The viral “military sleep method” hasn’t been tested in trials, unlike older relaxation methods

Key takeaways

• The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests relaxation therapy for chronic insomnia, a conditional recommendation based on low-quality evidence, while cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) earns its only strong recommendation².
• The “military method” traces to a 1981 book by a track coach. We found no published trial of it, and a psychologist told Fox News in 2023 that no scientific evidence shows it works¹.
• A 2026 review of nine studies found that slow breathing before bed improved how people rated their sleep, but sleep-lab and wrist-monitor results were inconclusive⁷.
• In a 2002 Oxford study of people with insomnia, those told to picture an engaging, pleasant scene reported falling asleep sooner than those given no instructions⁸⁹.
• Trouble sleeping three or more nights a week for three months meets the NIH definition of chronic insomnia; relaxation alone may not be enough, so talk with a clinician¹⁴.

In a 1981 book called Relax and Win, track and field coach Lloyd “Bud” Winter wrote that U.S. Navy pilots had described to him a routine they used to relax and fall asleep within two minutes, even under heavy stress¹.

Four decades later, the routine found a new audience on TikTok as the “military sleep method.” Relax your face, drop your shoulders, loosen your chest and legs, then clear your mind and picture yourself sinking into calm¹.

In our searches of the research, we found no published trial of the method. Shelby Harris, a clinical psychologist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine who is also director of sleep health for the website Sleepopolis, told Fox News in 2023 that no scientific evidence shows the method works¹.

That doesn’t make it worthless. Its steps borrow from older, better-studied techniques: releasing muscle tension, slowing the breath and holding a calm picture in mind. Those have real, if modest, evidence.

This guide covers what each technique involves, how far its evidence goes, and three 15-minute scripts to try tonight.

Sleep doctors rate relaxation as a real treatment, a step below CBT-I

In 2021, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) published a guideline on behavioral treatments for chronic insomnia, led by psychologist Jack Edinger². It defines relaxation therapy as structured exercises that ease body tension and a busy mind, and it names five: abdominal breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, autogenic training, guided imagery and meditation².

The task force found 12 randomized controlled trials, studies that assign people by chance to a treatment or a comparison group. Five had data the experts could pool². Relaxation improved sleep quality and the share of people who responded to treatment by amounts the experts called clinically meaningful².

The evidence was rated low quality because of bias risks and imprecise results². Still, the task force judged that the modest benefits outweigh minimal harms, and that relaxation is cheap and widely available². Its verdict was a conditional recommendation, meaning clinicians should use their judgment and weigh what each patient prefers².

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) sounds cooler. On their own, its 2021 consumer page says, relaxation techniques don’t look especially promising for sleep³.

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, or CBT-I, got the guideline’s strong recommendation². It’s a structured program that retrains sleep habits and the thoughts that keep you up, and relaxation is often one of its parts³⁴. Our upcoming insomnia article covers CBT-I in depth.

Muscle relaxation began with a doctor who demanded an hour a day

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is the grandparent of bedtime techniques. Edmund Jacobson, a physician, published his book Progressive Relaxation in 1929⁵⁶.

His premise was simple: a muscle can’t be tense and deeply relaxed at the same time⁵. So you tense a muscle group, release it, and learn to notice the difference. With practice, you can spot hidden tension and let it go⁶.

Jacobson was no fan of shortcuts. A 2015 BBC profile reported that he expected students to practice an hour a day, and told those who lacked time to get up an hour earlier⁶. He ranked his exercises above sleep itself, the profile noted⁶.

Later therapists, including Joseph Wolpe, trimmed the method, and modern versions can relax the whole body in one session⁵.

Small trials have tested it in women with insomnia around menopause, including one with 108 participants, and NCCIH says progressive relaxation may help⁴. A 2018 review of 27 studies in college students found that relaxation-type approaches helped sleep quality somewhat¹⁵.

Autogenic training is PMR’s quieter cousin. Johannes Schultz built it on a clinical observation: hypnotized patients often reported warm, heavy limbs⁵. You repeat calm phrases to yourself, such as “my arms are heavy and warm,” moving through set themes like heartbeat, breathing and a cool forehead⁵.

Its sleep record is weak. A 2015 review found that autogenic training or guided imagery shortened the time to fall asleep, but no more than a placebo did, and the studies were small and low quality, NCCIH reports³.

