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Has a camouflaged athlete operating on a mud street ever shouted well being recommendation by way of your telephone? Typically these movies are motivational and get you off the sofa to begin exercising; generally they’re instructional. However can their recommendation assist us civilians?
Let us take a look at what it means to comply with the “military sleep method.” There are numerous variations circulating on social media, together with claims it will probably assist you drop off in two minutes.
It actually sounds interesting.
I analysis sleep and the physique clock. And in area work, I’ve been a part of a number of high-performance environments, serving to athletes and army personnel counter fatigue and jet lag, and to get higher sleep.
Here is why the army sleep technique would possibly work for troopers. However may it additionally be just right for you?
Simply three steps to sleep?
The army sleep technique, because the identify suggests, is supposed to assist army personnel prime their physique for sleep, whatever the atmosphere.
The primary point out of the tactic is credited to a sports activities efficiency e-book referred to as Calm down and Win.
Stories of the army sleep technique can range barely relying on the supply. However three key elements stay constant:
progressive muscle leisure: contracting and stress-free the muscle tissue of the face, then the shoulders and arms, earlier than shifting down by way of the chest and legs
managed respiratory: respiratory is slowed and managed, emphasizing longer exhalations
visualization: imagining a peaceful atmosphere, resembling floating on calm water or mendacity in a quiet area.
Is that this science or folklore?
As you might anticipate, the militaries of the world aren’t publishing their sleep strategies in open-access journals. So there are not any particular validations of the army sleep technique in mainstream science.
So, let’s examine it to the beneficial first-line remedy for insomnia, referred to as cognitive habits remedy for insomnia, or CBT-I.
This entails a number of key elements:
cognitive remedy: difficult unrealistic beliefs and worries about sleep
stimulus management: strengthening the mattress–sleep connection by avoiding non-sleep actions in mattress and solely mendacity down when sleepy
sleep restriction: initially limiting time in mattress to construct sleep stress
sleep hygiene: sustaining wholesome routines and environments, resembling limiting caffeine and alcohol, holding a constant schedule, and making the bed room a soothing area, not related to different actions
leisure strategies: utilizing strategies resembling mindfulness, progressive muscle leisure, or respiratory, to cut back arousal and assist you go to sleep.
Sounds acquainted?
Discover the similarities between the army sleep technique and CBT-I? Some context can also be related. As an example, troopers could also be sleep disadvantaged, and sleep restriction is a part of CBT-I. They’ve additionally been skilled to have sturdy management of their ideas, and CBT-I makes use of cognitive remedy.
Variations between the 2 additionally relate to the high-performance army atmosphere. As an example, protection personnel may have no management of their sleep hygiene.
In different phrases, consider the army sleep technique as sharing points of CBT-I, however tailor-made to protection personnel and specializing in three issues they’ll management.
Can you actually go to sleep in two minutes?
Primarily based on these similarities, it’s fully potential the steps outlined within the army sleep technique may help most of us go to sleep quicker. However do we actually want to go to sleep in two minutes?
In an unlucky hit to the ego, most of us aren’t high-performance personnel. It’s unlikely we expertise the psychological and physiological calls for the army sleep technique was supposed for. So for civilians, falling asleep in two minutes is an unrealistic aim.
As a common guideline, constantly falling asleep inside eight minutes is taken into account uncommon, and constantly falling asleep inside 5 minutes is usually a signal of extreme daytime sleepiness.
For civilians working nine-to-five and sustaining a daily schedule, falling asleep inside ten to twenty minutes is taken into account regular.
However if you’re a shift employee, new mother or father, or have a identified sleep problem, these numbers could not apply.
So, ought to I sleep like a soldier?
Troopers are skilled extensively on how their physiology features in difficult environments. The goal of this coaching is to offer them as a lot management over their our bodies as potential, together with how greatest to go to sleep.
The army sleep technique is a catchy strategy to package deal wholesome sleep strategies. In observe, it is a mix of instruments already grounded in sleep science (leisure, respiratory and visualization).
It will not hurt your sleep to strive it, however shift the goalposts away from the two-minute goal.
In case you’re fixated on falling asleep inside two minutes, and begin worrying when you do not, that very fear could make it tougher to sleep.
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