A "Fall Back Asleep" Hack
After I wrote the original Week #1 Sleep Post, I’ve been experimenting with all kinds of ways to increase my sleep score (measured via Fitbit.) Reading before bedtime with my sunset lamp has been a huge help falling asleep, but I still wake up frequently during the night, then have problems falling asleep again.
Exercising rigorously the day before AND avoiding alcohol helps, but I’ve still had too many days where I wake up at 2 am and just lie in bed for two hours (I get up at 4 am.) Or I get up and try to do something productive. The lack of sleep definitely lowers my sleep score AND leads to a worse day. I’m moodier, my workout isn’t as good, and I just can’t think as well.
To combat this, I’ve been experimenting with different strategies based on a few principles. First, your body (muscles) needs to be physically relaxed to fall asleep. This is part of the reason stress and anxiety keep us awake, and rigorous exercise helps us sleep (muscles are fatigued post-workout, ergo relaxed.) This is especially true for the muscles around our eyes. Second, our thoughts need to be calm, pleasant, and relaxing. We can’t be ruminating about something from the past, and we can’t be obsessing about the future.
My biggest problem is usually the nonstop stream of ideas popping in my head. They take me down all kinds of rabbit holes, which usually cause a degree of excitement, which then keeps me awake.
My epiphany came a few nights ago. A few weeks ago, I was experimenting with moving my eyes back and forth, ala old-school hypnosis inductions:
While it did induce ey muscle fatigue, it proved to be too distracting. Or I’d stop without realizing I stopped until I was twenty minutes into thinking about a new method to make beef jerky.
A few days ago, I started meditating (per the Week #4 Meditation Post), which gave me the idea to induce eye fatigue while focusing on breathing using my meditation methodology. Since the eye movement trick was too distracting to do while also focusing on breathing, I simply kept my eyes open while imagining my eyelids were really heavy and trying to keep them open (another hypnosis trick.)
Sidebar - my room is very dark. Any significant ambient light can sabotage this process by causing your brain to go into “it’s daytime!” mode.
Anyway, this hack has worked like a charm. As I focus on breathing in and out, my eyes naturally close. which diverts my attention away from breathing. I gently shift focus back to my eyes, open them, note how heavy they feel, then go back to focusing on breathing.
Every time I’ve tried this, I get through maybe three or four cycles of being distracted and refocusing before falling asleep, which probably takes about five minutes. I stay sleeping until it’s time to wake up. So far, I’ve tested different positions, which seem inconsequential.
If you have trouble falling asleep or waking up and falling back asleep, give this hack a shot. If it works, let me know by posting in our Facebook Group!
~Jason
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