> I can fall a sleep in 1-2 minutes, and wake up without alarm after 15-20 minutes
Any advice on how you were able to achieve this ability? I always try to take a quick nap but can never fall asleep fas t enough for it to be effective.
Any advice on how you were able to achieve this ability? I always try to take a quick nap but can never fall asleep fas t enough for it to be effective.
- 'walk back' in your mind to center yourself away from forebrain activity and visual activity (this is a visualization technique)
- cover your back with something insulated and/or warm. The less your back is staying tensed against chill air, the more physically relaxed you can be. I have a Thinsulate-filled sleeping bag that I use like a throw for this as it reflects body heat better than a comforter. Sleeping on a sofa, up against the back cushions, and noticing how it was good for naps, was what alerted me to this one.
When I close my eyes, almost immediately my visual memory lights up with a "day review" which is like a daydream but for being something which I can direct, using pretty much the same visualization mechanism I use for data/code/schematic structures when I'm designing, coding or debugging. I can feel that forebrain activity as a slight heat just behind my forehead. It's great for overview and casual entertainment when I can afford the time, but not when I need a quick nap and it's keeping me conscious.
I will the main weight of my awareness to recede from that frontal visualization viewplane, moving toward the back of my skull, deliberately dissociating from the visual activity, to where things feel like they're quieter and move slower. If, for motorcycling, where a less tightly-focused, more panoramic viewpoint is best for situational awareness, I take a half-step back, for quick napping I take several steps back.
You can forcefully imagine the footsteps if it helps establish the change of center; after awhile, that mental positioning becomes familiar enough to dispense with the imagined physical/aural sound-effects.
Sorry if it sounds all too Crafty or New-Age, but that's how I live.
I do think it's the warmth. Part of our maintaining constant muscular tension is maintaining body heat. While we do seem to want to chill down slightly for sleep -- my observation, based on how often I'd nap on the bus and awaken sweaty, and I seem to recall reading something about that -- IME that tension does noticeably interfere with quickly getting to sleep.
The other strategy is physical and mental exhaustion, for this I recommend starting a business and/or becoming a parent.
Sleep deprivation may make it easy to fall asleep fast, but then you won't wake up without alarm after 15-20 minutes.
Pick up the Headspace app. You get several meditations for free and those should be enough to arm you with what you need to learn "speed relaxing".
If I get a proper 8-9 hours of sleep, I find it impossible to nap.
Maybe the insta-napping is only possible due to a more fundamental lack of sleep issue?