How to quickly fall asleep for an adult with insomnia at home without medications

Daily regime

It is recommended to go to bed at the same time.
This rule must be followed even if you have to wake up earlier than usual. The fact is that the body gets used to a certain circadian rhythm, so forcing yourself to go to bed earlier does not make sense - in most cases you will toss and turn in bed without sleep. Therefore, to get enough sleep, go to bed at your usual time. If insomnia does not go away, be sure to consult a specialist for further recommendations and selection of medications. Products for normalizing sleep can be purchased at Stolichki pharmacies.

The fastest way to sleep

To quickly fall asleep in 10 seconds, you don’t need to learn magic spells, you just need to master one interesting technique that will take you to the sweet kingdom of dreams in a quick 10 seconds.

Note: This method of falling asleep takes about 120 seconds, but it is said that it is the last 10 seconds that you will feel yourself starting to fall asleep.

This aircraft, which has become very popular among people of different professions and ages, was developed for American pilots. Having undergone the necessary practice, they learned to control the time allotted for falling asleep. Falling asleep within minutes, even after energy drinks or target practice in the backyard, became a reality for them.

This technique works well, even for people who are forced to fall asleep in a sitting position.

Military technique

1. Try to relax all the muscles in your face, including your eyes and jaw, and breathe slowly and deeply.
2. If you are using your right hand, then move it to your right side, and do the same with the other half of your body.
3. Relax your chest muscles by taking a long, deep breath and exhaling.
4. Alternately relax your thigh muscles, calves, and feet.

It is important to relax all parts of your body, without exception, gradually switching your attention from one muscle to another.

The last step of this method is also important - you need to clear your brain for 10 seconds. To do this, throw away all thoughts related to the tasks that you planned for tomorrow and those that you did not have time to complete today. Don't think about going to the store or going out to get the mail. After all, these activities are associated with movement, which means that by focusing on them, you force the muscles of the body to be in active movement.

Focus on a statistical picture, such as imagining a room where you are with the lights off. This will help your brain relax faster and help you fall asleep.

If you don’t succeed right away, try mentally saying to yourself the phrase “don’t think, don’t think, don’t think about anything,” this should help.

If it doesn't work for you, then it means you need to work on the basics: breathing and muscle relaxation, which have scientific evidence that it works.

Continue reading to learn about the techniques behind this military method and how to use it effectively.

[Video] How to fall asleep in 2 minutes using the Navy method:

Benefits of sleep before and after drinking alcohol

Normal sleep is the main generator of vitality, energy, health and beauty. No one will argue that sleep is vital for the entire human body. After a healthy sleep, a person has additional strength to counteract harmful environmental factors.

This also applies to drinking alcohol. A person who has had a good night's sleep can drink more alcohol than someone who has not slept well and still feel much better and fresher. The power of normal sleep cannot be overestimated.

But even after drinking alcohol, doctors recommend getting a good night's sleep . If a drunk person does not sleep for a long time, his condition worsens, brain function slows down, strength and energy disappear. Moreover, it is recommended to sleep as long , because even 9 hours may not be enough for a person in a drunken state to get 100% sleep.

Breathing and relaxation

These methods are based on exercises that allow you to quickly relax your muscles and establish proper breathing.

Breathing technique 4-7-8

This breathing method was developed by Dr. Andrew Weil. Its essence lies in the ability to independently regulate your breathing and relaxation.

Cycle of 4-7-8 breaths:

1. You need to place your tongue behind your front teeth.
2. Then, allowing your lips to lift slightly, exhale with a slight whistle through your mouth.
3. Next time, inhale through your nose (count to 4 to yourself).
4. Then hold your breath for a couple of seconds, 7 to be exact.
5. After this, exhale through your mouth again, making a whistle (this stage should take 8 seconds).

Complete four complete cycles of these exercises and feel your body fall into sleep. There is no need to worry if you lose track a little while mastering the method; this will not cause any trouble.

Progressive muscle relaxation

This method is based on deep muscle relaxation, leading to quick and comfortable sleep.

How to use it:

1. Tighten the muscles in the eyebrow area for 5 seconds, then relax completely, wait 10 seconds.
2. Then smile broadly, relax again and pause for 10 seconds.
3. Squint your eyes for 5 seconds, relax your eye muscles, pause for 10 seconds.
4. Raise your neck slightly so that your eyes are directed at the ceiling, look there for 5 seconds, then lower your head to the starting position. Take a 10 second break.
5. Continue down the rest of your body, from your triceps to your chest, from your hips to your legs.

These exercises will help you overcome relaxation and fall asleep.

