How to Fall Asleep Fast: Practical Ways to Get to Sleep
There are few things more frustrating than being tired all day, looking forward to going to bed and then finding that sleep simply won't come.
You turn off the light, get comfortable and wait. Then your mind starts working.
You think about tomorrow. You replay a conversation from earlier. You wonder why you aren't asleep yet. You check the time and start calculating how many hours of sleep you'll get if you fall asleep now.
Before long, you're no longer simply awake — you're trying to make yourself sleep.
As a UK clinical hypnotherapist, counsellor and psychotherapist with more than 25 years' experience, I've worked with many people who have found themselves caught in this pattern. One of the most important things to understand is that sleep isn't something you can force. In fact, putting yourself under pressure to fall asleep can make it even more difficult.
In this guide, I'll look at why falling asleep can become difficult and some practical ways to help your mind and body settle naturally at bedtime.
If your main problem is getting to sleep in the first place, I've also created a Fall Asleep Fast Self-Hypnosis MP3 specifically for this. Rather than trying harder to sleep, the recording helps you relax, let go of the effort and rediscover the process of simply allowing sleep to happen.
Why Can't I Fall Asleep Even When I'm Tired?
Being tired and being ready for sleep aren't always the same thing.
You can feel physically exhausted while your mind remains alert.
Perhaps you've had a stressful day. Maybe you've been working late, scrolling on your phone or thinking about something that's worrying you. Sometimes there isn't an obvious reason at all.
The problem can become more persistent when you begin worrying about sleep itself.
Imagine you've had several bad nights. You go to bed the following evening already wondering:
Will I sleep tonight?
You start watching for signs that sleep is coming.
After a while, you check the clock.
Then you begin thinking about how tired you'll be tomorrow.
Bedtime, which should be associated with rest, gradually becomes associated with effort, frustration and alertness.
That's why learning how to fall asleep isn't necessarily about finding a clever trick that somehow knocks you out. Often, it's about creating the conditions in which you can stop interfering with a process your body already knows how to do.
How Long Should It Take to Fall Asleep?
There isn't a single amount of time that everyone should take to fall asleep.
Some people drift off relatively quickly, while others naturally take longer. It can also vary from one night to another depending on what you've been doing, how you're feeling and how tired you are.
The important thing is not to turn the clock into a test.
If you're lying there thinking, I've been awake for 20 minutes, something's wrong, you've introduced another source of pressure.
Try to think of bedtime as an opportunity to rest rather than a deadline by which you must become unconscious.
Even that small change in attitude can take some of the struggle out of going to sleep.
How to Fall Asleep Fast Without Trying to Force It
If you're regularly struggling to get to sleep, these approaches can help create better conditions for sleep.
You don't need to do every one of them perfectly. In fact, turning bedtime into an elaborate checklist can create exactly the sort of pressure we're trying to reduce.
Choose the changes that make sense for you.
1. Stop Trying So Hard to Sleep
This may sound strange when the whole reason you're reading this article is because you want to fall asleep.
But consider what happens when you try to sleep.
You monitor yourself.
Am I sleepy yet?
You assess whether a technique is working.
Why am I still awake?
You check the time.
I've only got six hours left now.
All of this requires mental activity.
Sleep requires the opposite.
Rather than telling yourself I need to sleep, try something less demanding:
I don't have to make anything happen. I'm simply going to rest.
Take the target away.
You may be surprised how different bedtime feels when you stop treating sleep as something you have to achieve.
2. Give Yourself Time to Wind Down Before Bed
It's difficult to spend an evening working, answering messages, watching stimulating television or scrolling through your phone and expect your mind to become quiet the instant your head touches the pillow.
Create some separation between the active part of your day and sleep.
That doesn't require an elaborate two-hour bedtime routine.
You might dim the lights, put your phone aside, read for a while, listen to something relaxing or simply sit quietly.
Try to make the final part of your evening noticeably calmer than what came before it.
You're not trying to make yourself sleepy. You're simply giving your mind fewer reasons to remain busy.
3. Stop Watching the Clock
Clock-watching can turn an ordinary period of wakefulness into a stressful one.
You wake or realise you're still awake, look at the time and immediately start doing calculations.
If I fall asleep now, I'll get six hours.
Later:
Now it's only five and a half.
The clock hasn't changed your ability to sleep, but it has changed how you feel about being awake.
If you regularly do this, turn the clock away from you and avoid repeatedly checking your phone for the time.
You don't need to know exactly how long you've been awake.
4. Deal With Tomorrow Before You Get Into Bed
For many people, bedtime is the first quiet part of the day.
Unfortunately, that's also when everything they've been too busy to think about suddenly gets their attention.
What do I need to do tomorrow?
Did I reply to that email?
What if that meeting goes badly?
I must remember to phone somebody.
Rather than relying on your brain to hold all of this overnight, write it down before bed.
