Ranked by how quickly they work — including the technique the US military uses to fall asleep in 2 minutes, anywhere.
Start the timer when you get into bed. Under 5 min = sleep-deprived. 10–20 min = healthy. Over 30 min = try these methods.
The average person falls asleep in 10–20 minutes. If it regularly takes you longer, you're not alone — difficulty falling asleep affects 1 in 3 adults on any given night. The methods below are ranked by evidence quality and speed of effect.
Developed by the US military and popularised by Lloyd Bud Winter's book Relax and Win (1981). After 6 weeks of practice, 96% of pilots could fall asleep within 2 minutes — even in noisy, stressful conditions.
Rooted in pranayama yoga, this method activates the parasympathetic nervous system — shifting you from alert, cortisol-driven state into the calm rest-and-digest state needed for sleep.
One of the most clinically validated techniques for sleep onset difficulty. A 2020 meta-analysis of 37 studies found PMR significantly reduced time to fall asleep in people with insomnia.
Your body must drop its core temperature by 1–2°C to initiate sleep. This is a biological requirement. Speeding up this drop is one of the fastest ways to accelerate sleep onset.
Instead of trying to fall asleep, actively try to stay awake with eyes open. A 2021 Cochrane review found this reduced sleep-onset anxiety more effectively than standard sleep hygiene advice alone.
Developed by sleep scientist Dr. Luc Beaulieu-Bonneau. It interrupts ruminative thoughts by mimicking the random imagery that naturally occurs at sleep onset — tricking your brain into thinking sleep is already happening.
Even tiny amounts of light — a charging LED, a streetlight under the door — suppress melatonin. A 2022 PNAS study found that sleeping with even a small light on increased heart rate and insulin resistance significantly.
It's not loudness that disrupts sleep — it's sudden changes in volume. Consistent background noise masks these spikes. Pink noise (like rain) is associated with improved deep sleep in several studies.
A 2018 Baylor University study found writing a specific to-do list for the next day — not a worry journal, specifically a task list — reduced time to fall asleep by an average of 9 minutes. The brain releases unfinished tasks once they're written down (the Zeigarnik effect).
Used by Navy SEALs in high-stress situations. Activates the parasympathetic nervous system through a controlled pattern that lowers heart rate and cortisol.
Warm feet cause vasodilation — widening of blood vessels in the extremities — which helps the body radiate heat away from the core, accelerating the temperature drop needed for sleep. A Swiss study found people with warm feet fell asleep faster and stayed asleep longer.
The most important and most counterintuitive principle in sleep science. Lying awake frustrated creates a conditioned association between your bed and wakefulness. This is the core principle of CBT-I — the most effective evidence-based treatment for chronic insomnia.
Even if you fall asleep instantly, waking mid-cycle causes grogginess. Use our calculator to set the perfect alarm time based on 90-minute sleep cycles.
Open sleep cycle calculator →Discover all the sleep tools GoodSleep has to offer