How to deal with insomnia

In many cases, sleep disturbances can lead to more serious consequences - insomnia. This disorder is characterized by either poor quality of sleep over a long period of time (anxiety, restlessness, irritability) or its complete absence. Most often it is associated with lifestyle rather than health problems. Therefore, at the first signs of insomnia, you should not immediately sound the alarm and run to the pharmacy for sleeping pills - in most cases, it is enough to reconsider your daily routine, habits and attitude towards life in general.

What methods will help get rid of insomnia? Let's list the main ones:

1. Give up bad habits. Smoking constricts blood vessels, which, in turn, leads to vagotonia, a disorder characterized, among other things, by sleep disturbances. As for alcohol, contrary to popular belief, it does not help you fall asleep quickly, but, on the contrary, prevents it. Large doses of alcohol quickly “turn off” the brain, but make sleep short and of poor quality.
2. Create a daily routine. The faithful companions of insomnia are constant “lack of sleep.” It is known that an adult needs a full 8-hour sleep, but, unfortunately, not everyone takes this seriously. As a result, chronic lack of sleep becomes a problem that is fraught with not only psychological, but also physiological disorders. It is also recommended to avoid long naps during the day (although a short nap after lunch is beneficial).
3. Don't forget about vitamins. Often chronic insomnia is a consequence of a lack of vitamins B and D, as well as calcium and magnesium in the body. Review your daily menu and include more foods rich in beneficial microelements: fresh fish, vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts. Consult a therapist, choose a vitamin complex for yourself and drink it every 6-12 months.
4. Cultivate stress resistance in yourself. Emotional experiences contribute to the release of adrenaline, prolactin and cortisol, which mobilize the body’s strength to fight an external threat. If he gets used to this state, this inevitably leads to sleep disturbances, even the most serious ones. The advice is simple: perceive life's difficulties as a chance to become better and stronger, and not as a tragedy. Study the techniques of Buddhists and yogis that help control consciousness and emotions in order to avoid stressful situations (by the way, in yoga you can find many ways to quickly fall asleep in the form of special exercises - asanas). Learn to meditate.
5. Don't take antidepressants. Medicines designed to combat apathy, depression and insomnia have a significant drawback - they are addictive. Manufacturers may claim that this is not the case, but you should not believe them. Here we are talking not about physical, but about psychological dependence - over time, it begins to seem that without a pill you will no longer be able to sleep peacefully, and your hand itself reaches for a tube of sleeping pills.

How to avoid insomnia

Insomnia is more than just difficulty falling asleep. This is a condition in which you are unable to fall asleep at night even if you are drowsy or are bothered by frequent awakenings at night, which makes sleep shallow and prevents you from getting enough sleep. There are many reasons for this condition: from poor lifestyle to serious diseases of the central nervous system. Depending on the severity of symptoms, doctors may prescribe mild sedatives or more severe medications. In any case, you cannot decide on your own what to take to fall asleep quickly; a treatment regimen must be developed by a specialist.

What should you do if you have insomnia to fall asleep faster if you can’t sleep at all at night and don’t want to take medications? Try to adjust your lifestyle first.

Avoid coffee and energy drinks after 4 p.m.

Instead, drink water, herbal infusions or natural juices, unless there are individual contraindications.

Reduce your alcohol intake.

Some people believe that alcohol will help you fall asleep quickly, as it will relieve stress and calm you down. In fact, during alcohol intoxication, the heartbeat quickens, the work of various systems and organs is stimulated and, in general, the structure of sleep is disrupted, which is why in the morning one feels very tired, weak and irritable.

Adjust your circadian rhythms.

You won't have to think about what to do if you have insomnia at night in order to fall asleep quickly if melatonin is produced in the right amount and at the right time. To do this, you should stop using gadgets about an hour before bedtime, and spend more time during the day in well-lit places.

You can find special dietary supplements with melatonin in pharmacies; we do not recommend using them without a doctor’s prescription, so as not to cause more serious sleep disorders.

Create a comfortable sound environment.

Some people quickly fall asleep as soon as they hear the sound of the sea surf or calm music for meditation, while others need complete silence for a good night's rest. In any case, you should exclude any loud sounds and listening to energetic music before bed.

Make sure you eat properly before going to bed.

To fall asleep faster at night and get a good night's sleep, you should avoid eating foods before bed such as chocolate, which activates the brain, flour products, which increase blood sugar, as well as legumes and other foods high in protein. How to sleep well? During the day, try to consume foods that stimulate melatonin synthesis, calm the nervous system and normalize stomach function. Foods and drinks that can help you fall asleep earlier include:

• fermented baked milk, kefir, warm milk;
• honey;
• apples, bananas, kiwi;
• tomatoes;
• rice, peas;
• salmon, turkey;
• cherry juice, etc.

