If, like me, you put your phone away every night (after endless TikTok scrolling) only to find yourself wondering about the most absurd of situations and random thoughts, then you probably have trouble sleeping.
As you know, letting your mind wander isn’t conducive to a seamless sleeping experience.
Which is why when I saw a TikTok video promising to help people fall asleep in two minutes, it piqued my curiosity.
In the video, by fitness trainer and content creator Justin Augustin from Montreal, Canada, he explains how the method was adopted by military personnel who often sleep in rough conditions.
It consists of incrementally relaxing your body, then imagining a warm light travelling through your body, while focussing on your breathing. Then you clear your mind of all stresses.
To do this, Augustin advises, imagine one of two scenarios; the first is lying in a canoe in a calm clear lake, with a blue sky above you. The other is lying in a velvet black hammock under a pitch black sky.
Any time your thoughts try to distract you, repeat the words ‘don’t think’ 10 times.
Sounds simple enough, right? Well, Augustin explains, you’d need to do this every day for six weeks to see it work effectively enough to fall asleep within two minutes.
But I tried it for just one night only, and turns out, it is pretty effective, even if you’re doing it for the first time. Within a few times of trying it, I did actually knock out.
It’s important to note that the night before I tried this, I hardly slept meaning I was pretty exhausted when I tried this trick (so it’s possible that I would’ve fallen asleep straight away regardless).
Relaxing your body and imagining a warm light travelling through you was easier than I thought, and my brain actually tricked me into feeling a warmth run through me. But the clearing the mind bit proved trickier. I tried saying ‘don’t think’ multiple times, but was eventually distracted. But amid this distraction, I did fall asleep at some point. And I’ll be trying it again.
And so will Augustin, it seems.
Augustin had been inspired to try the method – which has been viewed more than 3.6 million times on his TikTok – after he read about an article outlining the military training to fall asleep fast.
“I’m determined to finish the six-week training. It would be a great skill to acquire in the end. I’m taking it on as a personal challenge,” he tells HuffPost UK.
“I’m actually on day two of six weeks of attempting it and it’s definitely a great form of meditation. It reminds me of Yoga Nidra, a form of guided meditation which I assume the military adopted it from.
“It’s a great way to decompress, reduce stress with controlled breathing, and relieve muscle tension, which are factors that could keep people up at night.
So what does a sleep expert make of the fall asleep fast model?
James Wilson – the sleep behaviour and environment expert behind ‘The Sleep Geek’ – says he’s a little doubtful this technique could be so successful every time.
“There is not a human alive that can ‘make’ themselves fall asleep in two minutes night after night after night,” he says.
“However, this technique encourages the body into a relaxed state, and the sense of physical and emotional security that comes from being relaxed leads to a drop in heart rate which means we are ready for sleep.
“My advice would be that this is a technique that would be useful as part of a toolbox to help you sleep better, but if your mattress is not right for you for example, you can do this technique until the cows come home, I can pretty much guarantee you are not going to get good sleep, until you replace your mattress.”
Wilson has another alternative that may work if this one doesn’t.
“Try listening to a spoken word book, particularly one you have read before. This allows your mind to wander rather than wonder and help you drift off,” he says.
“You could also try box breathing. Interestingly, it has been claimed that this technique is used by the SAS to help them sleep in stressful situations. You breathe in for four, hold for four, out for four and rest for four. Keep this going for four minutes and sleep generally comes.”
Here’s to a good night’s sleep.
