Have you ever wished you could fall asleep in 60 seconds or less? If so, then this is the video for you. I am going to breakdown not only a technique that I have used for much of my life that helps me to fall asleep fast, but also one of the leading causes for disrupted sleep as well and something that you can do to help mitigate the problems caused by this one thing.

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When it comes to fitness, we know that the obvious keys to success in changing our bodies for the better are found in our nutrition and our efforts in the weight room. However, there is a very important factor that leads to the most muscle growth possible and that is recovery. One of the most imperative and driving factors that comes along with recovery is sleep.

The time that we spend sleeping allows for the body to recover and repair to form new muscle. Not only that, but a lack of sleep can be detrimental to your very next workout leading to the impairment of your goals. Think about this, if you are exhausted from a lack of sleep, do you think that you are going to be able to perform at your highest abilities? Probably not!

Insomnia is not something rare either. Around 270 million people worldwide are affected by the inability to sleep with “can’t sleep” being one of the highest googled search terms.

So what do you do if you are one of those people that can’t sleep and have tried a number of different techniques to finally get yourself to knock out? Well, I have something for you that has helped me and countless others to fall asleep in 60 seconds or less.

It all comes down to relaxing the body. This might sound simple but many people have a lot of trouble achieving this. In fact, as a physical therapist, I know that one of the most efficient ways to get someone to relax a muscle is to put it through a contraction first. This will allow for an individual to gauge the difference between tensing a muscle up and actually being able to relax it.

First, start at the eyebrows raise them as high as you can and hold it for 5 seconds. Breathe out for 5 seconds and allow them to relax down in the process. Then close your eyes as hard as you can for 5 seconds before breathing out for 5 seconds and allowing them to relax as well. After that, you will smile as wide as you can, following the same practice. Shrug your shoulders up before relaxing and do this for the muscles that lead down the rest of your body. You should be asleep before you even get to your toes.

Not only does this technique relax the muscles in the body, but it can help relax the mind as well. One of the chief complaints about insomnia is racing thoughts. Focusing on the breathing, the relaxation of the muscles, and keeping the mind off of other topics will help to keep the mind at ease leading to you falling asleep faster.

What about the external factor that is causing people to have trouble to fall asleep or stay asleep? Well this is caused by the exposure to blue light from our cell phones. We know from Dr. Andrew Huberman as well as many other sources that there is a direct correlation between light expose and brain physiology. Research shows that blue light mitigates the secretion of melatonin in the body and the blue light emitted from our cell phones before bed is a major disruptor of sleep.

So what can you do? Outside the obvious of not looking at your phone 3060 minutes prior to bedtime, there is a builtin functionality of the iPhone that will actually eliminate blue light exposure. In your settings, under the accessibility feature, there is an ability to apply a color filter specifically a red filter. Red light has been shown to be easier on the eyes and the changing away from blue light means that you are not going to exposing your brain to melatonin reduction. This means that you will be able to fall asleep faster as well as stay asleep and as we know, eliminating insomnia is important not only to our fitness goals, but general health as well.

Now, there is an easy way to make this filter applicable to your phone with the tripletap of the side button. In the settings of your iphone, you have the ability to create a shortcut that allows you to tripletap your lock button which will turn that red filter on and off.

If you’re looking for a complete training program that will help you build a ripped athletic body while still keeping an eye towards performance and longevity, be sure to head to athleanx.com via the link below. Use the program selector tool to find the plan best suited to your current goals.

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