How Long Should It Take To Fall Asleep? – Tricks & Tips Included!
One of the most often asked questions I get is how long it should take for me to fall asleep? Is this a question you find yourself asking? Do you know how long it should take you to fall asleep? If you have answered Yes to at least 2 of these questions, then this article is for you as I have the answers for you. The exciting part is that they may not be what you expect them to be. It ideally takes a lot less time to fall into sleep than you would believe or think it would be. This is a struggle many people have.
This is partly due to the modern era of technology. What I find happens with most people are they are tossing and turning in their bed. To find that nothing helps. At the other end of the scale. There are those people who can instantly start napping as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Lucky peeps…I hear you cry but is it?!
So, the question is what the right amount of time to fall asleep in?
The interesting fact is that if you are indeed one of those people who it can take a while to doze off at night finally. Then you may be very interested to know that you may be in a better position with regards to sleep, than many other people. Many people do struggle to have and get enough rest at night. This occurs for many different reasons. It has been proven that on average that within 7 minutes, a person should be falling asleep.
This stage in our sleep is known as the Alpha stage. More interestingly, this stage is not only restricted to sleep. For those people who practice meditation have generally fallen into this stage during their mediation. Otherwise known and referred to as the brainwave activity range. This neural activity is tapped into for those people who often pray and chant into.
If you find yourself dozing off within 10 to 20 minutes of going to bed. Then it means that you are in a normal sleeper cycle – also referred to as sleep latency. If however, it is taking you less than ten or more than 20 minutes to fall asleep. Your body is trying to suggest that there may be something wrong.
Reasons why
An hour or more. There are two reasons behind it taking more than one hour. If you notice that it takes one hour or more before you start dreaming. It may be because you sleep too much. If it is due to you, have a struggle with sleeping, otherwise known as insomnia. Insomnia happens because you find yourself unable to turn off the thoughts going through your mind at night.
Making it impossible to relax at night. Most of the time, it occurs because you have not prepared your body to sleep. With most common causes because you had a lot of caffeine too late in the day. Not enough exercise and eating the wrong type of foods at the wrong time of day. All these can cause an in your natural circadian rhythm. There is also an occasion when this occurs for other reasons, examples such as jet lag, for instance.
Insomnia. If you are currently having any of the problems as mentioned earlier. The first thing to try is to look at your routine and sleeping environment. If you are still not able to sleep, then I would suggest booking a 15 min introductory call with myself. To ask me about ways that I can help you. By getting you able to go to bed for a good night rest you will be in much need of.
What if it is to quick?
If you are finding that you keep napping immediately upon you go to bed, then this may be a hint that you are not getting the right amount and enough sleep. This typically means that you need to have more rest. What we do tend to find is that if you do not pay attention to such signs and do nothing to improve your rest and sleep well enough, then you may suffer later on.
So, how exactly do can I fall asleep faster, I hear you ask?
Most people generally take more than 1 hour to reach the first sleep stage. What is true is that these people are lingering for nearly an hour in Alpha sleep stage before they finally fall asleep and doze off. However, some people can be taking a much longer time to nod off finally.
The magic of the human body is that it has designed itself in a way that it naturally starts to fall asleep upon the sun setting. However, due to the environment and modern-day life, we have, being permanently surrounded by artificial lights, the standard chemical signals, we would have previously made and activated this natural occurrence are often confused or even delayed. Excessive light sources in our surroundings & smart devices are also a cause of many sleep disorders.
With the following items cell phones, televisions, computer monitors, even brightly lit communal, office & street lighting all being a significant part of our lives now. What happens is it keep us up more and then all night.
So I suppose the main question I hear you ask is, what exactly can I do to help me go to sleep faster? I have some tips below that I hope can help you to doze off more quickly and have better quality sleep once you are sleeping.
1. Avoid Technology Before Going to Bed
No electronics in your bed, even better not even in the bedroom! Recommendations via scientific studies that you must not use any items of technology, like computers, television, phones and gadgets at for at least an hour before you head to bed. So, get off these devices and do something else for at least one hour before heading to bed.
2. Hide Your Clock
Yes, I know this seems an absurd thing to suggest. However, it’s proven that the clock can help you sleep better. The fact that you can no longer stare at the clock, it takes away the heightened psychological pressure you get when it is there. It is during this period of laying that you start to find that your mind is thinking of all the things that will be affected if you do not doze off quickly, resulting in you will not get enough sleep. So, removing this temptation will help make it easier to get to sleep.
3. Soak in a bath
Taking a bath before going to bed is prove also to help you sleep faster. The warm bath relaxes you making you feel drowsy. This occurs due to the rapid drop in the temperature upon leaving the tub. Which in turn imitates what naturally happens in your body while we sleep. Initially, the heat from the warm bath enables you to relax. By relaxing your muscles after you go to bed.
Summary and a quick recap. Now that we have discussed and know how long it should take to fall asleep (generally ten to twenty minutes). You will now be able to study your current sleep situation. If you have now discovered that it is taking you longer than twenty minutes to fall asleep. You know that your body is trying to tell you that there is something wrong. If you don’t know the answers to what could be causing this.
I would invite you to book a call with me, and we can discuss this further. I offer 15min introductory calls where I can help pinpoint some areas to focus. If it turns out to not be one point to focus on. I can help you either with a personalised sleep program. During which we can work together over a four-week program. If you feel confident in your own ability to follow a plan then you can do the DIY sleep program. You can work through at your own pace.