A sleep guru has revealed a series of unconventional techniques to help people fall asleep – including a simple mind game that could have you counting Z’s in mere minutes.
Many individuals find it difficult to drift off each night, with some suffering from more severe problems like insomnia. A lack of sleep can have a seriously negative impact on your life. The NHS states good sleep can boost our mood, reduce stress and even help with anxiety.
With this in mind, Martin Seeley, the CEO and resident sleep expert at MattressNextDay, has shared some unusual advice and tips to help people nod off in no time. One tip might seem a bit odd, though – it suggests trying not to fall asleep.
Seeley explained: “Try not to fall asleep. This might sound completely counterintuitive, but deliberately attempting to stay awake can help you drift off faster.
“It’s a psychological trick that removes the intense pressure of falling asleep, which is often what keeps people awake in the first place. A fascinating study from the University of Pennsylvania found that participants who practiced paradoxical intention experienced significantly reduced sleep anxiety.”
He added: “By shifting your mental focus from ‘I must fall asleep’ to ‘I’m going to stay awake’, you actually reduce the performance anxiety that prevents sleep. It’s like telling your brain to stop trying so hard.”
Some of the CEO’s other tips include the popular cognitive shuffling technique, which requires individuals to conjure up a sequence of random objects, items, or characters that have no connection to each other. For instance, “a peach, a blanket, a goldfish, a hat, a violin, Tarzan” and so on.
Seeley elaborated: “This creates cognitive overload and prevents you from focusing on anxieties or worries that might keep you awake. Essentially, your brain gets so perplexed trying to make sense of these random thoughts that it simply gives up and falls asleep.”
He also suggested sipping on sour cherry juice because sour cherries are among the rare food sources rich in melatonin, the hormone crucial for regulating the sleep-wake cycle.
Social media platforms are awash with advice on how to nod off more swiftly. In a viral video on TikTok, watched more than 12 million times, content creator Justin Agustin demonstrated a “military proven technique” which entails laying in bed and systematically calming your body down.
Agustin outlined the “simple” strategy as aiming to “shut down” each part of your body, starting from the head and moving to the toes, relaxing all muscles along the way while picturing a warm sensation spreading throughout. He noted: “You’re supposed to practice every night for six weeks. 96% of people who mastered this technique are actually able to fall asleep within two minutes of shutting their eyes. I find it super interesting.”
In the comments section, users shared their own experiences. One person commented: “I’ve got really bad insomnia and nothing works. I get some sleep with a lot of meds, but I never wake up rested. I’m trying this tonight.” While another simply said: “It worked”.