Techniques for falling asleep quickly

The problem of falling asleep is sometimes confused with insomnia. If you haven’t fallen asleep after 15 minutes, then you don’t have to try to force yourself to sleep, since internal dialogue is an energy-consuming process, and it’s not for nothing that after such a night a person feels overwhelmed. How can you learn to quickly fall asleep while talking to yourself? Several successful techniques are based on stopping it:

1. The intelligence agency's method is based on the natural position of a person's eyes during sleep.
2. The reverse blinking technique puts you into a light trance that smoothly turns into sleep.

Intelligence method

Viktor Suvorov in his book “Aquarium” described the technique of falling asleep that is taught to military intelligence officers. This technique helps you fall asleep in 1 minute:

• lying on your back, stretch out, arms palms up;
• close your eyes and try to relax as much as possible;
• without opening your eyelids, roll your eyes up, do it without tension - the basic rule of the method.

Reverse blink technique

This method prevents the brain from immersing itself in internal dialogue and helps you fall asleep quickly and easily:

• close your eyes, relax;
• open your eyes for a moment and close them again for 4-5 seconds;
• repeat several times;
• When your brain “blinks backwards”, it doesn’t have time to think through the next thoughts of the dialogue, you will quickly relax and fall asleep.

Sleep products are the most powerful

Firstly, if you have insomnia, you should not rely on medications, since the effectiveness of most of them is exaggerated by manufacturers.

Secondly, long-term use of such medications is a direct path to drug addiction, which occurs at the psychological level. As a result, a person loses the ability to fall asleep on his own, and, like a drug addict, becomes addicted to sleeping pills or similar medications.

oatmeal with banana before bed

As an alternative to medications, you should resort to traditional medicine recipes. In this case, it is a safe and useful way to get rid of insomnia.

1. Oatmeal. Due to its high fiber content, oatmeal perfectly satisfies the feeling of hunger without putting a strain on the digestive system. This food is ideal for dinner. In addition, oatmeal contains melatonin, which enhances the sleepy effect.
2. Milk. One of the old and proven methods of how to quickly fall asleep and get enough sleep is to drink warm milk before bed. The effectiveness of milk is justified by its composition, which contains amino acids that have a beneficial effect on the nervous system. Milk is a natural analogue of sedatives that is beneficial for the human body.
3. Almond. You can speed up the process of falling asleep by eating a handful of almonds before bed. The high content of magnesium and tryptophan helps normalize the functioning of the nervous system. Such a light snack before bed will relieve emotional stress and help you fall asleep easier and faster.
4. Bananas. Eating bananas for dinner guarantees sound sleep. And all because it contains serotonin, tryptophan and magnesium, which help speed up a person’s sleep. However, you should not abuse this product, since, among other things, bananas also contain a large amount of calories. If you do not want to gain weight, it is better not to eat more than one banana at a time.

Do not rush to take pharmaceuticals if you have problems sleeping. To understand how to quickly fall asleep without medications, it is better to first try to help yourself, using various methods that are not harmful to your health.
Only in the absence of positive dynamics against the background of self-help, you should contact a qualified specialist who will select the most appropriate drug therapy.

What helps you fall asleep

If you go to bed and a conflict with a colleague is not on your mind or your feet are cold, you will not be able to fall asleep quickly. The causes of insomnia are influenced by everything - both your psychological state before bed and physical comfort. Do this:

• Ventilate the room before going to bed - let the air be cool, not stuffy.
• It should be light and warm under the blanket; buy a comfortable pillow.
• Don't overeat at night, but don't go to bed hungry either: eat a banana or drink a glass of milk.
• Ensure darkness and silence: it is important to create physiological comfort for sleep.

The same applies to your sense of self: it should also be comfortable; in a state of stress it is difficult to fall asleep quickly. But achieving calm is a difficult thing to achieve; an internal dialogue begins in your head and you can’t stop it; attempts to get thoughts out of your head are fruitless. Special techniques will help you learn to fall asleep quickly; you can listen to music or soothing audiobooks.

How to learn to fall asleep quickly

If you can’t sleep, thoughts and memories are scrolling through your head, you need to learn to relax. Our brain is strangely designed - the more we think about sleep, the less we want to sleep. Emily Martin, a professor of insomnia, said that to achieve sleep you need to stop striving for it. The recipe is simple - you need to learn to distract your brain. These can be physical exercises, psychological techniques, breathing exercises - there are many effective ways, they all have one goal - abstraction and relaxation. The main thing is to choose the right one for yourself.

