According to Erica Terblanche, this hack will even help you fall asleep on an airplane. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a chair or lying down on a bed — all you need is to be in a comfortable position. Terblanche referred to it as “going over the alpha bridge.”
The hack has four steps. You start by making yourself comfortable, wherever you are. On an airplane, this might mean reclining your seat and leaning back with an eye mask; on the bed, this might look like getting under the covers and lying down in a relaxed position. Then “close your eyes and count to 30. Then open your eyes a little sliver, like a little half moon, and count to five,” explained the psychologist. You then repeat the 30-minute count with your eyes fully closed, followed by opening them again to a half moon shape and counting to five. “And then close your eyes again and just watch your breathing go in your nose and out of your nose. Into your nose, out of your nose,” added Terblanche.
According to the life coach and endurance runner, this sleep hack should put most people to sleep after just the first cycle (kind of like the military sleep method to make you fall asleep in two minutes). The alpha bridge snooze technique seems to gets its name from the fact that it boosts the generation of alpha waves.