"So You Want To Know How to Fall Asleep?"
Here is a surefire strategy that no one is telling you about.
There are a lot of tips out there on how to fall asleep, but I stumbled upon a great tool to help me fall asleep faster that is not often mentioned in the typical 10-ways-to-fall-asleep tips you find.
If you're seriously interested in learning how to fall asleep faster, I dare you to read this entire article and not give my recommendation a try.
You are about to learn one of the most often overlooked natural ways to fall asleep easier. As I mentioned, you're not likely to find it listed in most tips to fall asleep.
And make no mistake: being able to make yourself fall asleep and getting deep, restful sleep – known as REM sleep – is vital.
If you think you're alone in having trouble falling asleep, think again. Here are a few sobering facts regarding trouble falling asleep, cited from the book MicroTrends (Twelve, 2007):
- The average American now sleeps less than seven hours a night, which is a drop of about 25 percent since the early 1990s. (p. 81)
- Indeed, the number of people who sleep fewer than six hours per night is rising fast – from 12 percent of American adults in 1998 to 16 percent in 2005. (p. 81)
- And more generally, most people who are up in the middle of the night are up because they can't sleep, not because they don't want to. (p. 82)
- Short sleep is actually statistically correlated with poor health, worry, stress, and low income. (p. 82)
- In the 2005 Sleep in America poll, 60 percent of participants said they have driven drowsy in the last year, and 37 percent say they've nodded off or fallen asleep behind the wheel. (p. 83)
- And bad sleep threatens domestic harmony. Thirty-nine percent of sexually active American adults – including 64 percent of women aged 35-44 – say they pass up sex for sleep. (p. 83)
- One in 4 adults says their spouse's or partner's sleep problems keep them awake, too. (p. 83)
- But perhaps the most surprising implication is the vicious-cycle link between sleeplessness and obesity. Being overweight can cause sleep problems, including clogged airways that constrain breathing. But because a lack of sleep actually triggers hormones that boost hunger and appetite, sleeping too little can also raise your chances of getting fat….sleeping just six hours per night raises your risk of developing obesity 23 percent. Sleeping just four hours per night raises it 73 percent. (p. 83)
- Less sleep also means less productivity. Two in 10 American adults say sleepiness caused them to make recent errors at work. Productivity costs have been estimated at $50 billion. (p. 83)
As if all that isn't enough: Some lawyers are starting to make insomnia their business. New Jersey criminalized "drowsy-driving" in 2003 – calling it akin to drunk-driving – although other states have been slow to follow. (p. 83)
Decades-Old Discovery Holds The Answer
Before I reveal my answer for how to fall asleep faster, I want to provide you with a foundation for understanding why it works to help people fall asleep easy.
There is a science that deals with the electrical activity of the brain, and by deliberately manipulating that electrical activity, anyone can alter their mental state to help alleviate trouble falling asleep.
Various brain wave tempos are associated with specific states of awareness. These are as follows:
- Beta Waves 13-40 Hz (normal awake and alert state)
- Alpha Waves 8-12 HZ (relaxed wakefulness, creative)
- Theta Waves 3-7 Hz (reverie, imagery)
- Delta Waves 0.5-2 Hz (deep sleep)
Listen closely. Research proves that pulsating sound and light stimulation produces a "frequency following" or "entrainment" effect in the brain (Scientific America, June 1954). In this context, the word "entrainment" refers to the propensity of brain waves to match with external stimulation.
Now, this leads me to the tool I use to help me fall asleep faster.
The Latest Brain Wave Manipulation Technology
The recognition of brainwave entrainment via sound and light, plus the development of small inexpensive computers, has resulted in the manufacture of small sound and light machines that have been dubbed "mind machines."
Mind machines provide the external rhythmic stimulation required for one to deliberately manipulate one's brain wave frequencies. The resulting entrainment of the electrical activity on the brain leads to different mental states.
Simply stated, one of the ways to fall asleep easier is to use a mind machine to help coax your brainwaves into the Delta range.
Mind machines have been around for years and numerous articles have been written about their benefits, including memory improvement, accelerated learning, learned relaxation, and focusing the mind.
If all you want is help falling asleep, they are great for that, too. It certainly provides brain entertainment to help me fall asleep.
These devices are experimental and are not approved by any government agency for any purpose. Nonetheless, many people have tried them and found them beneficial, myself included.
There are a lot of mind machines out there for anyone who is looking for an answer on how to fall asleep faster. Personally, I use the Zen Master Light & Sound Mind Machine & CD Player Relaxation System.
How I Discovered Mind Machines
I first became aware of mind machines after visiting a Positive Changes Hypnosis Center. During the initial consultation, I noticed a pair of sunglasses attached to a small MP3 player-like device sitting on a pedestal. I asked about it and was told that it was used to enhance the effectiveness of the hypnotherapy sessions they offered.
Well, being a thrifty kind of guy, I decided I'd look into getting a similar device and use it for self-hypnosis rather than pay the exorbitant fee I was quoted at the Positive Changes Hypnosis Center.