The importance of quality sleep

Sleep is a state in which the body and all body systems receive maximum relaxation; it is in sleep that a person should fully rest. In addition, many processes take place in the body of an individual as a biological being that do not pause even in sleep. Therefore, sleep is also an indispensable component of good health.

So, when we sleep, the hormone somatotropin or “growth” hormone is produced. Only the lazy have not heard the phrase that children grow in their sleep. Thanks to this hormone, these are not just words. But for adults, its benefits are difficult to overestimate, because with its help the following processes occur:

• regulation of muscle mass;
• slowing down the aging process;
• normalization of metabolic processes;
• tissue restoration.

Reference! For those who want to lose weight, night rest plays no less important role than proper nutrition and exercise. Indeed, during this period, leptin is produced - a hormone that affects appetite and, together with somatotropin, regulates fat deposits, promoting the breakdown of fat cells.

When a person sleeps, the amount of the hormone cortisol in the blood decreases, thereby reducing stress. During sleep, the brain assimilates the information accumulated during the day; the immune system is strengthened. The deficiency is fraught with the following consequences:

• absent-minded attention;
• slow reaction;
• poor memory;
• headache;
• decreased brain activity;
• decreased ability to work;
• irritability;
• deterioration in appearance (bruises under the eyes, puffiness, unhealthy complexion, saggy skin), etc.

Causes of insomnia

Before reading tips on how to quickly fall asleep at night for a teenager or an adult with insomnia, make sure that you have created the necessary conditions for comfortable sleep and got rid of all external interference.

Wrong light.

If you spend a lot of time in dim lighting during the day and sit with a smartphone or watch TV in the evening, your body may begin to confuse day and night. In this case, they talk about a violation of circadian rhythms - the internal biological clock. As a result of this failure, the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, is disrupted. What should you do to fall asleep faster? Do not use a smartphone, TV or laptop later than an hour before bedtime, close the curtains tightly, and turn off the backlight on household appliances.

Bad microclimate.

Stuffiness, heat and dryness in the room have a bad effect on the quality of sleep. To fall asleep faster, you need to make the temperature comfortable (on average, from +18 ˚C to +20 ˚C), adjust the humidity level, and ensure a constant flow of fresh air, which will reduce the high concentration of carbon dioxide.

How quickly does a person fall asleep? According to research, on average in 7–20 minutes. If 30 minutes have passed and you still don’t want to sleep, eliminate external interference and try the techniques described in this article with which you can force yourself to fall asleep quickly, as if you had taken a sleeping pill.

Poor nutrition.

One of the reasons why we take a long time to fall asleep is the consumption of caffeine and alcohol before bed, which excite the nervous system, as well as heavy food, which forces our body to allocate more energy for its absorption. The more actively we force our body to work, the longer we cannot fall asleep.

Unsuitable place to sleep.

Our brain stops perceiving the bedroom as a place to sleep if we work in bed or eat while lying in bed. Incorrect bedding (too soft mattress, uncomfortable pillow, heavy blanket, etc.) can also interfere with comfortable sleep.

Emotional or physical stress.

Evening exercise, watching a scary movie, or discussing an important event with friends have a bad effect on the process of falling asleep.

In addition to improper conditions for falling asleep, doctors also name among the causes of poor sleep:

• stressful situations, such as job search, preparation for exams and others;
• hormonal changes associated with puberty, pregnancy, and medications;
• bad habits;
• thyroid disease, high blood pressure, depression, mental illness and other health problems.

If you often cannot sleep, the first thing you need to do is eliminate the causes of insomnia. If this doesn’t help, move on to proven tips that will help you both quickly want to sleep and fall asleep quickly even after coffee.

When is sleep disorder especially dangerous?

After just three completely sleepless nights, a seemingly healthy person may experience delusions, hallucinations, attacks of acute psychosis, and epileptic seizures. Seven days spent without sleep ends in guaranteed death. It has long been established that symptoms of insomnia are independent risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

In some cases, sleep disturbance is not even a bell, but a bell signaling a mortal danger to life. Gleb Lutokhin says:

“A strong young man, 28 years old, complains of snoring and sudden cessation of breathing during sleep. At night, the wife had to push her husband away more than 40 times an hour, restarting the breathing process. This is a case of central apnea - a pathology in which the medulla oblongata stops giving the body the command to inhale. Such situations very often end in the death of the patient. As it turned out, the patient had a congenital organic pathology in which the vertebral artery compresses the respiratory center of the medulla oblongata. We have selected the appropriate ventilation option. For the rest of his life, the patient will have to sleep with a device that will control his breathing and breathe for the owner in those moments when he stops doing it on his own. But the patient sleeps well, does not get tired during the day, and has even lost weight.”

