How I Accidentally Learned To Fall Asleep With Ease
You know that feeling of getting into bed and drifting off to sleep within minutes? It’s a magical, peaceful feeling of the in-between state of consciousness as you transition into sleep.
Not as often as you’d like, right?
This delightful experience is the grand prize of sleep. After years of struggle to find it, I discovered how to make it a reality most nights.
Until recently, few people realized how critical sleep is to your mental and physical health. Research has shown that sleep deprivation can harm your immune system, negatively impact your mental health, impede your ability to work, and shorten your lifespan. You can’t ask for more powerful reasons to improve your sleep.
Once the research proved how critical sleep is, thousands of books and articles offered encouragement to make sleep a priority along with tips about how to sleep better. Ideas include keeping a cool, dark room, turning off your phone, meditating, and maintaining an evening routine.
These sleep hacks are helpful, but they are tweaks. Anyone who lays awake in bed unable to sleep knows the power of the mind to conspire against you.
If you’re one of us — the folks who build a fortress of giant worries, just as we hit the bed — you need to take a wrecking ball to knock that building to down.
I discovered the solution by accident.
One nice-weather weekend morning, my husband and I decided to take a two 1/2 hour walk, with a reward in the middle — a trip to our favorite cafe for a homemade boreka. The boreka was a great motivator for that extra-long walk, but a slice of carrot cake or a poppyseed lemon scone works as well. Our neighborhood is extremely hilly. We were huffing and puffing part of the way but it felt good to push ourselves beyond what we were used to.
Feeling energetic and enjoying the milestone of a few thousand extra steps. I decided to head to the gym later that day. I had been wanting to begin a weight training program. A few minutes on several machines and some 5-pound hand-weight curls felt like little effort, but a couple hours later, I was exhausted.
By 9:00 p.m. I was craving bed, but I forced myself to stay up until 10:00 p.m. That’s when I got my reward.
Going above and beyond my usual exercise wiped me out. I was too tired to put in my AirPods to listen to the music that helps me fall asleep. It wasn’t necessary. I savored every minute of relaxation as I drifted gently off to sleep.
So many nights I had tried to use my mind to control my mind and it didn’t work. That night, my body ruled my mind, not the reverse. There were no thoughts or worries powerful enough to overcome my physical exhaustion.
I don’t enjoy exercise. It’s hard to get motivated. The benefits of exercise, like improving my health and maintaining a healthy weight take months or years to see results. But falling easily off to sleep? That benefit would be just a few hours away.
There is nothing like immediate gratification to motivate you.
Since that first night of physical exhaustion, you can’t keep me away from the gym. I’ve figured out a way to get the most bang for my buck so I don’t have to spend too much time when I am busy. Weights tire me out and I’m experimenting with a variety of exercises. If I can grab a few minutes in between other activities to do squats or sit-ups, I will. I’ll do as much as possible, knowing what awaits me that evening.
Every single day, I find ways to exhaust my body for the delightful result I’ll get a few hours later. The only downside is that a few times I overdid it and couldn’t move for the entire evening.
After several weeks I’m in better shape than ever, but that’s just a side effect. I’m doing it for the sleep.
