Having trouble falling asleep and drinking warm milk isn’t helping? Well sometimes, the conventional methods to cure sleeplessness may not help, that’s when it is time to upgrade your techniques. Check out these 5 strange therapies that can help you fall asleep.
#1. Stimulus Control
It means avoiding any kind of stimulating activity that takes away your sleep. People have a habit of doing all kinds of things in bed such as watching TV, reading or checking their Facebook. This essentially means you will be controlling the stimulus and create a ‘Bed=sleep’ association between your mind and body. So, after a few days, you will easily fall asleep when you hit the bed as you have already taken the distractions out.
#2. Try 4-7-8 Breathing
This is a simple activity that involves breathing in patterns that can help oxygenate the blood and lead to relaxation. In fact, this kind of breathing is even used in various religions but in different variations. All you have to do is lie down or sit in a comfortable position and breathe in through the nose as you count till four. Now hold your breath as you count till 7. Slowly exhale via your mouth while count till eight. Repeat at least 4-5 times until you feel relaxed.
#3. Trick your brain
In this technique, you trick your mind into staying awake. Strange, right? Well actually, this therapy is more suited for people who are worried about not sleeping. So, if you are worried about not being able to sleep, you need to reverse the situation and give your brain something else to worry about. You start obsessing about trying to stay awake. This helps get rid of the frustration and relaxes you which helps you sleep.
#4. Sleep in Phases
The big idea about multiple phases of sleep is that humans don’t sleep for long hours. Traditionally humans have always taken naps even at night, so the entire sleep cycle was broken into 2-3 bigger chunks. Some people may go to sleep early, wake up in 3 hours, finish off a task and then go back to bed. It is completely normal and possibly more beneficial. This technique is popular among people who want to ‘hack’ their sleeping cycles for more productivity. So, they nap for some time during the day and follow up at night. However, it is very difficult for most people and even if you they try, continuing it seems a very difficult task.
#5. Sleep hypnosis podcasts
If nothing else seems to help and you are prone to the power of suggestion, you can give sleep hypnosis podcasts or audios. This works best when you are willing to follow through the procedure and do not have any disturbances such as noise, lights, eating etc.