Ventilator OXY – works while you sleep

Do you often have trouble sleeping? Do you wake up with a headache? Perhaps there is not enough fresh air in the room. A night spent in an unventilated room cannot but affect your health and well-being. As soon as the bedrooms begin to be ventilated, sleep becomes deep and clear, and in the morning you don’t need to drink several cups of coffee to cheer you up - you easily open your eyes and feel a surge of energy.

Of course, you can ensure the flow of fresh air by using open windows, but there are several serious inconveniences:

• Along with the street air, street noise, insects, and unpleasant odors enter the house;
• You can only open the window for a long time in the summer, when it is warm outside, otherwise you will have to jump out of bed all night to let in a new batch of fresh air;

Exhaust gases and waste from industrial enterprises pollute the environment, so the concept of “clean air” in a city is an illusion.

The best solution would be to install OXY supply ventilation. It will quickly and effectively create an ideal microclimate, providing the room with clean air. Our customers note that installing a ventilator helps them fall asleep well and sleep soundly until the morning.

Advantages of OXY ventilators

• Year-round use. All year long, sleep will be like at the dacha in the summer - you will greet every morning with a smile and the feeling that you have had enough sleep for the year ahead;
• High-quality filtration of incoming air. Dust and carbon filters will clean the air masses of all types of contaminants, including allergens and unpleasant odors, which often interfere with a normal sleep if you open the window at night;
• Efficiency. The ventilators will provide clean air to the bedroom, where a family of 4 people can relax at the same time, which becomes possible thanks to a powerful inflow system - up to 150 m3/hour;
• Quiet operation. If you're looking for quick ways to fall asleep, you should eliminate any sources of noise. OXY products are not one of them - the “intakes” are quieter than the faint rustle of leaves.

Fresh air has a soporific effect, which has long been known in the medical community - in hospitals, oxygen is used to put patients to sleep. Therefore, the presence of OXY supply ventilation is a guarantee that your sleep will be deep, sound and healthy.

Polyphasic sleep: a way out of the situation or self-deception?

For a person who has a normal need for sleep, but wants to get enough sleep in 4 hours, the only way to realize his idea is to switch to polyphasic sleep.

Of course, you can simply limit your nightly sleep to 4 hours, but practice shows that you can sleep for that long, but it’s unlikely to get enough sleep. A few days - and it will end with falling asleep at the most unexpected moment - for example, falling asleep at the workplace with profuse drooling on the computer keyboard. Or passing out at lunch and getting burns on your face from soup - who knows where you will succumb to the spell of sleep!

And polyphasic sleep is, although not a panacea, but at least a hope for the preservation of performance and mental processes. There have been no official studies of polyphasic sleep (and sleep specialists do not recommend its use!), but there are people who practice this practice. Several polyphasic sleep modes have even been proposed.

Dymaxion mode a person sleeps for half an hour every 6 hours.

U berman mode : sleep every 4 hours for 20 minutes. Leonardo da Vinci used approximately this technique in his time - however, it is believed that he slept more often and for 15 minutes.

E veryman mode : sleep for 1.5-3 hours at night, during the day - 3 times at equal intervals of 20 minutes.

Tesla mode : 2 hours at night, 20 minutes during the day.

Siesta mode : 5 hours at night and 1.5 hours during the day.

Many people who want to learn how to get enough sleep quickly choose and put into practice their favorite schemes. The Internet is full of communities, groups, websites, discussions dedicated to polyphasic sleep and gathering its followers, sharing experiences and successes.

Do they manage to sleep 4 hours and get enough sleep? Often yes. People achieve the greatest success in the “one night sleep and one day sleep” pattern. Moreover, they do not necessarily follow the minute-by-minute schedule of the above modes; sometimes lovers of the polyphasic sleep technique simply sleep for 1.5-2 hours at night and during the day.

This is quite logical. 1.5-2 hours is the duration of one sleep cycle. After this time, the person is in the phase of light sleep, at the moment when it is easiest for him to wake up and move to an alert state, which will last for several hours. If you then sleep for the same amount of time, it helps to get another boost of energy. Thus, gradually “interrupting” with small portions of sleep, a person leads an acceptable existence.

Read the guest post: How to sleep little and get enough sleep. Personal experience