- Chances are if you are reading this then you have read my
- Now you are pretty convinced that you need to fall asleep but there is a huge problem sometimes. Sometimes, you just can't fall asleep. No matter how hard you try it just seems impossible. This is a problem that I have faced a number of times before. But now, I have a magic strategy that you can use in order to fall asleep faster. That magic strategy is...Counting till you fall asleep. I am kidding. I have counted to a thousand at one night and still couldn't fall asleep. So lets approach this logically.
- There are two main reasons that prohibit you to fall asleep, the environment and your brain. First, lets look at the environment because that will effect your brain.
- The Environment
- So there is a hormone called Melatonin. You may have heard of it. Basically, what it does is that it tells your brain that it is now dark and you should fall asleep. Now you may realise how important this hormone is. Now what is the problem here? The problem as you may have guessed is that this hormone gets released when it isDARK but, in this day and age, our society is a darkness-deprived one.
- I know I know, this isn't something that you probably wanted to hear. You have to not watch TV at night. Keep your phones in silent mode and put them away. I know that this requires a lot of self-discipline and effort. While putting your phone away you may think what if someone messages me? But the truth is really that no one mostly needs an urgent reply at night. Everyone can wait. If it is so necessary then you can choose to only mute messages not calls. If it is a message then it can most probably wait.
- Now, one more giant thing which you can do is follow a consistent schedule. You SHOULD to fall asleep and then wake up at the same time everyday no matter if it is a weekend or not. This is a common mistake that people make in constructing a sleep schedule, The mistake is that they often think that I can be easier on weekends. It is not that you should get your healthy 8 hours of sleep only on weekends and try to sleep less in weekdays. Sleep depravation can't be accumulated only to sorted later. Once gone, sleep ISgone. I repeat, it IS gone.
- As I addressed earlier, it is very hard to have that kind of self-discipline which allows you to resist the urge for you to use your phone. For this I recommend that you take a look at myHow to build habits that stickarticle. Building a bedtime is still a habit.
- The Brain
- The problem sometimes is that sometimes, the brain just doesn't want to shut down. It forces you to re-live your whole day. It forces you to turn over problems in your head. This can not only be anxiety inducing but it also leads to sleep-depravation which as you know is very very dangerous.
- So how do you fight this problem? The main principle to fight this is filling your intentional space with just enough load that it keeps it full but not so full that you basically solving hard maths problems at the end. You can learn more about intentional space and attention in general in the bookHyperfocus.
- This is where the 4-3-5 breathing method comes in. The original method is called the 4-7-8 breathing method. In the 4-7-8 method, you have to inhale while counting till 4 then you have to hold your breath while counting till 7 and then exhale while counting till 8. I find this method a bit excessive so I tend to use the 4-3-5 method. You have to count till 4 while inhaling then hold your breath counting till 3 and exhale while counting till 5. Now this may seem kinda sketchy considering the fact that you are still basically counting but this is a method which I have used and it works really well because it involves mindfulness.
- I hope you found this useful and if you did, you may want to check outWhy we Sleepby Mathew Walker