How to Fall Asleep Faster
Gaurav Zatakia
Do you struggle with falling asleep? Wish you could fall asleep faster?
If yes, then you are in the right place. Let’s take a look at the science-backed, practical methods and solutions to help you overcome these challenges and fall asleep faster, ensuring you wake up refreshed and ready to tackle your day.
But first let’s understand how sleep works and what could be keeping you from falling asleep faster.
Understanding the Science of Sleep
Sleep is governed by the circadian rhythm, a natural 24-hour cycle that regulates our sleep-wake patterns in response to light and darkness. The brain’s pineal gland produces melatonin, the hormone responsible for inducing sleep, primarily in response to dim lighting or darkness. Any disruption to this cycle—be it from late-night screen time or irregular work hours—can throw the body’s sleep-wake rhythm out of sync.
Common Reasons Why You Are Not Falling Asleep Faster
By understanding how your body’s sleep system works and identifying potential disruptions, you can take the first step toward healthier, faster sleep.
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Stress and Anxiety: Studies by the American Psychological Association show that 43% of adults experience stress that directly impacts their ability to sleep.
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Irregular Sleep Routines: Working late or staying up binge-watching can confuse the body’s internal clock.
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Diet and Lifestyle Choices: Consuming caffeine or nicotine close to bedtime stimulates the nervous system, making it harder to relax.
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Irregular Sleep Routines: If your sleep and wake times keep changing, your body struggles to understand when it’s time to rest. Try fixing your sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, even on weekends.
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Diet and Lifestyle Choices: What you eat and do during the day matters. Too much caffeine, late-night snacks, or lack of physical activity can all make it harder to fall asleep when you actually want to.
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Certain Medications: Some medications, like antidepressants, asthma inhalers, or blood pressure pills, can affect your sleep. If you’ve started a new medicine recently and can’t fall asleep, speak to your doctor. They might adjust the timing or dosage to help.
Why Falling Asleep Faster Matters
The time it takes to fall asleep, known as sleep latency, has a profound impact on sleep quality. It is said that a healthy latency period should typically last between 15 to 20 minutes, and this period does not include pre-bedtime activities like brushing your teeth, showering, or meditating. It includes the moment you hit the bed and try to sleep.
If you are falling asleep within 10 minutes of getting in bed, it is a sign that you are sleep-deprived. Prolonged sleep latency—taking more than 20–30 minutes to fall asleep—is linked to sleep fragmentation, leading to insufficient restorative sleep. This can contribute to:
- Increased risk of chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.
- Declined mental health, with research from Harvard Medical School indicating that poor sleep doubles the risk of developing depression.
- Reduced daytime productivity and focus, as noted in a 2019 study by the National Institutes of Health.
The rest of this guide will equip you with actionable tips on what lifestyle changes you can try and what specific methods you can incorporate into your routine to help you fall asleep faster.
Tips to Fall Asleep Faster At Night
Now, if you have a longer sleep latency period, there are some easy ways to sleep faster by making some much-needed lifestyle changes, such as:
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Create a Cool, Dark, and Quiet Room
Your bedroom should feel like a cave. Sounds funny, but it works. Keep it cool, dim the lights completely, and block out any noise that might distract you. A quiet, dark, and slightly chilly room helps signal your body that it's time to rest. You can use blackout curtains, white noise machines, or even earplugs if needed. The idea is to create a space that’s only meant for sleep, not scrolling through your phone or watching TV.
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Buy the Right Mattress-
Everybody’s body reacts differently as we all have different body needs. Hence, the concept of “one size fits all” does not apply to mattresses.
Every mattress has different firmness, and firmness indicates a different level of comfort for different individuals. For example, people with backaches and other back problems are advised by their doctors to use mattresses suited to their condition. Similarly, different people with different body mechanics, sleep position preferences, activity levels, age, and other factors sleep well on mattresses with varying firmness. Hence, always buy a mattress that suits your level of comfort and firmness and matches your body type.
If you are having trouble picking the right mattress with the proper firmness, read our mattress-buying guide!
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Take a shower
Some sleep experts recommend a warm shower before bed. When you come out of a warm shower to a room that is cooler, the body temperature lowers sooner and one may fall asleep sooner.
