Can’t sleep? People are swearing by this US military method for curing insomnia
We all know that sleep is good for us. It can improve your immunity, minimise your risk of heart disease and stroke, and stop you from having that cranky brain fog that stops you from functioning properly at work.
But if you’re one of the 16 million adults in the UK that suffers from regular sleepless nights, it can be really difficult to clock up the eight hours you need to feel fully rested.
From staring at the ceiling for hours on end to periodically checking your bedside clock, there’s really nothing worse than having a bad night’s sleep – especially when you feel like you’ve tried every sleep technique going.
But we think we may have found one final secret to getting that much-needed shut eye you’ve long been dreaming of.
Apparently the US military has a secret method for helping its pilots get to sleep in two minutes flat, and it doesn’t involve thousands of press ups or trudging through mud.
In a 1981 book titled Relax and Win: Championship Performance, author Lloyd Winter details a sleep-giving technique that was reportedly developed by army generals to help eliminate mistakes in their ranks.
The method has been knocking around for years, but recently resurfaced online amongst sleep-deprived internet users, according to men’s lifestyle website Joe.co.uk.
So how exactly does it work?
Firstly, you need to close your eyes and relax your face – feel your jaw, tongue and forehead drop.
Next you should drop your shoulders as low as they can go and then relax your upper and lower arm on one side, and then the other.
Breathe out steadily and relax your chest, before relaxing your legs, from the thighs to the calves.
Finally picture yourself either lying in a canoe on a calm lake, with nothing but blue sky above you, or snug in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room.
If visualisation doesn’t work, you can also try saying, ‘don’t think, don’t think, don’t think’, over and over again, for ten seconds.
According to the book, the method is said to have a 96% success rate after six weeks of practice.
So if you’ve tried counting sheep and meditation apps, and you’re still coming into work fuelled by coffee, there’s really no harm in giving this easy brain exercise a go. You may just trick yourself into the land of nod.
The Press Association
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