How To Use "Paradoxical Intention" To Fall Asleep, According To An Expert

Try as we might, we all have nights when we just can't seem to fall asleep. If you've meditated, turned on your essential oil diffuser, turned down the lights, and still can't doze off, you're in luck, because there's an easy—albeit surprising—hack that can serve as your "last resort" option for falling asleep.

Before you try out Raj's sleep hack (which has amassed more than 1 million views on TikTok), you need to consider how your sleep hygiene could be affecting your ability to fall asleep quickly. There are plenty of "better" ways to optimize your sleep, he explains in a comment about why this hack should be a last resort. "This is endgame stuff," he adds.

There are many ways to regulate your lifestyle, and sleep schedule, so you can fall asleep more easily. One science-backed way is to take a sleep-supporting supplement like mindbodygreen's sleep support+ to calm the overactive mind and promote relaxation.* mbg's melatonin-free supplement contains magnesium bisglycinate, jujube, and PharmaGABA® to help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up feeling rejuvenated.*

When you're tossing and turning and can't doze off, here's the key: Stop trying to fall asleep, Raj says in the TikTok video. "You can fall asleep by trying not to fall asleep," the surgeon explains. "This trick is known as 'paradoxical intention,'" he says, adding, "If I ask you not to think about a polar bear, the first thing you do is think about a polar bear—your body works along the same principles."

By not forcing yourself to sleep, you take your mind away from ruminating on the fact that you can't sleep. From there, he says, you want to actually lie awake with your eyes open and tell yourself you're going to stay awake. "Your body will do the opposite, and eventually you'll feel tired and drift off to sleep," Raj says.

And this technique tracks with tips we've heard from other sleep experts, like behavioral sleep doctor Shelby Harris, PsyD, DBSM. She previously explained to mbg that if you've woken up in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep, for example, she recommends getting out of bed, sitting somewhere, and doing something calming or relaxing (just don't look at any screens!) rather than fighting yourself back into slumber.