Slow breathing calms the body’s alarm system, but the sleep data are thin

Slow breathing appears to act on the autonomic nervous system, the automatic wiring that runs heart rate and alertness⁷.

A 2026 systematic review in Sleep Medicine Reviews, led by E.M. Eide, found nine studies with 457 people who breathed at 10 or fewer breaths a minute before bed⁷.

Seven studies relied on what people reported, and they found better sleep quality and longer sleep⁷. Five used objective tools, either wrist monitors or overnight brain-wave recordings, and those results were inconclusive⁷.

There’s a catch. Three of the objective studies tested just one day of practice, while five of the self-report studies ran 28 to 30 days⁷. In six studies that tracked heart rate variability, a measure of how the nervous system is balancing calm and alert, slow breathing shifted those signals⁷. The authors called for better-quality trials that run longer⁷.

What about 4-7-8? This viral pattern has you breathe in for a count of 4, hold for 7 and breathe out for 8. It is one more way to slow your breath, but we found no trial that tested 4-7-8 counting as a way to fall asleep faster. If the breath hold makes you dizzy or anxious, drop the hold and simply lengthen your exhale.

Picturing a waterfall helped people with insomnia in an Oxford test

For a mind that won’t stop, a 2002 University of Oxford study offers a clue.

Researchers Allison Harvey and Suzanna Payne gave 50 people with insomnia one of three instructions⁸⁹. One group was asked to imagine a scene that was interesting and engaging but also pleasant and relaxing. A second was told to distract themselves in a general way, which New Scientist described as counting sheep. A third got no instructions⁸⁹.

The imagery group reported falling asleep sooner than the no-instruction group, and rated their bedtime worries as less distressing than both other groups did⁸. New Scientist reported that people using imagery, such as a waterfall or a favorite holiday, fell asleep more than 20 minutes faster than on nights without it⁹. We couldn’t check that figure against the original paper, and the sleep times came from people’s own reports.

Why might a vivid scene do better than counting sheep? Harvey told New Scientist that counting sheep is “just too mundane” to hold off worries⁹. A rich scene takes up more mental room.

Two cautions came out of that line of research. Pushing worries away tends to backfire and can delay sleep⁸⁹. And imagery may lose power over time as a scene gets stale, so it may need refreshing⁸. Separately, the 2015 review described above found guided imagery no better than placebo³.

The cognitive shuffle is a modern cousin. Luc Beaudoin, a cognitive scientist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, developed it¹⁰. Choose any word, say “garden.” Starting with G, list unrelated, emotionally flat words (goat, glove, gravel), spending a few seconds on each and picturing it if you can. Then move on to A¹⁰.

Its best-known test, a 2016 study of 154 university students, compared the shuffle with a standard 15-minute problem-solving exercise and was slated for a sleep-medicine meeting in Denver¹⁰¹². Reports of the result differ. The trade magazine Sleep Review said in 2016 that the shuffle worked about as well¹². CNN’s 2025 account said it was more likely to help¹⁰.

Neither outlet named a journal, and we couldn’t confirm the study was ever peer-reviewed. Beaudoin also has a financial stake. He created a sleep app, mySleepButton, and CNN noted that he owns or cofounded three companies that sell products built on his work¹⁰¹². He says techniques like this don’t replace CBT-I¹⁰.

Yoga nidra has one small trial against CBT-I. NSDR has none

Yoga nidra is guided rest done lying on your back. You stay aware while the body settles¹¹. Indian researchers call it an ancient practice that teachers handed on in person. Only in the 1960s, they write, did a teacher at India’s Bihar School of Yoga put it on paper as a step-by-step relaxation method¹¹.

In a trial published in 2021, researchers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi randomly assigned 41 adults with chronic insomnia to yoga nidra or CBT-I¹¹. The yoga nidra group had five supervised sessions, then practiced at home with an audio recording¹¹.

Both groups improved. In the yoga nidra group, sleep diaries showed total sleep rising from about 325 to 378 minutes a night¹¹. Time awake after first falling asleep fell from about 37 to 19 minutes¹¹.

The trial had real limits. It enrolled fewer people than planned, several didn’t turn in diaries, and the researchers didn’t directly test whether one treatment beat the other¹¹. The Bihar School supplied the audio and teaching materials, though the authors declared no conflicts¹¹.

Non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) is a newer name for similar scripted rest. In our search, we found no trials that tested NSDR by that name. The yoga nidra research is the closest evidence.