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Play Peaceful Music
Some soft music in the background can really set the mood for sleep. Go for calming tunes, instrumental sounds, or even nature noises like rain or ocean waves. Keep the volume low and steady. The rhythm helps slow down your breathing and heart rate, which makes it easier to relax. Just make sure it’s something soothing that doesn’t grab your attention too much.
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Keep Technology Aside
We all have the bad habit of scrolling on our social media before finally drifting to sleep. While keeping ourselves away from technology is difficult in this digital era, it’s necessary to do so at least a few minutes before your bedtime.
Tech devices emit blue light that mimics the UV rays from sunlight. This mimicking can cause you more harm than it can do you good. And on top of that, the use of gadgets before bed for too long can also be a major reason behind sleep deprivation. If you are unable to keep your devices aside, here are some tips to help you with:
- Play some calming music
- Tune into a relaxing podcast
- Tap into an audiobook
- Pick a book from your shelf
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Hide the clock
If you have trouble falling asleep, then looking at the clock constantly will make you more anxious. Increased anxiety levels can further delay the sleeping process. So, keep it simple and hide the clock once you are in bed, to avoid the vicious cycle.
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Avoid Caffeine
While coffee can be a kicking factor to get you out of your sleep, it can be the main culprit behind not letting you sleep.
Whenever you describe your sleeping problem to anyone, you may have heard everyone saying quit caffeine or don’t have it before bed, but no one really tells you how long before your bedtime you should avoid it. Caffeine can linger in your system much longer than you think, potentially disrupting your sleep even six hours before bedtime. So, if you’re aiming to hit the pillow around 10 p.m., it’s a good idea to wrap up your last cup of coffee or tea by 4 p.m.
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Change Your Eating Habits
Your food can have a great impact on your sleep as well. If you are eating a heavy dinner, you are more likely to struggle to fall asleep. This is because your entire body works in digesting the meal, which takes about two to three hours. During this period, if you lie down, you may feel nauseous or uncomfortable, making it difficult to sleep.
Hence, change your eating habits. Avoid eating a heavy meal at night and if you do, make sure you give enough time for your body to digest it before going to bed.
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Practice Yoga
Practicing Yoga not only improves physical strength and flexibility but can help fall asleep sooner, improve mental focus and relieve stress. Certain asanas when practiced before bed can help to induce sleep. Some of them are Hastapadasana, Marjariasana and Shishuasana. Research has shown that Yoga helps to improve several aspects of sleep including sleep efficiency, total sleep time as well as sleep onset latency (the amount of time one takes to fall asleep), among many others. -
Try Aromatherapy
Smells can affect your mind more than you think. Scents like lavender, chamomile, or sandalwood can calm your nervous system and help you drift off more easily. You can use essential oils in a diffuser, spray your pillow with a mist, or just dab a little oil on your wrist. It creates a comforting routine that your body starts associating with bedtime.
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Avoid Excessive Alcohol
Drinking alcohol in large amounts before bed may harm your sleep quality. For those who already struggle with insomnia, even a small amount of alcohol can worsen the condition, making it harder to get a good night’s rest. Hence, try to avoid it too close to bedtime.
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Maintain a dairy
We humans tend to mull over the day’s events before we sleep. When your mind is thinking a lot it remains active and does not let sleep take over. Hence, maintaining a diary is recommended. Diary writing has a cathartic effect. When we pen down our daily happenings we are able to drain all the good and the bad that happened over the day into our journal/diary. So, by the time we sleep the mind is at peace and one is able to drift off easily.
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Have a Regular Bedtime Routine
A consistent bedtime routine is like setting a gentle alarm for your body, signalling when it’s time to wind down for the night. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Maybe it’s listening to a calming playlist, settling into your favourite sleeping position, or indulging in a relaxing bath.
There’s no universal formula, it’s all about what helps you relax and prepare for rest. Stick with it, and over time, your body will naturally recognise the cues, making it easier to drift off and recharge.
6 Methods and Practices to Fall Asleep Quickly
Apart from the above-mentioned lifestyle changes, you can even use these six tried and tested methods to fall asleep quickly.
