GETTING enough shut eye at night is super important – yet one in three of us suffers with poor sleep.
Life stresses, being on computers all day and taking work home are commonly blamed for causing bed time issues.
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So what can you do to improve your ability to reach the land of nod?
These viral TikTok videos certainly have a few suggestions up their sleepy sleeves.
The two minute military sleeping technique
Fitness coach Justin Agustin recently went viral for a military technique that can help people fall asleep within two minutes.
“96% of people who mastered this technique are actually able to fall asleep within two minutes of shutting their eyes,” he revealed to his 1.7million followers.
To get started, you need to relax the muscles in your forehead.
“Relax your eyes, cheeks, your jaw and focus on your breathing,” he said.
“Now go down to your neck and your shoulders.
“Make sure your shoulders are not tensed up.
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“Drop them as low as you can and keep your arms loose to your side, including your hands and fingers.”
Then you need to imagine a warm sensation going from your head all the way down to your fingertips.
“Take a deep breath, and slowly exhale, relaxing your chest, your stomach, down to your thighs, knees, legs and feet,” he continued.
All the while, you need to keep your mind clear.
There are two scenarios you should imagine to achieve this.
“One, you’re lying in a canoe on a calm lake with nothing but a clear blue sky above you.
“Two, you’re lying in a black velvet hammock in a pitch black room.”
And if you start becoming distracted, repeat the words “Don’t think” 10 times.
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The paradoxical intention sleeping technique
Another suggestion for getting some kip is by fooling your mind into thinking you don’t want to sleep.
Apparently, our body tends to do the opposite of what we actually want it to do.
So if you kid yourself into thinking you want to stay awake, your body will actually do the opposite and force you to sleep.
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“If I ask you not to think about a polar bear the first thing you think of is a polar bear,” said Dr Karan Raj.
“Your body works along the same principles.
“Lie in bed really still with your eyes open and tell yourself, ‘I’m going to stay awake’.
“Your body will do the opposite and eventually you’ll feel tired and drift off to sleep.”
The ‘dreamer’ position can improve sleep
The position you sleep in impacts the quality of your sleep.
If you’re a twisted side sleeper you might find it comfortable but actually it could be disturbing your sleep.
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There is a better way of doing it, known as the ‘dreamer’, as TikToker Levitex, explains.
“We call this the dreamer. Beautiful shoulders, hips, knees and ankles all stacked on top of each other, spine looking straight and beautiful,” he said.
“It’s very simple – you’ve got to find a pillow that’s going to fit in between your earlobe and scapula… and put an old tatty pillow between your knees and ankles.”
Improving your breaching technique
Another way to help you nod off is this very simple breathing trick.
As Dr Poonam Desai reveals, all you need to do is remember four, seven and eight.
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That means, breathe in for four seconds.
Hold your breath for seven seconds.
And exhale for eight seconds.
“Keep repeating this and you’re going to fall asleep,” she said.
Mum shares simple ‘cuddle hold’ which gets overtired babies to sleep EVERY time
In other news, a new space station for Tom Cruise to shoot movies on has caused jaws to drop for all the wrong reasons.
Scientists have pinpointed when they believe the Sun will explode and wipe out everything on Earth in the process.
And Apple is working on a fix for a recently discovered bug that is capable of exposing the personal data of iPhone users.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
