If you’re among the one in five Brits who struggle with sleep, there’s a speedy hack that might help you get some shut eye.
Canada-based fitness expert Justin Augustin has detailed a technique developed by the US army to help fighter pilots fall asleep in noisy and stressful situations.
According to Augustin — who spoke of the method in a social media clip that’s so far amassed 11 million views — it is said to help you nod off in two minutes, and works for around 90 per cent of those who try it.
The method consists of a combination of deep breathing and visualisations in an attempt to ‘shut the body down’, one bit at a time.
You begin by lying in any comfortable position on the bed.
Next come a series of visualisations about relaxing the muscles in each and every part of the body — starting with your forehead.
‘Relax your eyes, your cheeks, your jaw and focus on your breathing,’ Agustin instructed in the clip.
‘Now go down to your neck and shoulders. Make sure your shoulders are not tensed up. Drop them as low as you can and keep your arms loose by your side, including your hands and fingers.’
The next phase is to imagine a ‘warm sensation’ travelling from the top of your head all the way down to your fingertips.
‘Now, take a deep breath and slowly exhale, relaxing your chest, your stomach down to your thighs, knees, legs and feet. Again, imagine the warn sensation going all the way down to your toes,’ he said.
Augustin advised to then switch to one of two visualisations in your mind.
Either: ‘You’re laying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but clear blue sky above you.’
Or: ‘You’re laying in a black velvet hammock in a pitch-black room.’
He promised that if you practice the technique every night for six weeks, you should be able to fall asleep within two minutes of closing your eyes.
The clip has attracted more than 12,000 comments on YouTube — most of which are praise for the technique.
One user wrote: ‘I’ve been practicing this technique for well over 30 years, even to this day, now that I’ve retired from the military. It has helped tremendously in those times of war. This is a very good technique.’
Sleep deprivation can lead to obesity, memory loss, diabetes, heart disease, heightened and unstable emotions, impaired ability to learn and a reduced immune response, leaving you vulnerable to disease
Another man said: ‘Using this technique for my job. I am a trucker and rest is well needed, this helps a lot.’
Some even vouched for its use during periods of acute anxiety. ‘This is literally what i do on nights I have bad anxiety,’ one user wrote, adding it ‘works like a charm’.
Meanwhile, a ‘chronic insomniac’ who was initially ‘very skeptical’ was pleased to find it ‘actually works’.
Studies have shown that relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and visualisations can improve quantity and quality of sleep.
Prolonged exhalations are known to rapidly slow down the heart rate, activating the parasympathetic nervous system — a network of nerves that relaxes your body after periods of stress or danger.
The act of intentionally relaxing each part of your body is a type of meditation known as ‘body scanning’, which has long been proven to trigger hormones association with feelings of calm.
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