Saturday, March 31, 2012

Reading books to induce sleep



Books can be used as a way to sleep, and I don't mean by hitting someone over the head with them. I mean by reading them. It is commonly said that reading a book can send you to sleep but it usually works the other way around, a book can keep you up all night because you just have to find out what happens next and next and next.

So how do you pick a book if you want it to send you to sleep? And how do you read it?
  • Pick a book that has boring material; preferably lengthy, wordy, difficult and not one you'd normally pick.
  • Pick a physically heavy book so that it weighs on your arms. This will give your brain a subtle message that this reading is going to be a chore, turning the mind off.
  • Dim the light just a little from the level of what you'd normally read by. When doing this, the aim is to not read much if at all so that the eyestrain should be minimal to nothing (you'll strain your eyes more just reading this on a screen).
  • Purposely move your eyes in a slow steady fashion, focusing on shifting them from one line to the next. By focusing on your eye movement more than the content and meaning of the book you'll disconnect from the task faster. But whatever you do, don't put the book down. Keep 'reading'.
  • Lie down in a relaxed position you could sleep in. Having your arms raised to carry the weight of the book is fine because this will just increase the impression that reading is hard.
  • As your alertness decreases you'll become more aware that you're warm and comfy and you'll start wondering why you're bothering trying to read anymore. The text will start to blur and I bet you aren't taking much information in.
  • Do all this at a time when you'd normally fall asleep or want to. There is no point doing this at any other time unless you've missed a whack of hours of sleep and are already desperate to sleep.
If this doesn't send you off to sleep I'll be surprised but then this is useful for people without major sleep issues, just a temporary glitch in the works.

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