How I Learned to Fall Asleep Quickly, or How to Tame Healthy Sleep

When I was about 6 years old, one day before going to bed, I saw a cartoon in which a boy goes to bed and hangs his clothes on a chair. When he falls asleep, his clothes fly away. In the morning, before the boy wakes up, the clothes fly back. And in my 6 years old, I really wanted to see how my clothes fly at night. Having reasoned that it is more difficult to catch such a moment in the morning, since you need to have time to wake up at least a second “before”, and since the clothes, apparently, know very precisely when I wake up, this is difficult to do. But to spy on this action in the evening seemed quite real to me. That evening, as well as many subsequent ones, I carefully tried to catch the moment of falling asleep in order to prolong it at least for a second, thereby deceiving tricky clothes.

I didn’t manage to watch for clothes, but after a while I caught an interesting state that can be described as something between a dream and reality. This state is characterized by a certain waddiness of the body, the absence of a desire to move or speak, and, at the same time, the presence of a connection with the outside world. You all hear. If you don’t close your eyes, you see. You can smell and analyze the flow of external information. Time in this state flows as if at a slower pace. The state itself seemed interesting to me.

Now, going to bed, I quickly fell into this state and watched the reactions of the body, the activity of the brain, the passage of time, still not losing hope of catching the flying clothes. And after some time, this is an interesting conclusion: from this state, if necessary, you can easily return to the state of wakefulness. But you can instantly fall asleep by giving yourself a simple command: “We fall asleep!”. That is, this transitional state can be easily transferred under the control of the brain into one of the formats: wakefulness or sleep.

I still don’t know if my clothes fly away somewhere at night, but thanks to the children’s cartoon, now I fall asleep very quickly.

Thesis for verification:

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​How to check it:

1. After you’ve got into bed, settled into a comfortable position, and relaxed, set yourself the task of tracking the transition into the sleep state. Look for answers to the following questions:

• How does your body feel when you approach sleep?
• How does the pulse change?
• How does the respiratory rate change?
• How do the sense organs work?
• How does the brain work?
• How does the passage of time feel?

2. When you can track such a state, experiment with it. Give yourself the command to return to wakefulness. After that, remembering and evoking the necessary sensations, practice consciously moving into this pre-sleep state. And at the final stage, learn to command the brain to turn off and go into a state of sleep.

I want to say that even if you fail to catch the desired state, this is a great way to get rid of the internal dialogue, which greatly slows down the onset of sleep, and which, as a rule, is very difficult to get rid of.

What to do with the ideological protest?

Despite the fact that I learned to fall asleep quickly as a child, the ideological protest against falling asleep early lived with me for a very long time. Only about 3,5 years ago we were finally able to part with him. And it happened for a very simple reason: I gave birth to my first child. Work, home, a child, an active lifestyle, endless projects… In the evening, when the child fell asleep, I completed the most necessary tasks with lightning speed, and as soon as I reached the pillow, I fell asleep blissfully. Ekaterina woke up incredibly early for my former life: at 5-6 in the morning. Therefore, I was not up to ideological protest. And he, offended by the lack of attention on my part, left forever.

How to deal with it if there are no children? Are there any chances?!

There is. It’s not about the presence or absence of children. The fact is that with the advent of my daughter, my day has become twice as rich. In order to keep up with everything, I had to optimize my time, learn how to relax faster and more efficiently, learn how to save this valuable resource and not waste it in vain. My daily to-do list has doubled, if not tripled. Life has reached a different speed level. And every evening, going to bed, I understood that after such a high-speed day, my body needs a good rest.

1. Track where time goes during the day (distance exercise «Time Tracking»).
2. Optimize the time (there is also such an exercise in the distance).
3. Plan your day very busy (exercise «Actions of the day»).
4. Properly plan your vacation (exercise «Cheerful rest»).
5. Live at high speed (distance exercises «Choleric», «Acceleration»).

Don’t feel sorry for yourself! Our body is designed to work! At the end of a busy day, when the body really worked, the ideological question of the need for healthy sleep will disappear by itself!

How to bring yourself to a horizontal position at the right time

From my point of view, this question is the simplest: you just need to take it and lie down. What can help this:

1. Planning the day’s activities.
2. Early rise planning.
3. Busy day.

Additional points to help you master healthy sleep

1. Put on nice, clean bedding that you really like.
2. Ventilate the room before going to bed, and if possible, sleep with the window open.
3. Take a warm bath or shower.
4. Drink a soft warm drink — a mug of warm milk with honey, mint or chamomile tea.
5. Find and choose for yourself a technique that will help you get rid of mental dialogues and monologues before going to bed.

Read more about what helps you fall asleep in the article «How to overcome insomnia.»