How To Fall Asleep Fast – Sleep Doctor Tips!

Hey, everyone. I'm Dr. Michael Bruce, The Sleep Doctor. One of the top questions that I get asked is, Dr. Bruce, how can I fall asleep fast every single night? It makes sense. I mean, getting to sleep can be tough, and that's why many, many people use sleep aids like melatonin, alcohol, or even prescription sleep aids to help them fall asleep. But I want to give you some tips that you can do to help you fall asleep fast tonight, no supplementation or alcohol required. First thing you need to understand though is how long should it take somebody to fall asleep? Remember, sleep is not an on-off switch. It's more like slowly pulling your foot off the gas and slowly putting your foot on the brake. There's a process that needs to occur there. And I'd love to be able to say that healthy sleep means you fall asleep in 10 minutes or less, but the reality is everyone takes a different amount of time to fall asleep. It's important to consider is daytime sleepiness, right? So if you're feeling tired during the day, that is definitely a sign that you're not getting the amount of sleep that you need at night. If it takes one person five minutes to fall asleep and another person 30 minutes to fall asleep, as long as they both report feeling rested in the morning, I'm going to be honest with you. I think either one is fine. The signs that you need to consider falling asleep is a problem is, like I mentioned earlier, this idea of daytime fatigue or sleepiness. If you notice that your eyes are doing one of this during the day, or you can't stay awake in a meeting, or you're watching a video and you just can't seem to concentrate, that's definitely a sign that you're getting some level of daytime fatigue or sleepiness. Also, difficulty getting up in the morning. And it's not just, oh, I don't feel like getting up. It's I hit the snooze once, I hit the snooze twice, I hit the snooze three times. That's your body really telling you, hey, I don't want to get up. Once you're up, having a reduced attention span, like I said earlier, and then the mental health side of this is also there, right? Irritability, depression, or anxiety, all of which elevate the more sleep-deprived you are. So my first tip is pay attention to something called your chronotype. By the way, if you don't know what your chronotype is, this is your genetic predisposition to when you should sleep and when you're most productive during the day. Good news, if you don't know what your chronotype is, head on over to TakeMyChronoQuiz at sleepdoctor.com and you can learn very quickly what it is. Here's what's interesting. Trouble falling asleep could be that you're not aligned with your chronotype. So as an example, let's say that you're an early bird chronotype and you're staying up until midnight to go to sleep. That could be a problem. Or if you're a night owl chronotype, what I call a wolf, and you're getting in bed too early, that could be a problem. Do me a favor, if you can, subscribe to my YouTube channel because we've got lots of information about chronotypes there as well. Another thing that you can definitely do is lower the thermostat. The ideal temperature seems to be somewhere between 65 and about 72 degrees. You can achieve this by turning down your thermostat, using a fan or covering the windows with dark curtains. One of my favorite tricks is my frozen water bottle trick. So just take a bottle of water, something like this, and then freeze it, put it into a tube sock and put one on the outside of each hip. It's like having your own personal AC unit and it works like a charm. Another well-known trick that's actually been documented in the literature is taking a warm bath or shower within 90 minutes before bedtime. So have you ever had a long day and then taken a shower right before bed? My hunch is that you probably had an easier time falling asleep. Well, guess what? That's because it's raising your core body temperature and then having it drop, which is a very big signal to your brain to promote relaxation and release melatonin. In fact, studies have shown that 10 minutes in a warm bath or shower within two hours of your bedtime have improved overall sleep quality all the time. Another one, exercise a bit earlier during the day. I tell people all the time, sleep is not something that you can do on a dime. You have to give yourself a chance to do it. So you can start preparing your body and your mind for sleep actually by the time you wake up. That might mean shifting your exercise to a bit earlier in the day. We all know that after exercise, we do have a tendency to have a little bit more energy. So for folks who are exercising really late and then trying to go to bed, it might be pretty difficult. Now, this one has got some controversy in it, avoiding electronics before bed. I know it's super tempting to wind down by watching TikTok or Instagram, catching up on the news or YouTube videos, but your phone is a problem, okay? When you're sitting here looking at it and you're getting all of this information so close, I'm not even as worried about the blue light as I am your level of engagement. If you're trying to get your high score on Candy Crush or trying to learn what's going on in the news, I'm pretty sure that's going to cause enough anxiety to prevent you from falling asleep. I'd rather you even turn on the television and watch an old episode of like Seinfeld or a comedy or something that can take your mind off of things because right before bed is not the time to getting your news and media update. Another thing I like to tell people, keep a consistent bedtime and wake-up time schedule, including the weekends. I can't stress this enough. And by the way, regular wake-up times are more important than regular bedtimes. So let's say it's Friday night and you want to stay up late, but your normal wake-up time is 7 a.m. I'm okay with you still waking up at 7 a.m. if you stayed up until midnight or one. Do me a favor, don't take a nap during the day and keep that sleep deprivation up because that helps you then fall asleep at night. So if you notice, your bedtime can be variable, but your wake-up time has to be consistent and it has to be on Saturdays and Sundays, I'm sorry to say. Okay, what do you do right before bed if you don't know how to have a routine? I've developed a concept that I call the power down hour. So let's say that your bedtime is 11.30. At 10.30, set an alarm in your bedroom to force you to go in there to turn it off. And now take that hour before bed and chop it up into three 20-minute segments. 20 minutes for just stuff you got to do. So in our house, it might be finding shoes, backpack, sports equipments for kids, last-minute emails, probably not the best, but if you got to do it, go ahead. 20 minutes for hygiene. So brush your teeth, wash your face, maybe then is a time to take that warm bath or shower. The final 20 minutes is there for some level of meditation, relaxation, prayer. If none of those appeal to you, maybe a gratitude list is something that can work out for you. But something to take your mind off of daily stressors and put it onto something positive. There is a lot of data now surfacing that shows that positive emotions before bedtime not only help you fall asleep, but give you more positive dreams. And my final recommendation is to practice meditation and breathing. These are some of the best things that you can possibly do for your sleep. Now, don't worry. Some people think this can get complicated. We've got a video about it right here to explain it all to you. All my favorite techniques and specifically the ones that work for sleep. So it really doesn't matter how fast you fall asleep. I want you to get the best sleep that you can. This is Dr. Michael Bruce, The Sleep Doctor, wishing you sweet dreams.