, it can still be bothersome and could even be (literally and metaphorically) a headache.

One good way to ease yourself into sleep and alleviate some of this tension is to gently massage your head. Key word here being gentle.

Using the tips of your fingers, gently massage in between the eyebrows, above the eyebrows, the middle of the head and the temples.

Fair warning! If you’re prone to acne or have oily skin, you may want to wash your hands first or use a good quality tissue on your fingers to prevent direct skin to skin contact. Touching your face with bare hands may cause acne.

5. Relax your muscles

Muscle tension can make falling asleep challenging. One good way to relax your body and even your mind is by relaxing your muscles.

While lying down flat, pay attention to any muscles that may be tensed and relax them one by one.

Alternatively, you can also try progressive muscle relaxation, which is a way to relax your muscles by following a certain process.

For progressive muscle relaxation, start off by relaxing all of your muscles. Then gently tense one muscle group and relax it. Move through your body from one muscle group to another. For example, start with your toes, then calves, then thighs, hands, arms, etc.

It’s important to remember that you don’t have to strain yourself here. When you tense your muscles, a gentle squeezing is fine. Then relax them.

6. Journal before sleeping

Before you go to sleep, you may have a lot on your mind. Things that may worry you or keep you thinking can cause you to stay up at night.

Something that can help relieve worrying and overthinking is getting your thoughts out before you sleep. This way you have a chance to acknowledge and process them (even if only a little bit) before it’s time to sleep.

It’s a way to get things off of your chest so they don’t bother you – or at least so they don’t bother you as much.

Dedicate a few minutes before your bedtime to do some relieving journaling. Envision your thoughts and worries being dumped onto the paper. Write about anything you want. Then try to leave the worry, anger, or whatever else behind you and go to sleep.

7. Get up if you can’t sleep

It’s important to associate the time, place and feeling of sleeping with sleep. I.e. if you’re lying down in bed at 11, in a comfy position, and you should be falling asleep, do so.

If you’ve been trying for a while and just can’t seem to get to sleep, get up for a little bit. This doesn’t mean giving up on sleeping, just that you should change things up for a few minutes. Walk it off and get back to trying again.

You don’t have to get yourself pumped for a marathon. Just calmly get up to refresh yourself and get back in bed to retry.

8. Avoid screens

Phone, computer, TV, or whatever else – 2 hours before bedtime you should avoid these unless there is an emergency. All screens are equally important to avoid but phones should be given special attention.

Scrolling on phones before sleeping is a common practice. Not only that but they’re accessible, meaning it’s easier to use them in bed compared to a TV (for example).

If you absolutely must use a screen before sleeping for something genuinely important, consider using a night light or any feature that dims the screen and uses warmer colors. This helps decrease the intensity of the light that can contribute to wakefulness.

9. Have a sleep-friendly environment

I hate sleeping on wrinkled sheets. But it’s not just that. Many mild inconveniences can ruin a good night’s sleep. The environment you sleep in can be impacting your ability to sleep.

Now, some people (and this may include you) can sleep regardless of what goes on around them. Other people may be more sensitive to their environment.

Having a bed, room and overall surroundings that are more conducive to comfortable sleep can help. They can also improve the overall quality of your sleep.

Make sure your bed is made, sleep on a comfy pillow and in a comfy position. Make sure your room is dark and there is no noise.

You may have heard that you should sleep in a cold room. From my personal experience, that doesn’t really make a difference (and I find it actually makes my sleep more uncomfortable). The advice I would offer instead is just maintain whatever temperature is comfortable. Don’t be sweaty and don’t be cold.

These things can help you make your surroundings more sleep-friendly but the list goes on. Honestly, one of the best pieces of advice that you should take from here is be as comfortable as possible. Some people like cold rooms and others like warm, for example. It’s preference.

Recommendations don’t matter as much as your feelings here. If you find something helps you sleep faster then implement it.

