How To Sleep When Traveling?

As travel bloggers, we are coping with a lack of sleep regularly. One time a loud rooster, next time disco club just around the corner or crowds of jolly people taking your precious resting hours. If you wanna live as a traveler, you certainly need to solve your travel insomnia. So, how to sleep when traveling?

Over time we developed our technique for easier sleep in all circumstances. Actually, this sleeping technique is not ours, but rather adopted. Adopted from the US navy pilots, who need quality sleep in no time. Otherwise, some wrong decisions might happen and people’s lives are in threat. As we found out, some pilots are falling asleep under two minutes, even with loud noises of guns and other weapons in the background. 

However, we don’t sleep in 120 seconds, but I think it might be less than five minutes. Here is our sleeping protocol for those who are wondering how to sleep when traveling.

1.       Find Your Comfortable Position

Beds while traveling are not that comfy as they are at home. Anyway, try to get the most comfortable position, change your pillow or maybe ditch it, if it feels better without it. Sometimes we even use our clothing to adjust the size of the pillow.

2.       Relax Your Facial Muscles

We have 43 muscles on our face and they play a significant role in stress reduction. Our body reads the facial expression and mixes the cocktail of hormones, especially for that occasion. When you fully relax your face, you send the signal to your body that everything is ok. You can sleep safely. To achieve that, close your eyes and relax your whole face, cheeks, forehead and don’t forget about your tongue and jaw. You will notice that your breathing naturally starts to slow down. At this point, relax the last stronghold on your face – six muscles in your eye sockets.

3.       Drop Your Shoulders

Most people store tension in their shoulders and necks, so make sure this part is going limb. With every deep breath, release the tension in the shoulders. Let them get heavy and fall down with every exhale. Feel the gravity and go with it.

Next, are your arms. Feel how heavy they are, and release the tension with every exhale. Sometimes it even helps if you tense the muscles on arms and then let it go slack.

4.       Call Legs To This Party

Isn’t it amazing how your legs are holding you and transporting you every day? When traveling, we usually walk about 10 miles daily, so legs are very tired at the end of the day. Relaxing this part of the body is the easiest. Probably because of all the exhaustion and tension stored in this part. Anyway, relax all muscles, starting with quads, next to your calf, ankle and the least foot. Feel the heaviness of your leg and let them go. Repeat for another leg and prepare for the most difficult task in this how to sleep when traveling journey.

5.       Clear Your Mind

Your body is fully relaxed, so next is your head. Ok, you don’t need to be living Buddha, nor a monk. Just make sure your mind is clear for at least ten seconds. Maybe it sounds easy, but trust me, for this you will need some practice. Don’t think about the past or the future. If your thoughts are coming to you, observe them and consciously ignore them. Focus on your breathing and count to ten with every exhale.

6.       Sweet Dreams

Yes my friends, if you come to this step you are probably already sleeping. The main goal is to relax your body and clear your mind. If you happen to have trouble with your thinking mind, try some other techniques. You can imagine yourself in a hammock with a nice breeze and a blue sky above you. Watch that blue and imagine how it changes to the night. The night is dark and all you can see is darkness. With every breath, your mind is more and more comfortable with this darkness. Goodnight.

Navy pilots practice this method for six weeks and 96% of them achieve the goal. They can nap and sleep anywhere at any time. Yes, even in Hanoi. I hope this “how to sleep when traveling” method will help you and you will enjoy your travels.

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How To Sleep When Traveling – Sum Up