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Have seen this earlier. Did it work for you?

by zerop 5y ago

lm28469 5y ago
It works because soldiers are exhausted by default, the problem isn't physical for them, it's mostly mental. If you take the average non exercising overweight westerner who sleep too much, eat too much and spend 75% of his day either sitting or lying down and watch netflix before going to bed there is no magic bullet to fall asleep fast. Exercise, eat properly, skip screens at night and have a solid sleep schedule, these are all you need, the rest will fall in place by itself. You don't get to optimise the last 0.1% of the process if the first 99.9% are trash
- sumtechguy 5y ago
  Diet and routine does help. Many people in their late 30s and up I also recommend trying to reduce the amount of sugar and caffeine at least 3-4 hours before they sleep (ie 0 amount). I personally have used a meditation technique for years. This method looks like a variation of that. I think as long as you relax and have the meditation bits you brain will start to associate 'do this means sleepy time'. Basically relax, breath normal but regular, minimize thoughts, meditation exercise. Me personally my 'exercise' for it is to calmly "count to 50 I will not make it past 20'. I rarely get to 5. For me if my brain is 'calm and clear' sleep is usually no issue. But if there is something that is concerning then it is more difficult. There are a very few times I have to go up to 50 and start over 2-3 times to get it to work right. But usually only if I am stressed about something else. Routine is key also. But if the meditation is part of that your brain will do odd things. Even just thinking about this is making me feel sleepy :)
  - lm28469 5y ago
    Yeah caffeine is a big one too, even up to 6+ hours before bed time it can still disrupt sleep: https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.3170 https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.3170 I also do the counting thing, or other "actively try not to fall sleep" things
robtherobber 5y ago
Didn't work for me in 80%+ of cases where I was having trouble sleeping. And when it did work, I tend to assume that it worked because I was having a good night and probably everything would have worked. I'm still very fond of the image of being blanketed and cosy in a canoe looking at a blue reddish sky after the sun went down and waiting to drift into sleep.
spicyusername 5y ago
The article doesn't do a great job of explaining the technique in full, but another few posts link to better articles that describe the process more fully. I typically have problems falling asleep and can confirm that these "clear your mind, scan your body" approaches worked for me after some practice.

Have seen this earlier. Did it work for you?

by zerop 5y ago

Have seen this earlier. Did it work for you?

It works because soldiers are exhausted by default, the problem isn't physical for them, it's mostly mental. If you take the average non exercising overweight westerner who sleep too much, eat too much and spend 75% of his day either sitting or lying down and watch netflix before going to bed there is no magic bullet to fall asleep fast. Exercise, eat properly, skip screens at night and have a solid sleep schedule, these are all you need, the rest will fall in place by itself. You don't get to optimise the last 0.1% of the process if the first 99.9% are trash

sumtechguy 5y ago
Diet and routine does help. Many people in their late 30s and up I also recommend trying to reduce the amount of sugar and caffeine at least 3-4 hours before they sleep (ie 0 amount). I personally have used a meditation technique for years. This method looks like a variation of that. I think as long as you relax and have the meditation bits you brain will start to associate 'do this means sleepy time'. Basically relax, breath normal but regular, minimize thoughts, meditation exercise. Me personally my 'exercise' for it is to calmly "count to 50 I will not make it past 20'. I rarely get to 5. For me if my brain is 'calm and clear' sleep is usually no issue. But if there is something that is concerning then it is more difficult. There are a very few times I have to go up to 50 and start over 2-3 times to get it to work right. But usually only if I am stressed about something else. Routine is key also. But if the meditation is part of that your brain will do odd things. Even just thinking about this is making me feel sleepy :)
- lm28469 5y ago
  Yeah caffeine is a big one too, even up to 6+ hours before bed time it can still disrupt sleep: https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.3170 https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.3170 I also do the counting thing, or other "actively try not to fall sleep" things

robtherobber 5y ago

Didn't work for me in 80%+ of cases where I was having trouble sleeping. And when it did work, I tend to assume that it worked because I was having a good night and probably everything would have worked. I'm still very fond of the image of being blanketed and cosy in a canoe looking at a blue reddish sky after the sun went down and waiting to drift into sleep.

spicyusername 5y ago

The article doesn't do a great job of explaining the technique in full, but another few posts link to better articles that describe the process more fully. I typically have problems falling asleep and can confirm that these "clear your mind, scan your body" approaches worked for me after some practice.