How to train yourself to fall asleep *quickly*!?

[FryingMan]

I want to train myself to fall asleep quickly, both for LD practice and general life well-being. By quickly I don't mean instantly, but within just a few minutes at most. I already know about things like having a regular to-bed and wake-up time, and getting exercise so your body needs sleep, etc (still working on the regular schedule thing). I know some relaxation techniques (61-point, tense-release), but they don't always help. The problem is that I seem to get stuck awake at about the 5 hour waking, and it can takes many hours to get back to sleep. These are the best LDing times so it's really disappointing that I can't regularly get back to sleep at this time. So certainly I've built up some sort of anxiety about it even though I'm trying to remain calm. I'm on the verge of sleep sometimes for a long time, but can't seem to totally fall asleep. I'm trying to practice "paradoxical intention," just enjoying the passive wakefulness and not "trying" to fall asleep, but that alone doesn't seem to work, that or I'm not succeeding at doing this completely, or it does work but it takes 2-3 hours. Has anybody successfully trained themselves to fall asleep quickly, who was not previously a natural quick sleeper? This article mentions a technique that sounds interesting, I'm interested in other opinions:Fall Asleep Fast (the general idea is that if you don't fall asleep within about 10 minutes, you should get up and go to another room. It's trying to instil a Pavlovian conditioning that going into bed means falling asleep quickly).

[Scionox]

Have you tried meditation? It can help. Also personally whenever i find myself unable to fall asleep for some reason i usually just stop all conscious thoughts, either thinking about nothing at all or those 'dreamy' random thoughts and it works most of the time for me, hope that helps.

[FryingMan]

Have you tried meditation? It can help. Also personally whenever i find myself unable to fall asleep for some reason i usually just stop all conscious thoughts, either thinking about nothing at all or those 'dreamy' random thoughts and it works most of the time for me, hope that helps. Do you mean meditation during the day (before bed?), or in bed while trying to fall back asleep? re: stopping thoughts: Yeah I thought I had discovered a similar trick a month and a half ago when I was initially starting to have trouble returning to sleep (at bedtime sleep is almost never an issue, it's always after wakings and especially when I do a tech like SSILD or MILD): let all thoughts go, if one pops up just acknowledge it and let it go, "unclench" my head from sticking to ideas. But somehow that's not working for me now, or I'm doing it wrong. I've tried the random image association thing a few times, "thinking of black" (that actually may have worked for me should try it again), but nothing really working well. Before, I tried reverse blinking, but I just felt stupid and not sleepy at all doing that. This recent batch of sleep troubles started a week ago when I was trying to WILD every night at the 5 hour waking. Each time I was up for 2-2.5 hours, trying to fall asleep while WILDing. After I stopped the WILDing the wakefulnes continued. I wonder perhaps if I reset my sleep clock while doing that. Or perhaps I've become again more actively observant of how I fall asleep (HI, etc.), and of course that is probably a good way to keep yourself up. I've maintained a fairly regular exercise schedule, and turned up the intensity a bit recently, but my body has apparently seemed happy with 5 hours. I know I have more dream time left in me, if I stubbornly remain in bed and eventually fall asleep exhausted from trying to fall asleep I will dream more. So I'm 99% sure that this is psychological. I'll continue to do the "stop *trying* to fall asleep, and just relax and let the thoughts go" technique. I think getting to sleep quickly is my final barrier to really turning up the LD frequency. Any other comments/suggestions please let me know!

[Scionox]

For meditation, either before bed or in bed can help, really depends on which time you like more and can do better. And yeah it can be psychological, trying too hard to fall asleep might in the end make one more awake, and then when one stops trying, bam, falls asleep. Also why did you stopped WILDing? No time for WBTB?

[FryingMan]

Also why did you stopped WILDing? No time for WBTB? It's not the WBTB, it's rather that for me so far WILDing keeps me awake for a long time: 2-2.5 hours easily. Done at the recommended 5-hour waking, a 2-2.5 hour wakefulness means that I'm done with my sleep for the day, getting only 5 hours. I did WILD attempts 3-4 days in a row, and since each time I stayed up, I'm thinking it partially reset my sleep rhythm, and I want to get back to a steady 7-8 hours per night for the good early morning REMs at the 7th and 8th hours where most DILDs occur. Also WILDing makes me very aware of the process of falling asleep, which keeps me awake as well. That probably means I'm not doing it right, I'm sure. But this awareness didn't stop when I stopped trying for WILDs, now it's affecting my MILD practice as well: at the 5-6 hour wakings, I can't get back all the way to REM sleep. So I'm not really stopping WILDing, just taking a little break until I can fix (again, sigh) my sleeping. Actually I can fairly easily get close to sleep, I'm not staring totally wired at the ceiling, I'm generally fairly easily making it to the relaxing stage in between waking and sleep where images, sounds, etc. occur, I just keep "catching" myself before deep/REM sleep somehow. There's some attention, some tension, somewhere, that I'm not yet aware of how to release.

[peequi]

Keep the room as dark as possible. Close the door. Turn off all lights. If you have something that produces a small light(laptop, cellphone charger, etc) turn it off or cover it. If you live in the city, those super heavy drapes/curtains to keep out outside light. I want to highlight one of OP's point. Exercise is huge. I have heard from people who have been out of shape their whole lives, then they start exercising(real exercising, regular schedule and pushing themselves every time). They report that even though they get the same about of sleep every night or even fewer hours(because they devote time to get to the gym) they feel much more rested. One reason is they find themselves falling asleep quicker.

[FryingMan]

I wear a sleep mask, it's about my only option, my wife likes to see out the window. I'll definitely keep up the exercise as I can see that it helps. In fact I may be exercising *too much* and as a result I'm really tired and I'm not getting as many of my between dreams wakenings as much in order to journal. But my issue I think is mental -- especially when practicing WILDs, I became aware of the process of falling asleep. I seem to "catch" myself right at the falling asleep, and I'm finding it hard to turn off this extra awareness. I just want to fall *asleep* as fast as possible, after doing MILD and/or SSILD reps, to get to the dreams. Also while doing WILD, I want to say my mantra and get *right away* to the point of falling asleep. I'll worry about how to keep awareness later if needed, getting right to sleep is more important. So any pointers or advice on how to calm the mind, prevent "monkey brain," and so on. Some things I've noticed: + my eyes tend to jerk around while falling asleep, and if I consciously keep them relaxed that seems to help. + I try to simulate my sleep breathing, as I noticed how I breathe while slowly waking up from dreams (exhale quicker/shorter than inhale). + Generally trying to continually let go, no thinking, if thoughts pop up I acknowledge them and release them (not trying to actively prevent them).

[iamalostsoul]

this sounds helpful i take ours to fall asleep