Make a short list of anything you need to remember tomorrow.
If there's a problem you can do something about, write down the next action.
Then give yourself permission to leave it there.
You aren't ignoring the problem. You've simply decided that bedtime isn't the time to solve it.
5. Don't Fight With Racing Thoughts
One of the most common mistakes people make when they can't sleep is trying desperately to stop thinking.
Unfortunately, the instruction don't think tends to give you something else to think about.
Instead, allow thoughts to come and go without becoming involved with every one of them.
You might imagine them passing like cars outside a window. You notice one, but you don't have to get into it and see where it goes.
If your attention wanders into a worry, gently bring it back to something neutral — your breathing, the sensation of the mattress beneath you or a quiet image in your mind.
The aim isn't to create a perfectly empty mind.
It's to stop treating every thought that appears at bedtime as something requiring your attention.
6. Try Slow, Comfortable Breathing
Breathing can give your attention somewhere simple to rest.
Don't force yourself to take enormous breaths or become preoccupied with getting a particular technique exactly right.
Simply allow your breathing to become comfortable and unhurried.
Notice the breath coming in.
Then let the breath leave gently.
You might find it pleasant to allow the out-breath to be a little longer than the in-breath.
If your mind wanders, that's fine. Bring your attention back when you notice.
This isn't a test and you aren't trying to breathe yourself unconscious.
You're simply allowing yourself to become quieter.
7. Make Your Bedroom Somewhere You Associate With Sleep
If you regularly work in bed, answer emails there, scroll for long periods or lie awake worrying, your bed can gradually become associated with being mentally active.
Where possible, keep the bedroom calm and comfortable and reserve the bed primarily for sleep.
Think about temperature, light and noise as well.
Some people prefer complete silence. Others sleep better with a consistent background sound. There isn't one perfect environment for everyone, so pay attention to what genuinely helps you rather than what you think you should prefer.
8. Be Careful With the Afternoon and Evening
Sometimes the reason you can't fall asleep isn't psychological at all.
Caffeine can remain stimulating for several hours, and people vary considerably in how sensitive they are to it.
If falling asleep is regularly difficult, experiment with having your last coffee, tea or other caffeinated drink earlier in the day and see whether it makes a difference.
Alcohol can also affect sleep quality, even though it may initially make you feel drowsy.
Very heavy meals immediately before bed can be uncomfortable for some people too.
You don't need to create a collection of rigid rules. Look at your own habits and see whether there's an obvious pattern worth changing.
9. Keep Your Sleep Schedule Reasonably Consistent
Going to bed and getting up at completely different times from one day to another can make it harder to establish a predictable sleep pattern.
You don't need to become obsessive about exact times, but a broadly consistent routine can help.
Getting up at a similar time each morning can be particularly useful.
Also be careful about going to bed extremely early simply because you slept badly the night before.
If you aren't sleepy yet, spending extra hours in bed may simply give you more time to lie awake and worry about not sleeping.
10. Get Out of Bed If You're Becoming Increasingly Frustrated
If you're lying in bed becoming more irritated, anxious or wide awake, staying there and fighting with sleep may reinforce the association between bed and frustration.
Instead, get up for a little while.
Keep the lights low and do something quiet and unstimulating.
Read a few pages of a book, sit somewhere comfortable or listen to something relaxing.
Return to bed when you begin to feel sleepy again.
The idea isn't to punish yourself for being awake. It's simply to break the cycle of lying in bed struggling.
What If I Wake Up During the Night and Can't Get Back to Sleep?
Falling asleep at the beginning of the night and returning to sleep after waking are slightly different problems.
Waking briefly during the night isn't necessarily unusual. The difficulty often starts when you become fully alert and begin worrying about being awake.
The same principle applies: avoid checking the time repeatedly and try not to turn wakefulness into an emergency.
If getting back to sleep is your main difficulty rather than falling asleep initially, I've created a separate Return to Sleep Self-Hypnosis MP3 specifically for people who wake during the night and struggle to drift off again.
What If My Mind Won't Switch Off at Bedtime?
For some people, physical tiredness isn't the problem at all.
Their body is ready for bed but their mind seems determined to review the entire day — and possibly the next one as well.
Work problems, conversations, plans, worries and completely random thoughts can all suddenly seem more important once the room is quiet.
If this describes you, it can help to recognise that you don't have to resolve every thought before you sleep.
Write down genuine tasks or concerns before bed. For everything else, practise allowing the thought to be there without continuing the conversation with it.
I've also created a separate Calm a Racing Mind Before Sleep Hypnosis MP3 for this particular pattern.
Can Self-Hypnosis Help You Fall Asleep?
Self-hypnosis can be particularly well suited to bedtime because it doesn't require you to try to sleep.
Instead, you listen.