10. Avoid stimulants (like caffeine)

If you tend to consume anything with caffeine too close to when you need to sleep, there’s a good chance it will keep you up at night. While a small cup of coffee might seem harmless, in reality even that can keep someone up (depending on how sensitive they are).

The best way to avoid being kept awake by caffeine at night is to avoid it and any other stimulants. It’s not just coffee, too. Even tea and some soft drinks contain caffeine.

Don’t drink anything with caffeine 7 hours before bedtime. If you’re a coffee drinker, consider drinking slightly less and drinking after breakfast or lunch.

11. Get tired during the day (but don’t exert yourself too much)

If you struggle to fall asleep, one reason why may be you are too energetic when it comes time to sleep. Letting out that energy can help decrease its effect on you.

Exercise, work, clean the house, or do anything you think will get you tired during the day. Getting tired creates the perfect conditions for you to be able to fall asleep so you can get rest.

Make sure not to overexert, though. The idea here is to gently tire yourself. Exhausting yourself could just cause health problems. The idea is to just do some activities during the day to release some energy.

Even a brisk walk or pacing around the house can help. Cleaning the house, too! It’s useful and can get you tired – although to be fair the house can only be cleaned so many times.

Use your brain and your body. Put a little bit of effort into something that’ll get you tuckered out.

12. Give yourself more time than you need

I don’t know if anyone needs to know this, but if you want to sleep 8 hours and you sleep 6 hours before your alarm is set to go off, you haven’t given yourself enough time. Having an ample amount of time to fall asleep can decrease some of the stress and pressure that may accompany a need to fall asleep quickly.

It can take time to fall asleep and not having enough time doesn’t help. Not only that, but some of us are also prone to pressure when trying to fall asleep. That stress of needing to fall asleep, not being able to and then getting stressed about it – it’s a vicious cycle that can also keep you up.

When you have a fair amount of time to fall asleep, you don’t need to feel pressure. That’s not to say that you won’t feel the pressure at all – if you’re prone to it (and even if you’re not) there’s a good chance it can still happen. But at least if you toss and turn for half an hour without any results, you’d still have enough time to sleep.

13. Don’t try (it might come naturally)

Again, sometimes the need to fall asleep can feel pressuring. If you get stressed, it can keep you awake and make it difficult to easily fall asleep.

Being overly aware about whether you’re asleep or not at night can complicate what might already be a difficult task. One way to deal with this is to simply not try to fall asleep.

By just dismissing it and taking a more passive approach to whether you sleep or not, you can decrease how much you care. This in turn can help decrease the pressure to fall asleep.

Not trying doesn’t mean purposefully trying to stay awake and disrupting your sleep. It doesn’t mean taking out a phone and scrolling. All it means is laying in bed and just not caring. If you fall asleep, great. And, if not, okay.

Just think to yourself that if this ends up being a night of little sleep, then you’ll try to make up for it another night. Of course, this is not a good strategy in the long term because sleeping well every night is more ideal. But you need to tell yourself a white lie here. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

14. Visualize something relaxing

Visualize a nice calming shore, a relaxing rainy café, or a pleasant empty field. Visualization can help you relax. Envisioning yourself in a calming environment can calm you down if you’re stressed.

Visualization slows down thoughts, the mind and the body. It can help transition you from a wakeful state to a more calm, sleepy one.

15. Avoid napping unless necessary

While a short power nap during the day can help you feel refreshed, it can also keep you up at night. Unless you are genuinely sleep deprived and napping is a last resort, try to avoid it.

Napping can make you feel rested even into the night, when you should feel tired and sleepy. By napping, you risk losing some of the tiredness that can actually help make you more sleepy at night.

Again, if necessary, a nap is okay. If you need to recharge for something important, then a nap may be a necessity. If you’re driving and get sleepy, for example, parking somewhere and taking a quick nap is important to help rejuvenate you so you can stay focused on the road.

In many other cases, though, napping is not necessary. If, for example, you’re home and have nothing to focus on, there’s no reason to risk ruining a good night’s sleep for a nap.