How to Fall Asleep Without Medication

Have you ever thought of just sleeping on a whim even when you’re not at all tired and even if you have problematic stuff you can’t stop worrying about? It’s not impossible, and you don’t have to pop a sleeping pill to do it.

I’ve often thought of sleep as the “re-boot” our body needs every once in a while. Even when I’m stressed, I found it easy to sleep because I do any of the following…

1. Keep your mind blank

This might be due to my training in meditation, but it works. Just let go of your worries. Picture yourself exhaling your worries and inhaling fresh fragrant air. In your mind, you must actually visualize air coming in and out of you for this to work. Then mentally say “breathe in, breathe out” so you can keep track of the pace of your breathing.

Yeah, I know this is somewhat like the Karate Kid movie in which the hero said “wax in, wac out”. At least, that’s what it reminds me of, but it works for me.

2. Slacken your jaw

When you’re too stressed and you can’t fall asleep, your body tenses up. To release this tension, you need not start relaxing your limbs. Just relax your jaw and everything will follow. We grit our teeth when we’re worried, anxious or excited, and we unconsciously do this when we lie down and try to sleep. Relaxing your jaw will make you realize just how tense you are.

Combine these two methods and falling asleep will come easy. You can try putting both your hands up if you really want to relax. Have you ever seen the way a baby sleeps? He keeps his hand up because he has no worries whatsoever.