Your attention is gently guided away from the thoughts and distractions of the day and towards relaxation, imagery and suggestions designed to help you let go.
You remain aware and in control during hypnosis. There's no point at which somebody takes control of your mind, and you don't have to reach a mysterious special state for it to “work”.
For sleep, I think one of its most useful qualities is that it gives the mind something calm and undemanding to follow.
Instead of lying there monitoring whether you're asleep yet, you're listening.
Instead of rehearsing tomorrow, your attention is elsewhere.
And instead of trying to force sleep, you can allow yourself to drift.
Fall Asleep Fast Self-Hypnosis MP3
I created my Fall Asleep Fast Self-Hypnosis MP3 specifically for people who are tired but find themselves unable to make that final transition into sleep.
The emphasis is not on forcing yourself to fall asleep quickly.
It's about letting go of the effort, quietening the mental activity surrounding sleep and helping bedtime begin to feel natural again.
You simply get comfortable in bed, start the recording and listen. There's no need to stay awake until the end.
If you drift off while listening, that's exactly what you want.
What About Guided Meditation for Sleep?
Some people prefer meditation to hypnosis, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Both can provide a structured way to step away from everyday thoughts and settle your attention before bed, although they're not identical approaches.
If meditation appeals to you more, I also have a Guided Meditation for Insomnia MP3 designed for bedtime listening.
When Does Difficulty Sleeping Become Insomnia?
An occasional night when you can't get to sleep isn't necessarily insomnia.
Sleep can be disturbed by stress, illness, travel, changes in routine, noise and countless other temporary factors.
However, if difficulty sleeping has become persistent, happens regularly or is affecting how you function during the day, it's worth taking it seriously.
I've written a separate, more detailed article about insomnia and sleep problems, including why insomnia can develop and what may help.
Persistent sleep problems can also have medical or psychological causes. If you're regularly struggling to sleep, particularly if it's affecting your health or everyday life, speak to your GP or another appropriate healthcare professional rather than assuming the problem is simply a bad sleep habit.
Frequently Asked Questions About Falling Asleep
How can I fall asleep fast?
Rather than trying to force sleep, create conditions that allow it to happen. Give yourself time to wind down, avoid repeatedly checking the clock, keep your bedroom comfortable and reduce mental stimulation before bed. Slow breathing or a relaxation recording may also help you settle.
Why can't I fall asleep even though I'm tired?
Physical tiredness doesn't necessarily mean your mind is ready for sleep. Stress, worry, stimulation, caffeine, an irregular sleep schedule and anxiety about sleep itself can all contribute to feeling exhausted while remaining awake.
How can I get to sleep when my mind won't stop thinking?
Trying to forcibly stop thoughts can make you more aware of them. Write down genuine concerns or tasks before bed, then practise noticing other thoughts without following them. Bringing your attention back to your breathing or something neutral can also give your mind a quieter focus.
Should I stay in bed if I can't sleep?
If you're resting comfortably, you don't need to panic because you're still awake. However, if you're becoming increasingly frustrated or alert, getting up briefly and doing something quiet in low light before returning when you feel sleepy can help break the association between bed and struggling to sleep.
Does checking the time make it harder to sleep?
It can. Repeatedly checking the clock often leads to calculations about how little sleep remains, which can increase pressure and frustration. If you recognise this habit, keeping the clock out of sight can remove one unnecessary source of worry.
Can hypnosis make me fall asleep?
Hypnosis can't guarantee that you'll fall asleep at a particular moment. A bedtime self-hypnosis recording can, however, guide your attention towards relaxation and away from the thoughts, effort and frustration that may be keeping you awake.
What's the difference between the Fall Asleep Fast and Return to Sleep recordings?
Fall Asleep Fast is intended for people whose main difficulty is drifting off when they first go to bed.
Return to Sleep is intended for people who can initially fall asleep but wake during the night and have difficulty getting back to sleep.
Choosing the recording that matches your particular sleep pattern makes more sense than treating every sleep difficulty as the same problem.
Final Thoughts
When sleep isn't coming, the natural reaction is to try harder.
Unfortunately, sleep doesn't respond particularly well to effort.
The more you watch, wait, calculate and worry, the more mentally alert you can become.
So if you're trying to learn how to fall asleep faster, start by taking some of the pressure away.
Create a calmer end to your day. Stop watching the clock. Put tomorrow's problems somewhere other than inside your head. Let thoughts pass without trying to eliminate them. And remind yourself that your body already knows how to sleep.
You don't have to make it happen.
Sometimes the most useful thing you can do is create the right conditions and get out of its way.
If you'd like some guided help doing exactly that, you can find out more about my Fall Asleep Fast Self-Hypnosis MP3 here.
Sharon ShinwellUK Clinical Hypnotherapist, Counsellor, Psychotherapist & Clinical SupervisorMore than 25 years' professional experience