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Try the 4-7-8 Method
The 4-7-8 method is a breathing technique that has its roots in Pranayam, a traditional yoga technique. Studies suggest that Pranayama may help reduce anxiety and improve the quality of your sleep. Here’s how to do it:
- Lie down comfortably in bed and let your tongue rest gently on the roof of your mouth.
- Begin by exhaling slowly and completely through your mouth, emptying your lungs.
- Inhale deeply through your nose for a count of four.
- Hold your breath for a count of seven.
- Exhale steadily through your mouth for a count of eight.
- Repeat this cycle at least four times.
This rhythmic breathing works as a natural sedative for your nervous system, helping your body shift from stress to serenity.
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Practice the Military Method
The military method is a sleep technique designed to help you drift off quickly by combining muscle relaxation, deep breathing, and calming mental imagery. Here's how you can try it for yourself:
- Lie down in bed, ready to unwind.
- Begin by relaxing your muscles. Start with your face. Tense the muscles by squeezing your eyes shut and scrunching your forehead. Then release them completely as you take slow, deep breaths.
- Gradually repeat this process with each part of your body until you feel your entire body sink into relaxation.
- Picture something serene, like floating peacefully in a canoe on a still lake or gently rocking in a quiet, pitch-black room.
- If distracting thoughts creep in, silently repeat the phrase “don’t think” to yourself for about 10 seconds. Then, return to your calming visualisation.
It might not work perfectly the first time, but don’t worry, this method gets easier and more effective with practice. Stick with it, and you’ll likely find yourself falling asleep faster and with less effort over time.
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Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
Progressive muscle relaxation is a calming technique you can use right before bed. It’s all about slowly tensing and then relaxing different muscle groups in your body, one at a time. You usually start from your toes and move up to your face. The goal is to help your body let go of physical tension and signal to your brain that it's time to wind down. If you're lying in bed with a racing mind, PMR can bring your focus back to your body and make sleep easier to come by.
Try this: Clench your fists tightly for 5 seconds, then release. Notice the difference? Now do the same with other parts of your body. It only takes a few minutes, but it can help a lot.
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Acupressure for Sleep
Acupressure is a gentle method where you press specific points on your body to calm your system. There are certain pressure points for sleep that, when activated, may help reduce anxiety, slow your heart rate, and make it easier to drift off. A few popular points include the space between your eyebrows, the area just below the inside of your ankle bone, and the spot behind your ears.
You can try pressing these points lightly for about 30 seconds each while breathing slowly. It doesn’t require any special training, and you can do it easily while lying in your bed.
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Try Imagery Before Bed
Here, the idea is to mentally transport yourself to a moment or place that feels serene and joyful. Think back to a memory that brings you peace or imagine a scene that makes you feel content. Now, dive into that vision and explore it with all the details you can muster—see it, hear it, even feel it.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Strolling along a quiet beach, feeling the sand between your toes.
- Drifting gently on calm ocean waves, lulled by their rhythm.
- Resting beside the sound of water soothing your mind.
- Watching the sun dip below the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant colours.
By focusing on these vivid mental images, you’re actively engaging your mind to encourage relaxation. It’s like giving your brain a gentle nudge toward calmness, making it easier to let go of the day’s stress and drift off to sleep
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Paradoxical Intention
This method might sound strange at first, but it works for some people. Instead of trying hard to sleep, you do the opposite as you stay awake on purpose. This removes the pressure and anxiety that often come with trying to fall asleep quickly.
Here’s how you do it: lie in bed and keep your eyes open (but relaxed) and keep telling yourself to stay awake. This usually tricks your brain and body into relaxing, and sleep sneaks up on you naturally. It works especially well if you tend to stress about not being able to sleep. -
Counting Method
You have probably heard of “counting sheep,” but this goes a little deeper. The counting method involves picking a slow, steady pattern like counting backwards from 100 and repeating it in your mind. The goal is not to reach zero but to keep your brain gently occupied without overstimulating it. Some people pair this with breathing, such as inhaling on odd numbers and exhaling on even ones. It creates a rhythm that helps calm your thoughts, slow your heart rate, and prepare your body for sleep. If your mind wanders, just gently return to your count.
