How to fall asleep fast: what the evidence supports

1. Get out of bed when you can't sleep

It sounds backwards, but it shares the AASM guideline's recommendation with relaxation, and it comes first here because a 2024 meta-analysis (below) measured what you want tonight: the time taken to fall asleep. Its aim, as the AASM guideline describes it, is to break the link between your bed and being awake and to tie the bed back to sleep. The full steps, and why the original 1972 paper set no “20-minute rule”, are on what to do when you can't sleep.

The AASM guideline makes a conditional recommendation for stimulus control used on its own as a treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults.

A 2024 meta-analysis of 11 studies, most of them published between 1978 and 1998, found that stimulus control led to small to large improvements in the time taken to fall asleep and in total sleep time compared with passive comparison conditions, and negligible differences compared with other active treatments. Its authors say more robust studies are needed.

2. Relax your body on purpose

Relaxation here means a structured exercise you do on purpose, such as progressive muscle relaxation, slow breathing from the belly or calm imagery, rather than just lying still and hoping.

The AASM guideline describes relaxation therapy as structured exercises that reduce body tension (such as abdominal breathing or progressive muscle relaxation) and mental arousal (such as guided imagery or meditation), and makes a conditional recommendation for it used on its own as a treatment for chronic insomnia disorder in adults.

A 2026 meta-analysis of 14 randomized trials with 957 participants found that progressive muscle relaxation improved self-reported sleep quality in adults, with large differences between the studies; for adults aged 55 and over the benefit was uncertain.

3. Stop trying to fall asleep

Trying hard to sleep can get in the way. One model of insomnia proposes why:

Espie and colleagues proposed that normal sleep is a relatively automatic process, so it can be inhibited by focused attention on it and by direct attempts to control it (their attention-intention-effort model, a theoretical review).

Paradoxical intention turns this around: instead of trying to sleep, you get into bed and try to stay awake.

Paradoxical intention asks you to stay awake as long as possible after getting into bed. The AASM guideline made no recommendation for or against it.

A 2022 meta-analysis of 10 trials found that paradoxical intention led to large improvements in key insomnia symptoms compared with passive comparison conditions and moderate ones in several central outcomes compared with active comparators, and that, compared with passive conditions, it greatly reduced sleep-related performance anxiety. Its authors say methodologically stronger studies are needed.

If the effort comes from worry about sleep itself, the sleep anxiety page goes further.

4. Fill your mind with pictures

Picturing an engaging scene in detail, or a stream of random, unrelated things, gives your attention something to hold that isn't a worry.

In a one-night experiment with 41 people with insomnia, those taught to distract themselves with an interesting, engaging imagery task fell asleep sooner and had less frequent and less distressing thoughts before sleep than those given no instructions.

In a study accepted as a poster abstract for the SLEEP 2016 meeting, 154 university students (137 of them women) who complained of too much mental arousal before sleep were randomly assigned to serial diverse imagining, structured problem-solving done before bedtime, or both. Pre-sleep arousal, sleep effort and sleep quality improved from the start of the study, and the authors concluded that the imagining task was as effective as structured problem-solving.

For a random-things method you can do tonight, see cognitive shuffling: that page explains how to do it and has a printable letter card, so your phone can stay out of the bed.

5. The military method

The military sleep method is a popular head-to-toe relaxation routine with slow breathing and a calm image, said to let you, with practice, fall asleep in two minutes.

According to Cleveland Clinic, no studies have been done on the military sleep method itself, its exact steps vary from source to source, and reports conflict about where it started and whether it is taught to military personnel.

Its parts are the relaxation and imagery methods above, so it is reasonable to try if you find it calming. The steps and what is known about them are on the military sleep method.

When falling asleep is hard most nights

Two of the methods above, getting out of bed (stimulus control) and relaxation, often form parts of a larger approach. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s 2021 guideline strongly recommends multicomponent cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) for chronic insomnia in adults.

If you fall asleep fine but wake in the night, see waking up at 3am. To see what your nights actually look like over a week or two, keep a private online sleep log. If you wonder whether a late meal plays a part, see eating before bed.