Are there any methods that help one fall asleep faster?
 

Hey, as said in the topic title, are there any specific things you all do to fall asleep faster? I have always wondered this because sometimes it takes me a VERY long time to fall asleep (I don't think I have insomnia) and I would like to just be able to jump in bed and sleep quickly.

I usually calm myself down by slowing my breathing and clearing my thoughts, and telling myself to fall asleep.

I feel sorry for my friend, who takes a hour to fall asleep.

Reading works great.... especially a boring book.... I pass out immediately, even in a fully lit room.

I can only fall asleep if I'm extremely tired, and the only time I'm ever in this state is really only after coming back from my last class of the day, which is usually in the early afternoon. Actually, I recently discovered I can also fall asleep when I start doing an assignment that isn't due the next day...

At night, however, it takes me forever to fall asleep (1-4 hours). Yes, there have been times where I tried to start falling asleep at 2 AM, but I'd just be up until 6 AM. However, once I do fall asleep, my difficulty is also getting up. I would snooze my alarm clock for upwards of 4 hours as well (on average about an hour and a half). So, I just fail at sleeping and waking.

Blunt force trauma to the cranium is always a good, last-ditch solution.

Could be years before you regain consciousness.

http://www.tylenol.com/images/tylenol/prd_7_1_lg.gif

Do these even work.

Daydreaming usually does it for me. If I think about just random stuff, I usually fall to sleep easily.

But basically you have to not think about it too hard.

Oh, and what Megalith said. Any kind of night-time medicine. Also, small amounts of alcohol or cough syrup do it. But you can become dependent on that kind of stuff, if I'm not mistaken.

Warm milk helps. I also keep an old textbook on personality theory by my bed because it's utterly boring.

http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/5175/prd72lg9jv.gif
Simply Sleep... they work... not supposed to make u groggy, but sometimes they do if you oversleep with em... -.-zzz

Usually a banana before bed is meant to calm the stomach, and it helps with the process of sleeping faster. As told by jRev, warm milk is apparently meant to help as well, but I haven't tried so I wouldn't know.

I've been having trouble sleeping recently; my pattern is all messed up right now. Shift work is just asking for something like this to happen. Usually I find myself staying up all night and lasting all day just to change my sleeping pattern around, but that doesn't always work.

I also have a certain position which I need to lay in otherwise I can't sleep. This happens with my friend, so I don't think it's uncommon. If you can't find a conformtable position to sleep in you're definitely going to have problems.

I would say to eat that banana. Has the melatonin you need to fall asleep.

The problem with sleeping pills is that they generally don't give you enough time in REM sleep, so you wake up feeling like crap anyways.

anything that is warm and milky helps you to sleep, and having done some exercise earlier in the day or just being out and about most of the day.

This is going to sound strange, but I have to have a blanket or sheet over me to get to sleep. I can't get to sleep without it. I'll eventually kick it off during the night, but I HAVE to have one when going to sleep.

Reading is a good trick for getting to sleep, too.

I second that. I find that just daydreaming about any old random crap helps me get to sleep in a matter of seconds. It's all about switching your brain off as I find if I'm thinking about things like what I need to get done at work tomorrow, that sort of thing, I just lie there for ages.

Leknaat: The sheet thing isn't so strange, I have that too. I find it very strange if I don't have something over me. But yeah, come the morning, if it's hot then anything that was on me is probably going to be on the floor.

Masturbate.

Not even kidding.

I generally need music playing. I usually listen to the album Kid A by Radiohead. I listened to it for three or four years every night before bed. Now, I basically can just think about the opening song or two and fall asleep relatively quickly.

The problem for me doesn't happen in the bedroom (hur hur): it's before I get in. I have diagnosed insomnia, and I just don't get tired. I continually stay up and just don't bother going to bed. I also have Ambien, but am extremely worried of becoming addicted or dependent on them (despite claims otherwise by the manufacturer). Another problem with Ambien is that if I don't go to sleep in about an hour or two, instead of getting even sleepier, I just get really stoned, which is a fun feeling, so I end up staying up longer and doing stoned things (listening to music, staring off into the darkness, etc).

Read up on lucid dreaming - it's a pretty cool idea, and it works - one of my friends says that he's just starting his lucid dreaming journey :)

http://brain.web-us.com/lucid/luciddreamingFAQ.htm

I guess since I'm finally back, I should resume my role of sympathetic asshole who knows what he's talkin about...

I feel your pain, for I was a college student once and a wrestler and the combination of weightloss and studying 24/7 did a number on my sleep cycles... but if you really wanna get to sleep, do some hard, dirty work (get a job with UPS or FedEx or something... great pay, physical labor and awesome benefits and you can pick up part time supervisor fairly quick (6 months) and get 1600 a month) and you'll come home exhausted and ready for a good 8 hours of sleep.

Or you could be smart and get an established sleep cycle and go to sleep at the same time every night like normal people (but what fun is that?).

Or hell, you could drink some orange juice (read: orange juice actually HELPS you sleep physically... milk is basically just a placebo - true it has that vitamin or whatever that helps you sleep but unless you drink about half a gallon of milk, it won't have any real effect on you).

edit:

Yall'd be surprised to find that you can actually sleep without a blanket fairly easily if you are tired enough. Not that I expect too many people to understand, but when you work yourself to the point of sheer exhaustion (I've been up for 24 hours... I work until 930am), it doesn't matter if you are clean or dirty, hot or cold, covered or not, clothed or naked, your body's needs will overrule your brain.

And I'm not tryin to smack down anyone here, but if you work out/run/do physical labor for about an hour everyday, I'll bet $100 that you'll fall asleep mucho easier (DON'T DO IT RIGHT BEFORE YOU WANT TO SLEEP AND THEN COMPLAIN THAT IT DOESN'T WORK YOU DUMB DONUTS) and sleep more soundly.

Usually, reading my physiology text book puts me to sleep. in school. when I'm supposed to be studying the damn thing in the first place.
Other than that, I'm usually exhausted enough to just go home, fall onto my bed and release everything off my shoulders.
As was previously mentioned, if you can keep yourself busy all day (no rest) then the feeling of finally lying there in bed and letting go of the pressure in your head and the tenseness in your muscles is hella good! You'll never want to move, i promise you.

Maybe if you did something more with your life than jsut sitting around masturbating to anime all day and playing video games your body would be worn out enogh to rest. Pull your life togethor!

close your eyes, and meditate. u will fall asleep 10x easier...
or simply do this... close your eyes, imagine black, and start counting your breathes. 10 slow seconds on inhale, and 10 slow seconds on exhale. do this repeatedly. then "imagine" your muscles relaxing... starting with your toes, then work your way up all the way to your head... very slowly. once you do this 2-3 times your mind should be clear, and you should fall asleep much faster.

also, you gotta believe this method works. if you try the entire procedure as a skeptic.. well.. dont expect results cause your mind will be too focused on disproving it.

I just sit there and stare at the wall or the ceiling if i'm lying down. It gets me so bored that i just fall asleep from boredom. It takes me well in excess of an hour to fall asleep. I only fall asleep really quickly if i'm either 1) Drunk or 2) Haven't had sleep in days and feel like shit

that actually sounds kind of interesting...

I keep my room cold and bundle up with blankets...the coziness of it helps me fall asleep! :biggrin:

coolness helps you fall asleep more than being warmth. Plus when you are asleep your body temp drops so you won't even notice that it's cold. Use the goal of warmth as an incentive to make your body fall asleep...if that makes any sense...

I turn off all my lights and listen to my iPod. It usually takes 30-60 minutes to fall asleep.