A short instructional video/transcript by Dr. Don Wood offering practical, quick techniques to fall asleep. It explains brainwave states (beta, alpha, theta, delta) and recommends behavioral hacks: reading or quiet focus to shift into alpha, reducing light to allow melatonin production, a 5-6-6 breathing sequence, tactile soothing (rubbing blankets), and progressive muscle relaxation (systematically tensing and releasing muscle groups).
Questions this video answers
15–30 Hz (cycles per second).
7–14 Hz.
Exhale fully, inhale through the nose for a count of 1–5, hold for 1–6, then exhale through the mouth for 1–6.
Chapters
A lot of people have trouble sleeping. If this sounds like you keep watching, I'm going to share with you some hacks that I teach my clients who have the same issue. Trouble sleeping. Well, sleeping is sort of like a Rubik's cube. There's all kinds of different combinations, different ways that people use to help fall asleep. It's a matter of finding out which way works best for you. So let me share a couple different things that you can do. Rest is the key to sleep. And what I mean by that is we have four different brainwaves states. Beta, alpha, theta, delta. Beta is operating 15-30Hz or cycles per second. If you're in a high beta state, your mind doesn't want to shut down. It's processing a lot of information. So the key is to train your brain to go from beta to alpha. And then theta is the dream state. It's very difficult to jump from beta into theta, and that's what people really have difficulty with, trying to move from that bigger jump. So train your brain to slow down. If you read a book, you'll start moving into alpha. Why? Because Alpha operates between 7 and 14. That's where the mind is very focused and relaxed. What happens when you start to read? You become focused. You start to relax. Now, the problem sometimes with just reading and trying to fall asleep is you have to have light. Light interferes with the production of melatonin, which is the hormone produced by the pineal gland to get you to fall asleep. So if you're reading with a light on, make sure the light is sort of dim or eventually just shuts off. And then just close your eyes and just start to relax. Because going from alpha to theta after reading is not too hard to do if you're watching tv. TV also puts you into a theta state because you're focused and relaxed. But the light from the TV will also interfere with the production of melatonin. So it's a little more difficult to fall asleep with just tv. So you should have the TV off. Here's a couple things you can do to keep moving further out of alpha into theta. You can use breathing, for example, a 5, 6, 7 breathing method that I use a lot with my clients. So the idea is exhale all the air in your lungs first. So get the lungs emptied so you blow out. Then you're going to breathe in through your nose for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And then hold that breath for 1, 2, 3, four, five, six. And then exhale through your mouth for 1, 2, 3,4, 5, 6.
And do that multiple times. You can do it as often as you want, and you'll find yourself starting to slowly drift off. If you're still having a little bit of difficulty, Another thing you can do is use tactile. When you were a baby and a child, you probably did this naturally. Didn't even realize you were doing it. But watch a child sleep or try to fall asleep. They'll start rubbing the blanket and touching the feel the silkiness, the softness of the blanket, the pillow, even their mother's hair at times. So use some touch that sort of distracts the mind as well and starts slowing down. That tactile touch is another really good tool to use. Also. Just think about resting. Don't think about trying to sleep so many times. When you're trying, you're forcing yourself to try to sleep and become stressful to try to sleep. So another thing you can use is something called progressive relaxation. And I'll show you a couple little things you can do with that. Progressive relaxation basically is taking the body and putting it into a little bit of a tension stress mode. So you can do this throughout your body. You can start at the tips of your feet. What you do is focus on your toes and squeeze your toes and count for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, release, then move to pull your ankles up and hold that tension for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and then release. The same thing with your calf muscles, your thigh muscles, even your stomach, all the way up, even in. When you get into your head, you can even just close your eyes and squeeze them tight. What you're doing is tension relaxation. Tension relaxation. And that just starts to get the whole body and mind to start slowing down, relaxing. So here's some good hacks. I hope they work. There it is.
