Sleep is so important. It minimises your risk of heart disease, stroke, affects your weight, and most importantly, good sleep improves your mood and concentration. Why is it then that sleepless nights creep in and ruin the sleep pattern?

If you’re regularly tossing and turning during the night and having to waken without getting your eight hours, you know the ‘jaded’ feeling all too well. A new secret to sleeping has surfaced and it doesn’t involve lavender oil or meditation before bed.

Apparently the US military have a sleep method for helping pilots get to sleep in two minutes flat. The technique was developed in 1981 according to the book titled Relax and Win: Championship Performance. The steps are as follows:

Close your eyes and relax your face – consciously feel your jaw, tongue and forehead relax and unwind.
Exhale steadily and relax your chest followed by your legs, from the thighs to the calves.
Finally, imagine you are lying in a canoe on a calm lake. There is nothing but a blue sky above you. If visualisation is too on the meditation spectrum for you, try repeating ‘don’t think, don’t think’ over and over for ten seconds.

The book claims to have a 96% success rate if given 6 weeks practice. So if the Spotify Rain playlists aren’t working, or the book before bed, why not try out this quick exercise yourself? Even if it’s all just a mind game, it’s whatever helps you sleep at night that matters?