Achi news desk-
If you’ve had trouble sleeping on a regular basis, you’ve probably tried it all. The perfume, the strict habits, the pillows you needed, and, of course, the sheep counting.
Counting sheep is one of the most recommended sleep tricks. Watch them jump over a fence, one by one, until you eventually drop. Right? Well, no. As any insomniac will tell you, those fluffy, lively sheep do little in the way of making you drop.
However, in an interview with Matthew Walker, a sleep expert, professor of neuroscience at UC Berkeley, and founder of the Center for Human Sleep Science, the health experts at ZOE may have discovered the visualization sleep hack that actually works.
What to try instead of counting sheep to sleep
Walker said that while counting sheep doesn’t work, “there is an alternative mental strategy.” Yes, it’s true that visualizing sheep gracefully jumping over a fence doesn’t work but visualization is still a useful tool for slipping into a deep sleep.
It seems, according to Walker, if you’re having trouble sleeping, you should go for a walk. Kind of.
Walker said we should take ourselves on a walk we know ‘very well.’
He explained: “It might be a walk in the woods or in the forest, or a hike or a walk on the beach. and then try to imagine that really to the point, here I am leaving my front door, I’m walking down the stairs, away I go.
“And if you do it in granular detail and move through it, the next thing you remember is your alarm going off the next morning because you’ve fallen asleep and it seems to be quite an effective tool. “
On tackling poor sleep in general, Walker said: “I would say if you could just focus on one thing, go to bed at the same time, wake up at the same time, whether it’s n day of the week or the weekend, and I’m quite religious like this.”
Go to bed at the same time every night and enjoy a mental walk once you’re there. Got it.