That led to me discovering mind machines as being one of the best natural ways to fall asleep easier.
Using A Zen Mind Machine For Help Falling Asleep
Like all mind machines, The Zen Master Light & Sound Mind Machine works by strobing light impulses into your closed eyes via glasses. The flashing lights work in synchrony with varied pulsating humming sounds delivered via headphones you place on your ears. The combination of these two stimuli is intended to muster the brain waves and induce whichever level of mental awareness one desires.
When I need help falling asleep, I simply select program number 27 out of the 50 pre-programmed sessions stored in the Zen Mind Machine's memory. Session 27 is a lucid dreaming program that walks the brain down from 18 Hz (normal awake and alert state) to between 4 and 1 Hz (fall asleep state).
Program number 27 is set at the factory to last 40 minutes. But to ensure help falling asleep, I typically use the time-adjustment functionality built into the Zen Mind Machine and extend the session to between 60 and 90 minutes.
Once I have the program selected and the time adjusted, I just put on the glasses, snuggle into bed, and watch the magnificent light show that follows.
You have to experiment to see what works best for you.
I've found the pulsating hum from the headphones to be more of a hindrance rather than a help when I want to fall asleep fast. Therefore, I typically do not use the sound functionality. I sleep with ear plugs to block all sound and just focus on the dazzling light show delivered by the glasses.
Another thing that I do to help me fall asleep while using my mind machine is meditate. It's a very simple meditation. I simply focus on my breathing and count each exhale. When I get to a count of four exhales, I start the count over at one.
The combination of both the marvelous light show and the meditation helps keep my mind from racing so I get to sleep easier. When I find my mind wondering, I simply refocus on watching the light show and counting my breaths again.
The Zen Mind Machine Is Great For Fall-Asleep Hypnosis
The Zen Mind Machine is an innovation in mind machine technology because it delivers light/sound emitting technology merged into a CD player. Most other mind machine systems require an external audio player if you want to use music or self-hypnosis CDs along with them.
The Zen Mind Machine also lets you use light/sound encoded audio CDs meant to be used with a mind machine system. Such CDs synchronize the light strobing and sound pulsating with the music of the CD.
In short, if you're interested in using fall-asleep hypnosis CDs, the Zen Mind Machine accommodates playing a CD that provides some audible music or provides subliminal messages while the pulsating light/sound element occurs.
Result is: it puts you in the right relaxed state to fall asleep faster.
If you're like me and would rather not hear the hum while listening to a self-hypnosis CD, the Zen Mind Machine allows one to set the hum volume to zero.
The primary users of light and sound stimulation systems are interested in personal growth and self-improvement. Many use self-improvement CDs or MP3 recordings with their mind machines.
I was going through a very stressful time when I came across the mind machine concept, hence the trip to the Positive Changes Hypnosis Center.
To enhance my own self-hypnosis regimen, I began looking online for self-hypnosis CDs that I could use with my new Zen Master Light & Sound Mind Machine.
I came across Hypno-Peripheral Processing (HPP) CDs produced by Dr. Lloyd Glauberman.
HPP CDs utilize a story-telling technique intended to circumvent the mind's awareness without the use of subliminal messages. This is achieved with two stories narrated at the same time, one in each ear.
Here's why: it produces a gentle overload that guides you into a totally peaceful state, ideal for absorbing messages and suggestions. The suggestions are cleverly embedded in the dual stories.
After reading some positive reviews about Glauberman's HPP CDs, I decided to try the Changing Emotions: A Stress Management Program Hypno-Peripheral Processing CD.
The HPP CDs are supposed to be self-hypnosis CDs for self-improvement. After using the one I bought, I'm not so sure about the effectiveness of the HPP CDs as far as producing positive changes in one's behaviors, thoughts, and emotions.
But, what I did find is that the combination of the sounds, the music and the slow, deliberate narration of the two stories help me fall asleep quickly.
I use the Changing Emotions: A Stress Management Program Hypno-Peripheral Processing CD with my Zen Mind Machine if I'm so wound up that I can't fall asleep with just the aforementioned strobing lights and meditation routine.
Say "Yes" To Help Falling Asleep
If you want help to fall asleep, the Zen Mind Machine is worth considering. It's a sound and light machine with enough desirable features to make it more than another "me too." These include:
- A normal CD player complete with track programming capabilities and 10 second anti-skip
- 50 built-in light & sound sessions
- 5 “Autopilot” programs that target different brain wave frequencies and that generate a new and unique session each time they are selected
- Ability to store up to 25 additional “Autopilot” generated programs for a total of 75 programs
- Ability to scale and control the time of any program from 5 minutes to 2 hours
It's expensive, yes, but based on my personal experience, it delivers acceptable real-world performance that's up to the task of alleviating anyone's trouble falling asleep – with or without the aid of a falling-asleep hypnosis CD.
Click to Visit Dr. Glauberman's HPP CDs Site