How Long Does It Take to Fall Asleep?

At this point, you do not want someone else to tell you how important the duration and quality of sleep are. A countless number of studies have underlined the essential role sleep quality plays in our everyday life. In fact, it will not be wrong to say that quality sleep can solve the majority of mental and health issues that lots of people face every day.

When you think about it, getting sufficient sleep will affect your physical health by streamlining the rejuvenation process. On the other side of the spectrum, getting quality-rich sleep regularly will help you keep your mental health at safe levels.

But here is the problem: most people do not understand how long it takes to fall asleep. As it happens, falling asleep at the right time has more to deal with how well you sleep and how long you sleep for. For example, think about this scenario. You go to sleep at 10 PM, which happens to be a good sleeping schedule. However, you cannot fall asleep until 1 AM, thereby ruining the plan altogether. The more significant question is how to fix the issue? First, we have to reach a consensus on how long it takes to fall asleep. Then, we can suggest a few methods that help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer.

How Long Does It Take to Fall Asleep?

As we said earlier, the time you take to fall asleep is a good indicator of the overall sleep quality. According to scientific data, a person may take anywhere between 5 to 20 minutes to fall asleep. However, the average number here is 7 minutes, which is what a healthy person needs to get into a state of sleep. Sleep scientists use the term ‘sleep latency’ to refer to the time you need for falling asleep.

Of course, changes in sleep latency can mean different things.

If you need more than 20 minutes to fall asleep, you may be suffering from mild to serious levels of insomnia. You do not have to worry about the term, though. We use the word in a non-medical sense — to refer to a state of sleeplessness. Different factors could play a role in why you need more than 20 minutes to fall asleep, though. We will explore them in a bit.

On the other hand, if you fall asleep too quickly, it may mean something else. In most cases, it means you’ve had a very tiring day. If you let your body work too much, it will try to get sleep as quickly as possible. So, for instance, if you fall asleep in 2 minutes, you may have a problem here. Therefore, it is essential to fall asleep within a duration of 5 and 20 minutes.

But how do you make that possible?

How to Fall Asleep Within 20 Minutes?

We would like to underline that we are talking about falling asleep within the recommended latency period. You may see a number of methods that claim to help you fall asleep in 2 minutes or 10 minutes. The problem is that such practices do not work for everyone.

For one, there is no universal way to fall asleep and enhance the overall sleep quality. Instead, you have to take a holistic approach that addresses the different aspects that affect sleep quality and mental/physical health. In this section, we have selected some of the steps you have to follow.

• If you need all the benefits of quality sleep, you should stay away from stimulants like coffee, alcohol, and other caffeinated drinks. These drinks push your body and brain into a state of restlessness, thus increasing the time you need to fall asleep. If you must take these drinks, you should take them before evening. It is best to stay away from stimulants after 5 PM.
• You cannot fall asleep properly if you have an uncomfortable bed and mattress. Therefore, you have to optimize your bedroom for maximum comfort. You can follow the tips from insidebedroom.com if you want to set up the perfect bedroom environment for sleeping. Based on your preferences, you can have a new type of mattress as well.
• An equally important aspect that helps you fall asleep is the environment. You have to ensure that you are surrounded by the right set of sounds. Some people can fall asleep in silent spaces, but others may need some kind of background noise. You can use music or white noise to fall asleep quickly. It is also essential to keep noise away as far as possible.
• Building a sleep routine will essentially help you perform better in falling asleep. You can train your body to follow a specific schedule for rest and rejuvenation. Once you have built this habit, you can fall asleep within the recommended duration, which is excellent. Another advantage of the routine is that you can arrange other aspects of sleep according to this sleep routine.
• You should also make sure that you do not have any underlying problems. Like sleep can affect your mental health, poor mental health can impact health as well. For instance, if you live a stressed life with anxiety, you cannot expect to fall asleep that quickly. Therefore, you should seek professional help if you feel you cannot handle everything properly.

As we have mentioned above, the idea is to get around 7 to 9 hours of sleep every day. Only then can you reap all the benefits of functioning correctly. Of course, some people can survive on 5 to 6 hours of sleep, but we do not recommend such routines. In short, whenever you can, you should get 8 hours of sleep all day.

The Bottom Line

You can follow a couple of methods to fall asleep quickly or slowly based on what we have talked about. For instance, if you need more than 20 minutes to sleep, you should follow the tips we have mentioned. On the other hand, if you sleep too quickly, you need to make sure that you are not stressing yourself. You can also follow methods like meditation, yoga, and audiobooks that help you fall asleep quickly. But you may want to keep all your options open since a universal way to fall asleep fast does not exist. Do you follow any great ways to fall asleep quickly? Do let us know through your comments.