Sleep is essential for mental and physical health. It helps repair tissues, strengthen the immune system, regulate emotions, and improve cognitive function. Difficulty falling asleep leads to restless nights and fatigue, which affects mood and productivity. In the long run, sleep deprivation is dangerous for your health and can diminish your overall quality of life. Today, we're sharing 7 techniques you can try to help you fall asleep quickly.

Deep breathing

Deep breathing is an effective method for reducing stress and promoting relaxation and sleep.

You can practice the 4-7-8 method:

1. Sit or lie down comfortably.
2. Close your eyes and exhale all the air from your lungs.
3. Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.
4. Hold your breath for 7 seconds.
5. Exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds, the air contained in your lungs.

This technique helps regulate the nervous system and therefore promotes a state of calm and relaxation , conducive to falling asleep.

Guided meditation

Guided meditation helps calm a restless mind to promote relaxation and sleep. Through a voice that guides the mind through visualizations and breathing exercises, allow your body and mind to relax:

1. Sit or lie down comfortably.
2. Focus on your breathing and observe each inhalation and exhalation.
3. If thoughts arise, observe them and gently bring your attention back to your breathing.

Guided meditation helps banish negative thoughts that are preventing you from falling asleep. You can find apps like PetitBambou or Namatata to guide your mind and relax it.

Progressive muscle relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation helps release physical and mental tension. This technique helps you become aware of each part of your body, which helps you identify and release tension.

To practice this exercise:

1. Lie down in a quiet place.
2. Contract the muscles in each part of the body for 5 to 10 seconds, then release, starting with the feet and moving up to the head.
3. Become aware of the tension in each part of the body and try to release it.

Releasing tension allows the body and mind to relax and prepare the body for sleep.

The military method

This method is used by military personnel to fall asleep quickly, even in difficult conditions:

1. Relax the muscles of your face one after the other: tongue, jaw, nose, eye, etc.
2. Let your shoulders drop as low as possible and relax your arms.
3. Gently exhale to relax your chest, then your legs, then your thighs, down to your feet.
4. Visualize a calm scene and relax for 10 seconds, if that doesn't work, repeat “Don't think about anything” for 10 seconds.

This method helps to gently release physical and mental tension , promoting rapid and relaxed sleep.

The Countdown Method

This method allows the mind to detach itself from stressful thoughts that block sleep, simply by starting a countdown:

1. Lie down and close your eyes.
2. Count from 100 to 0 using your breathing.

Focusing on the numbers, while calming your breathing, helps relax the mind and promote sleep.

Repetition of soothing words

Repeating a word that soothes you helps relax the mind to promote sleep:

1. Choose a word that soothes you like “calm”, “peace”, “sleep”,...
2. Lie down and close your eyes.
3. Repeat the word in sync with your breathing.

Repeating a word helps calm the mind and detach from stressful thoughts , allowing you to drift off to sleep.

How can you make falling asleep even more optimal?

Prepare your environment for sleep

A cool, dark bedroom creates the optimal environment for sleep. Eliminating outside noises that can disrupt sleep also helps prepare you for falling asleep. You can also diffuse essential oils in your bedroom to create an atmosphere conducive to relaxation and prepare your body to gently drift off into the arms of Morpheus.

Adopt a bedtime routine

Maintaining a routine with regular bedtimes and wake-up times is important to help regulate sleep-wake cycles. Before bed, it's also essential to limit exposure to blue light from screens, as it can be detrimental to sleep. For example, you can swap your screens for a paper book before bed.

Adopt a healthy lifestyle

To promote rapid sleep onset, it is essential to adapt your diet, as certain foods can disrupt sleep and other foods can promote sleep. To improve the quality of sleep, you can also practice regular physical activity; morning exercise is highly recommended. To complement good practices and improve your lifestyle, you can take sleep supplements such as oils or infusions before bedtime. You can find the Hovie sleep range with its CBD-based sleep oil and infusion, without THC, without the risk of habituation or dependence, with 100% natural ingredients. These products are a good complement to these techniques to promote rapid sleep onset towards deep and restorative sleep.