I think falling asleep fast is a learned skill. It’s just about switching from one mental state into another. I do think that doable to build anchors in hypnosis that instantly allow people to switch off consciousness and go into a state similar to stage 1 or stage 2 sleep.
There are people who can fall asleep in an act of will and wakeup at a predestined time with +-5 minutes whether it’s 3 or 7 hours after getting to sleep.
Don’t underrate the effect that determined decisions can make. Yes, your average Westerner might need to be tired to fall asleep but that’s simply because he’s not much in control over what his brain is doing.
Do you have any more information about this ability and how one can develop it? I’m interested in trying the same in reverse (i.e., making myself wake up faster).
Do you have any more information about this ability and how one can develop it? I’m interested in trying the same in reverse (i.e., making myself wake up faster).
What do you mean with “wake up faster”? Reducing the amount of time between waking up and getting out of bed? That’s a different issue than waking up at a predefined point in time.
As far as I understand a good way to go about it is to have a specific routine of getting up out of bed, that you do the same way every time. You shouldn’t have to think while in bed about whether you first dress yourself or first put toast into the toaster. The routine should be clear.
Steve Pavlina suggests doing dry practicing of the routine. When you have some time at the weekend you train the routine. You lay down in bed with an alarm clock that rings after 15 minutes and then you do your first 5 minutes of the morning routine. You do that a bunch of time to train automatic conditioning.
I have only anecdotal evidence for that method working and it sounds straightforward and low risk to me.
You might also look at motivation issues. If you aren’t motivated to get up to do something, you will have a harder time.
Sleep deprivation can also make it harder to get up. Personally for me my first priority is that my body has the time to do it’s regeneration processes. I think it makes more sense to first fix the needs of the body.
As far as developing the skill to wake up at a specific period of time, that more complicated. There’s some evidence that well educated people have a harder time. It takes interacting with your intuition.
I have encountered normal people without much training having the ability.
Self hypnosis is one way to get there, but I have no idea what kind of time investment it would be to learn the skill to a sufficient degree.
Ah, I was unclear. By “wake up” I mean “feel fully alert”. I do not have much difficulty getting out of bed. And I do find the idea of waking up at a prescribe time to be interesting and perhaps useful for myself. I’ll investigate the latter further.
I have a morning routine, but the issue is that I often don’t feel fully alert at the end of it. This is likely due to inadequate sleep duration and/or delayed sleep phase disorder, and it may be difficult to use conditioning to counteract either effect.
I have a morning routine, but the issue is that I often don’t feel fully alert at the end of it. This is likely due to inadequate sleep duration and/or delayed sleep phase disorder
In that case the mainstream response would be: Go to bed earlier so that you get enough sleep.
The second question would be: Do you do enough sports? Have you tried doing sports in your morning routine? Showering both warm and cold would be options.
Getting more sleep is easier said than done in my case. I’m working on it. I suspect I have a mild case of delayed sleep phase disorder, so it’s not as simple as going to bed earlier. If I did sleep then, it’s not likely to be very restorative. Instead, I’m going to try starting sleeping at a later time this fall and see if that helps.
In terms of physical activity, I commute by bike and run. I’m probably at the 95th percentile or higher in terms of duration of moderate or high intensity physical activity. I do think this helps, but it does not help enough. Not sure showering has ever made much of a difference either way.
Do you have any more information about this ability and how one can develop it? I’m interested in trying the same in reverse (i.e., making myself wake up faster).
What do you mean with “wake up faster”? Reducing the amount of time between waking up and getting out of bed? That’s a different issue than waking up at a predefined point in time.
As far as I understand a good way to go about it is to have a specific routine of getting up out of bed, that you do the same way every time. You shouldn’t have to think while in bed about whether you first dress yourself or first put toast into the toaster. The routine should be clear.
Steve Pavlina suggests doing dry practicing of the routine. When you have some time at the weekend you train the routine. You lay down in bed with an alarm clock that rings after 15 minutes and then you do your first 5 minutes of the morning routine. You do that a bunch of time to train automatic conditioning.
I have only anecdotal evidence for that method working and it sounds straightforward and low risk to me.
You might also look at motivation issues. If you aren’t motivated to get up to do something, you will have a harder time.
Sleep deprivation can also make it harder to get up. Personally for me my first priority is that my body has the time to do it’s regeneration processes. I think it makes more sense to first fix the needs of the body.
As far as developing the skill to wake up at a specific period of time, that more complicated. There’s some evidence that well educated people have a harder time. It takes interacting with your intuition. I have encountered normal people without much training having the ability.
Self hypnosis is one way to get there, but I have no idea what kind of time investment it would be to learn the skill to a sufficient degree.
Ah, I was unclear. By “wake up” I mean “feel fully alert”. I do not have much difficulty getting out of bed. And I do find the idea of waking up at a prescribe time to be interesting and perhaps useful for myself. I’ll investigate the latter further.
I have a morning routine, but the issue is that I often don’t feel fully alert at the end of it. This is likely due to inadequate sleep duration and/or delayed sleep phase disorder, and it may be difficult to use conditioning to counteract either effect.
In that case the mainstream response would be: Go to bed earlier so that you get enough sleep.
The second question would be: Do you do enough sports? Have you tried doing sports in your morning routine? Showering both warm and cold would be options.
Getting more sleep is easier said than done in my case. I’m working on it. I suspect I have a mild case of delayed sleep phase disorder, so it’s not as simple as going to bed earlier. If I did sleep then, it’s not likely to be very restorative. Instead, I’m going to try starting sleeping at a later time this fall and see if that helps.
In terms of physical activity, I commute by bike and run. I’m probably at the 95th percentile or higher in terms of duration of moderate or high intensity physical activity. I do think this helps, but it does not help enough. Not sure showering has ever made much of a difference either way.
There are three things that you could experiment with before going to sleep:
1) Progressive relaxation/hypnosis MP3 to induce sleep in an healthy way.
2) Some form of breathing meditation.
3) Feldenkrais exercises right before going to sleep (Book: Awareness through Movement—Moshé Feldenkrais)