When to Get Out of Bed
If you’re lying in bed and it’s been more than 20 minutes without falling asleep, it might be time to get up. This applies whether it’s the start of the night or you’ve woken up at 2 a.m. and can’t fall back asleep. Staying in bed while tossing and turning doesn’t help. In fact, it can train your brain to link your bed with being awake and restless instead of calm and sleepy. Instead, get out of bed and move to a quiet space. Try something relaxing like reading a book, doing light stretches, or taking slow, deep breaths. Avoid looking at your phone or watching TV. The light from screens can confuse your body clock and make it even harder to fall asleep. Once you feel sleepy again, head back to bed and try to fall asleep naturally. This technique is called stimulus control. It helps your brain reconnect your bed with sleeping, not with frustration or overthinking. Over time, this habit can make your sleep more consistent and peaceful.Bottom Line
We hope you find any one way to help you sleep. But if you still struggle sleeping, it’s best to consult a doctor for a proper diagnosis of a possible case of insomnia or other sleep disorders.
FAQs:
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How can I fall asleep in 2 minutes?
The 4-7-8 breathing technique is a quick and simple way to drift off to sleep in no time. Here’s how it works: take a deep breath in through your nose for four seconds, hold it for seven seconds, and then slowly let it out through your mouth over eight seconds. Repeat this cycle a few times, and before you know it, you'll be on your way to dreamland. It’s easy, effective, and perfect for calming your mind after a long day!
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How to make my child fall asleep quickly?
To make sure your child is fast asleep, create a bedtime routine. Make sure your child is comfortable with it and feels relaxed once they finally hit the bed.
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What is it called when you fall asleep too easily?
Narcolepsy is a condition where someone can suddenly fall asleep almost anywhere, anytime. These unexpected "sleep attacks" might come with no warning at all. The length of these sleep episodes can vary widely. Some might only last a few seconds, like a brief "microsleep," while others can stretch to several minutes or even up to half an hour.
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Should I go back to sleep after waking up?
Well, this depends on whether you had a full night of good sleep. If you wake up an hour before of your alarm and haven’t hit that 7-hour sweet spot yet, it’s probably a good idea to roll over and catch a bit more rest. But if you’ve already logged around 7 hours, it might be smarter to get up and start your day. Trying to squeeze in a few extra minutes could leave you feeling groggy and dealing with that dreaded sleep inertia.
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Is it normal if I fall into a deep sleep immediately?
For most people, instantly drifting off the moment your head touches the pillow isn’t a nightly reality. In fact, if you consistently fall asleep that quickly, it could be a sign of severe sleep deprivation—your body is simply too exhausted to stay awake any longer.
On average, it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep, though some people naturally nod off faster. If you’re one of those quick sleepers and still wake up feeling refreshed and energised, there’s no need to worry about how fast you’re dozing off.
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Why do I want to sleep, but my body won’t let me?
There are several reasons that make your body resist you from sleeping. These may include:
- Drinking caffeine within six hours of bedtime
- Intense workouts in the afternoon or evening
- Using electronics too close to bedtime
- Eating certain foods that might disrupt sleep
- A room that’s too warm or uncomfortable
- Feeling restless or anxious
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How long should it take to fall asleep?
It should ideally take about 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep after getting into bed. Falling asleep too quickly can be a sign of sleep deprivation. Taking longer than 20 minutes might point to insomnia or poor sleep quality. This time is known as sleep latency.
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How to do the military sleep method?
Military sleep hacks are techniques used by military personnel to fall and stay asleep in difficult conditions. You can try the following military sleep hacks:
- Relax your muscles
- Breathe deeply
- Find a comfortable sleeping position
- Visualize a peaceful scene
- Adjust the temperature and lighting
- Use earplugs and eye masks
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How to sleep fast in 5 minutes?
There are several techniques you can try to fall asleep quickly in 5 minutes:
- Progressive muscle relaxation
- Visualization
- Create a bedtime routine
- Limit caffeine and screen time
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How to fall asleep when you can’t?
If you're having trouble falling asleep, there are several techniques you can try to help you drift off:
- Relaxation techniques
- Get out of bed
- Create a sleep-conducive environment
- Avoid stimulating activities
- Practice good sleep hygiene
- Seek professional help