Getting to Sleep Quick - 6 Tips

Many people have problems falling asleep at night, often because their minds keep running at full-speed even though they feel physically tired. I used to have problems falling asleep at night, but now I'm out within minutes - maybe even seconds - of the light going out. Here are six techniques that have helped me get to that point:

1) Keep a regular sleep schedule. This gets your mind and body into a routine. My light goes out somewhere between 9:45 and 10:15 pm almost every night. I know that may seem ridiculously early to some of you, but up here in northern New England people seem to go to bed and wake up earlier than other places I've lived.

2) Stay away from reading fiction before bed. I love a good novel, but fiction stimulates your imagination and does not help you relax your mind and get to sleep. Before I adopted this practice, I can't tell you how many times I'd stay awake late to finish a chapter or even a whole book. And then my mind would still be thinking about the book after I turned off the light. Now, I pick nonfiction instead. Yes, nonfiction can be interesting, but it rarely gets my mental energy going like a good thriller. Mental energy is not what you want when trying to fall asleep.

3) Take a few minutes to quiet your mind. This will help stop that ceaseless thinking. Ways to quiet your mind are: slow and deepen your breathing; think of a few things that went well with the day and be grateful for them; release the emotions attached to anything that didn't go well; stop consciously thinking about things. That last one means to stop trying to think about any issues you have, and stop consciously putting your attention on them. If something is still on your mind, write it down on a notepad next to the bed and resolve to deal with it tomorrow. This is really an important step because if you haven't released something that's bothering you before you try to go to sleep, you'll be replaying it over and over unless you have extremely good control of your thoughts.

4) Keep away from any form of caffeine after 1:00 pm in the afternoon. No coffee, decaf, tea or soda with caffeine. If you are susceptible to the effects of caffeine, it will make it harder for you to quiet your mind when you want to sleep. If I have a Coke at three in the afternoon, I'll feel tired but unable to sleep until midnight. (Another note: I can also always tell if there was MSG in my Chinese dinner because my heart will be thumping and I'll be wide awake staring at the ceiling at 1 am.)

5) Focus on your body and relax one area at a time starting at your feet. This both helps your body physically relax and helps you keep your attention on something other than your to-do list, what's going on at work, how mad you are at someone, etc...

6) Visualize walking down an endless stairwell. Keep your attention on your feet as you visualize your walking. This is similar to number 5 above. Giving your attention to something mindless and repetitive helps your brain shut down.

Those are my tips for how to fall asleep quickly at night. They work for me, and if you have a sleep problem, I hope that maybe they can work for you too.