How to sleep faster?

Experts have come up with a trick to do before bed to ultimately help you doze off faster.

The conundrum of being shatteringly tired before bed, yet not able to sleep off, is not unheard of.

Now it has been revealed that it is incredibly simple to doze off, as soon as your head hit the pillow - all you need to do is, write a very specific to-do list.

Yes, it seems unbelievable but a study has explained that writing down the tasks you need to do the next day will help calm your brain and make you relax.

The study stated that one of the main reasons people lie awake at night is because they worry about things they need to perform the next day.

"We live in a 24/7 culture in which our to-do lists seem to be constantly growing and causing us to worry about unfinished tasks at bedtime," said lead study author Dr Michael K Scullin, as quoted by The Independent.

"Most people just cycle through their to-do lists in their heads, and so we wanted to explore whether the act of writing them down could counteract nighttime difficulties with falling asleep."

According to a study, spending five minutes writing a to-do list could be all it takes to fall asleep faster.

However, the researchers also found that journaling - i.e. writing about the things you've already done - doesn't have the same effect.

Some participants in the study were tasked with writing a to-do list, whereas others were asked to write a completed list. And the researchers found that the former group fell asleep "significantly faster" than the latter.

The results were measured in a sleep lab where participants' electrical brain activity was monitored overnight.

It was found that the more specific the to-do list was, the quicker people fell asleep.

The findings are published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.