Falling asleep quickly.

Is there a way to fall asleep faster? Today i did a WBTB after about 6 hours of sleep. I got up and went to the bathroom, then i read my dream journal for about 10 minutes. After that it must have took me 45 minutes to fall back asleep.

maybe instead of trying to fall asleep fast you could put the time your awake to good use, like trying to WILD

It takes me ages to fall asleep and...putting that time to WILDing? Hypnagogic imagery appears on the brink between wakefulness and sleep so being awake for 45 mins to 1.5 hours won't help at all, the other way around...that's exactly why WILD hasn't worked for me, it takes me too long to fall asleep.

I'd really apprecieate it if anyone has any ideas on how to fall asleep faster but not block lucid dreams in any way...

:D take deep breaths while geting in sleep clothes, brushing teeth, do it between getting ready and going to sleep. probably breath widely for 5 minutes, drink some cold milk, or water with no ice, but cold, then just relax in bed bcause the breathing pattern makes you a little more tired. - Peechy

Maybe if you try going back to sleep right away instead of reading your dream journal for 10 minutes, you will have better luck. If you can try going to sleep before you are fully awake, its some times easier.

Have you tried self hypnosis?
I know a few good ones that usually bring me back to sleep/dream in no time.
An easy one is to just concentrate on your breathing, and imagine that everytime you inhale you inhale this dark blue, calm color, and everytime you exhale you exhale all the tension in your body as a very red color.
It usually works =)

well last night i woke up after 5 hours of sleep and i put my alarm on snooze instead of off so 20 mins later it woke me back up and i thought it was time for school.

I took a shower and after i realized what time it was i went back to bed and fell asleep in 5-10 mins.

I've for one reason or another developed chronic insomnia. Even with relaxation techniques, it can take me 3 or 4 hours to fall asleep. I've started taking a dietary sleep aid supplement. It contains Melatonin and some other things. With it I am able to get to sleep within 30 minutes to an hour so far, which while still not terrific, is a definite marked improvement.

I'd suggest any kind of sleep aid(try going with equate, it's usually a generic of most sleep aids such as unisom and is cheaper.)Doxylamine Succinate and Diphenhydramine hci are the two main sleep aids(they're two seperate pills/boxes) Each may work a bit differently for you. Walmart is where I got my sleep aids.

I've found that self-relaxation techniques work really well for me, allowing me to sleep pretty quickly no matter how awake I am at the time (it helps if it's dark and quiet, though). What I do is imagine a mental needle/pin that I use to poke myself, starting up the right side of my body then progressing down and back up the left to the head. Each poke causes numbness/relaxation, and I find that by the time I'm back at the top, I'm almost asleep (sometimes it takes two rounds or more). I'm not into chakra or meditating or any of that, so I don't have to target the exact specific point each time, it's just my way of visualizing relaxing parts of my body until my whole body is relaxed. I used to imagine just relaxing body part by body part, but this works better for me. Sort of a mental anaesthetic.

Hi Ninja,

The method i use to get to sleep fast (usually 5 - 10 mins):
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*Blank my mind, think of nothing for a good 10 seconds.

*imagine my whole body relaxing into the bed.

*imagine falling through a black abyss, just falling deeper and deeper (dont concentrate hard on it, just let it come naturally and if you cant see it, just feel it). I also add in layers, like i hit water, sink to the bottom into the mud, sink slowly through the mud, then drop out the bottom back into the blackness. Or i hit a huge pile of giant sized balls of wool, ill hit the top one, then slide down between 2 or 3 and hit another, just keep falling through the gaps (might sound weird but it works for me).

It may also help to write anything thats on your mind down on paper before bed, then you know you can forget them and they'll be there in the morning, It just helps you to let go.
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I was once in your situation, although not that extreme, before coming to the method above i used another hypnosis style technique designed to force hypnogogia. It came from the same hypothesis that "hypnogogia is the close precursor to sleep", if you can bring on hypnogogia quickly you can bring on sleep. I simply thought about how my hypnogogia normally looked, back then it seemed it was usually slight images and friends talking randomly.
The technique then was to imagine a friend of mine talking somewhat randomly. I found after a few sentences i could allow my brain to go into auto and the sentences would keep coming without much thought from me. None of the sentences made any sense but my brain carried on and the situation quickly grew into full blown hypnogogia and sleep. It got to the point where i could say to myself with a high degree of accuracy "ahh, im about to fall asleep" and within 10 seconds i would have lost conciousness.

So yes, definitely try self hypnosis/visualisation style methods, i find them very powerful.

Best of luck and i hope this helped :D

>RooJ

I think yoga can help do this. Actually I am attending a Yoga session for the last few weeks and in one of the sessions the trainer showed us if the tip of the finger which can be any is rubbed with the other hand one can fall asleep quickly, I did try this out and got positive effects. Although I must say my problems were due to anxiety which did not allow me to sleep properly. Now the said problem is over and sleep related troubles have never disturbed me again.