Ways to Fall Asleep

Next time you're tossing and turning in your bed, fighting through another restless night, try these natural ways to fall asleep fast. As tempting as it might be to reach for the sleeping pills to cure your insomnia, relying on synthetic sleep aids can become a crutch. Training your body to fall asleep on its own is the only way to overcome your insomnia and put it behind you for good.

It may sound like an impossible challenge at first, that's why we created this article to walk you through several ways to fall asleep naturally. If one of them doesn't work, don't give up, everyone's different. We're confident at least one of these will do the trick and get you sleeping like a baby in no time. Ready? Let's dive in.

5 Ways to Fall Asleep Naturally

• Keep Yourself Awake

  We don't blame you if you took one look at this heading and thought... "Wait a minute, isn't this the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish?" You got that right, and that's precisely why it works! There's a little something called the 'sleep paradox', where your brain will actually get tired if you try forcing yourself to stay awake.

• Find Your Happy Place

  A powerful way to trick your brain into falling asleep is through visualization meditation. Start by picturing yourself in a place where you feel most content, then slowly incorporate as many other senses as you can. For example, if you're picturing a beach as your happy place, don't just think about what it looks like. Imagine how the sand feels between your toes, how the salt water smells in the air, how the waves sound crashing against each other. Before long you’ll feel relaxed enough to drift off to sleep.

• Replay Your Day

  Perhaps you're having trouble sleeping because of something that happened to you during the day. Don't run from it— replay every minor detail of your day in your head. This will help clear your mind of any worries and reach a state of mind that's ready to fall asleep.

• Create a To-Do List

  Another thing that can keep you up at night is worrying about what you have to do tomorrow. Here's what to do instead: before crawling into bed, write down on paper everything you have to do the next day. With a physical list created, you can safely forget about everything that needs to be done until you wake up fresh tomorrow. This will keep you calm and help you relax enough to fall asleep.

• Throw on a Pair of SleepPhones® Headphones

  A list of ways to fall asleep wouldn't be complete without recommending a pair of SleepPhones headphones. Keeping your mind occupied and entertained is a great way to ward off the insomnia plaguing you at night. By putting on headphones that are designed for you to comfortably wear in bed, you can block out all extraneous noise and focus solely on drifting off to sleep. Listen to whatever is going to put you in a relaxed state of mind, whether that's some soft music or a favorite podcast, SleepPhones headphones are versatile enough to provide you with excellent sound no matter the audio source.