Sleep stories, ASMR videos and relaxation apps borrow from these same techniques. Our article on wellness apps explains how to judge them.

Your 15-minute wind-down menu

These relaxation practices fit what many natural-health readers value. They cost nothing, need no pills, and draw on traditions that run from a doctor’s 1929 book to an Indian yoga school.

Pick one option based on what’s keeping you up. The scripts are our own, built from the methods above. Practice it by day for a few days so it feels familiar at night.

If this keeps you up	Try	Evidence label
A tense, restless body	Option A: muscle release	Promising but early24
A racing heart or keyed-up feeling	Option B: slow breathing	Promising but early7
A mind that loops on worries	Option C: an absorbing scene	Promising but early8

Option A: Muscle release (about 15 minutes)
1. Lie down and let your arms rest at your sides.
2. Make fists at about half strength. Hold for a slow count of five, then let go all at once.
3. Spend 15 to 20 seconds noticing how your hands feel now: heavier, warmer, looser.
4. Repeat with your upper arms, then shoulders (lift them toward your ears), forehead, eyes, jaw, belly, thighs, calves and feet.
5. Finish by scanning from head to toe. If you find a tight spot, breathe out and let it soften.

Skip any area that is injured or painful, and never strain.

Option B: Slow breathing (10 to 15 minutes)
1. Rest one hand on your belly.
2. Breathe in through your nose for a count of four, letting your belly rise.
3. Breathe out gently for a count of six, a little longer than the in-breath.
4. That pace is about six breaths a minute, within the range the 2026 review studied⁷.
5. If you feel lightheaded, return to normal breathing for a minute.

Option C: An absorbing scene (10 to 15 minutes)
1. Choose a place you love and know well: a trail, a garden, a beach, your grandmother’s kitchen.
2. Move through it slowly. What do you see underfoot? What’s the temperature? What do you hear and smell?
3. Add small details as you go, such as the color of a door or the sound of water.
4. When a worry shows up, don’t fight it. Notice it and step back into the scene.
5. Switch to a new scene every week or two so it stays engaging⁸.

What the evidence says, rated

Technique	What studies found	Evidence level
Relaxation therapy overall (AASM)	Better sleep quality and response rates in pooled trials; low-quality evidence2	Promising but early
Progressive muscle relaxation	Small trials, including in menopausal women45	Promising but early
Autogenic training	Faster sleep onset, but no better than placebo in small studies3	Not enough evidence
Slow breathing (10 or fewer breaths a minute)	Better self-rated sleep in 7 of 9 studies; objective results inconclusive7	Promising but early
4-7-8 counting	No trial of it as a sleep aid found	Not enough evidence
Imagery distraction	One small 2002 study in people with insomnia; guided imagery no better than placebo in a 2015 review389	Promising but early
Cognitive shuffle	One student study, presented at a meeting and known only from news coverage; the inventor has related companies1012	Not enough evidence
The military method	No published trial found; its steps overlap tested methods1	Not enough evidence
Yoga nidra	One trial of 41 people against CBT-I; both groups improved11	Promising but early
NSDR by name	No trials found	Not enough evidence

When relaxing isn’t enough

Relaxation is low risk for most healthy people, NCCIH says³. But some people feel more anxious, have intrusive thoughts or fear losing control when they try it³. Rarely, certain techniques have been linked to worse symptoms in people with epilepsy, some psychiatric conditions or a history of abuse or trauma³. If that describes you, ask a mental health professional which approach fits.

Talk with a clinician if trouble falling or staying asleep happens three or more nights a week for three months or longer, or if lost sleep is hurting your days¹⁴. Also get checked if:

• you regularly take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep¹³;
• you wake several times and struggle to get back to sleep, or wake too early¹³;
• you often feel sleepy during the day or doze off at the wrong times¹³;
• a bed partner hears loud snoring, snorting, gasping or pauses in your breathing⁴¹³¹⁴;
• creeping or tingling feelings in your legs ease when you move, especially in the evening¹³.

If sleepless nights come with hopelessness or thoughts of harming yourself, call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline any time. Our upcoming articles on insomnia, nighttime anxiety and when to get a sleep evaluation go further.

Questions readers ask

The bottom line

The viral military method repackages older techniques, and its two-minute promise rests on pilots’ reports, not measurements. The older pieces have better support. