Magic in the dark: falling asleep has never been easier

Category: Blog

Before going to sleep we are often inclined to bring back all the worries and problems of the day, week or month before. The boyfriend you broke up with years ago, the moment you dropped your coffee out of your hand at work hours ago or that one time you fell in kindergarten, it all comes back when you lay down in your soft and comfortable bed.

Stop thinking!?

Most people believe that thinking keeps you awake. But studies conducted by the Simon Fraser University in Canada show that you can actually think yourself to sleep. If you fill your head with a series of random images, without getting into their meaning, your brain activity resembles a state just before you fall asleep. As a result you actually fall asleep.

Here’s how to do it:

Pick a random letter.
Visualize a word that starts with that letter. It should be some thing you can see, and it should be emotionally neutral.
Continue to think of words starting with the same letter, and visualize the image. Strawberry, silk, school and so on.
Limit yourself to separate images; and don’t start making up a story.
Keep going. Some people only need one letter to drop off, others need ten or more letters.

Source: Catelijne Elzes and Deborah Freriks