Getting to Sleep Quickly

This is something that I struggled with when I was sleeping normally (or what most of the world calls normally anyway). I would lay down in bed at night and let my mind wander. I would think about the current day, what tasks I accomplished, which ones I still needed to do, what I could have done differently. I think about the next day, what I've got planned, what homework I should have done instead of playing video games, whether or not I need to attend class in the morning. I then also think about random things, what should I get my mom for Mother's Day in 3 weeks? What's something special I can plan for my anniversary in 8 months? What would it be like if I could control fire, and had a pet velociraptor? What would life be like if I were a midget that could breathe underwater? You know, weird stuff...

Okay, so maybe I've never thought about being a midget, and what kind of power is breathing underwater anyway? But, the point is that I really let my mind go all over the place and create these huge fantasy worlds in which I have some special circumstance, which ranges from having some magical power to how I would react to certain situations if I were concealed carrying (for which I do have a permit). Its actually a lot of fun, and if you have the time, I would suggest trying it, unless you're the type of person like my brother who can fall asleep mid-sentence. If that's the case, then something like this won't do anything for you, as you'll probably fall asleep long before you even come up with a scenario to play out in your head. For me, however, I'd usually spend the first hour or two after I climbed in bed to go to sleep completely awake, day dreaming away about this or that, keeping my brain active.

For the rest of the world, however, it is quite an experience. Its like a dream that you control. You're the hero, the villain, the damsel in distress who is rescued by that cute boy you saw at the mall the other day. The conclusion is yours to decide or let play out in front of you. Is that cute boy really you're hero, or does he have some sort of twisted, evil intentions? Is he just so sexy that it doesn't matter and you go along with it anyway? The possibilities are endless! I could totally see someone using an opportunity like this to improve their self confidence or many other psychological improvements.

Its so amazing! It awesome! So much fun! Its... counter productive when it comes down to polyphasic sleep. Yup! This awesome sweetness had actually hindered my ability to fall asleep during my naps early on until I learned how to control it and quiet it down. Rewind back to those early days (which is really just a few weeks ago, but it feels like so much longer!) to where I laid down for my first nap. Yeah, most people don't actually sleep at all during their first few naps because your body isn't used to it, and for the most part, you really aren't that tired. It isn't until the 2nd day that you really start to feel the sleep deprivation, and your body starts to drift off into sleep. Not too much longer, your body realizes that it needs to get to the REM cycle faster, and then you find yourself on the Uberman sleep schedule. This is sort of what is happening for me, but because I am still spending a decent chunk of time at night sleeping, my body doesn't necessarily need all those naps like someone would if they completely cut out the nightly sleeping altogether. So instead of letting my body naturally cause me to fall asleep quickly through slow sleep deprivation, I decided to take initiative and work on that myself. I was day dreaming my entire naps away, never able to fall asleep.

Today, I am able to fall asleep within 3-5 minutes or so (I'm going to ask my girlfriend to quietly call my name as I try to fall asleep to see when I stop responding to get a better time estimate), and I usually stay asleep until the end of my nap session. My entire experience with falling asleep has completely changed. I would say that between 1 to 2 weeks ago, I started this goal of mine to stop myself from day dreaming my naps away, and I am pleasantly surprised with the results. I believe it only took me 4-5 days to figure out how I could clear my mind for somewhere between 30-60 seconds at a time, before I start consciously thinking about trying to clear my mind. From time to time, when I take a nap, I have take a minute as soon as I lay down in order to clear out my mind initially, but for the most part, its an automatic process now. I no longer find myself with a mind wandering all over the place, keeping me awake all night (or nap) long, and I've got to say, this is pretty amazing as well.

So, how did I do it? First of all, conditioning. Every time you lay down, whether or not it is to sleep, you should consciously work on this until it becomes second nature and you don't realize you are doing it. But what action do you condition? Well, that is really up to each individual I believe. Everyone should have something different for what makes them relax and release. There is no easy one method fits all for this, but the idea is relatively simple. The goal is to completely relax your body and mind and learn to release them both and to disconnect your consciousness from yourself.

First, start by relaxing your body. Get into a comfortable sleeping position. This is something that I used to have all sorts of trouble with, where nothing ever felt comfortable. Today, however, I can usually find a decently comfortable position within seconds of laying down. Once in the position you intend to fall asleep in, go ahead and relax your body. I've found that, especially when sleeping with someone else, I will actually use some muscle to lighten the weight of my arm draped across their body, or I'll tighten my abs slightly to keep my body at this perfect angle, or a dozen other things where I am exerting some physical force when I shouldn't be. I prefer to relax my body one part at a time, starting with my feet in an inverse kinematic style. I think about all my toes, wiggle them and completely release them, letting gravity take over and completely shutting down all muscles to the area. I then release my foot muscles, my ankles, my calf muscles, my knees, my thighs, my hips. Oops! My comfortable position feels awkward now! Well, pick a new position. Obviously the one you were using causes you to use some sort of muscle to maintain it, which is not so great. Ah, okay, I'm in my new position. Now what? Well, start over with your toes and work your way up, making sure to completely release all muscular tension along the way.

Once your body is relaxed, you've got to learn to clear your mind, which is the most difficult part. This will widely vary between different people, so I can only comment on what I do to help clear my mind. Whenever I find my thoughts running away, I consciously grab the reins and pull them in. I start flooding my brain with the thought of 'you need to stop thinking and just relax.' After my brain can think of nothing but this, I then picture myself in whatever bed I am in and focus on that. All I can see is me, my bed and my covers. I don't think of sounds, words, smells, hot, cold, etc, just a mental picture of me, sleeping. This was the closest I could get to completely clearing my mind of all thought, and it actually provided some pretty good training in the process. By focusing on a purely visual image, you have to train your mind to ignore all of your other input, such as sound. So, by closing my eyes and picturing myself right now, I can see me at a computer desk with my chin on my chest, but I can also see my computer, whose fan just cut on, as well as the AC running along the side of the wall. But because I am focused on what should be a purely physical idea, I have to consciously remove the sounds of my laptop and the AC before I can achieve that goal. I believe that it is through this process that you can train your body to stop feeding on itself and the surrounding, which should lead to much faster times when trying to fall asleep.

Feel free to comment on your experience or any tips that you would recommend.