NOT A BED IDEA
I’m a doctor – here’s a little-known ‘reverse psychology’ trick that can send you to sleep in minutes
EVER found yourself tossing and turning in bed, wide awake as the minutes and hours tick by?
Insomnia - defined by difficulty drifting off and broken up sleep - is thought to regularly torment one in three Brits, according to the .
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If you're one of those people waking up unrefreshed day after day, one doctor has revealed a "weird" tip to help you find your way to the land of nod.
Posting on, NHS surgeon Dr Karan Rajan told his five million followers that he suffered from insomnia when he started working as a doctor.
At first, he didn't think his seemingly counterproductive hack - which involves a bit of reverse psychology or 'paradoxical intention' - would work.
But Dr Rajan was surprised by how easily it helped him drift off, he said in the .
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Explaining how to go about it, he said: "Basically you tell yourself, 'I'm not going to sleep' and you stay awake - like you don't read a book, you don't go on your phone, not TV, nothing.
"You just lie in bed, eyes open, and you're forcing yourself to stay awake.
"Tell yourself, 'Don't go to sleep, don't go to sleep'.
"In many cases, you will feel tired and you will fall asleep, and that worked for me.";
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In the caption to his video, the doctor said this technique was called 'paradoxical intention':
"If I tell you not to think of a polar bear, guess what you will think if first?" he said.
One viewer commented under the post said: "This is the only thing that helps me. Thank you."
Another wrote: "You've posted this theme in a different video, and now it's what I do to sleep."
A third person said they'd suffered from insomnia since childhood and while the trick hadn't worked then, they'd had success with it more recently.
Viewers suffering from insomnia seemed eager to implement the tip, with one saying: "It's currently 3.24 am. I'm trying this now."
Replying to comments under the post, Dr Rajan said he was able to fully get over his insomnia "once [he] stopped watching TV late at night".
Another sleep-inducing trick he's spoken about it is the 10-3-2-1 method, which involves swearing off caffeine 10 hours before bed and avoiding large meals three hours before you plan to sleep.
If you're interested in learning about more numbered sleep tricks, you can also Dr Daisy Mae's 4-7-8 method a whirl.
On average, adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night.
According to the , you have insomnia if you regularly:
- find it hard to go to sleep
- wake up several times during the night
- lie awake at night
- wake up early and cannot go back to sleep
- still feel tired after waking up
- find it hard to nap during the day even though you're tired
- feel tired and irritable during the day
- find it difficult to concentrate during the day because you're tired
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You can try and change your sleeping habits to ease your insomnia symptoms, by going to bed and waking up at the same time daily, reading instead of scrolling in bed, making your bedroom dark and quiet and getting regular exercise during the day.
But you should speak to a GP if changing your nighttime habits doesn't help or you've had trouble sleeping for months.
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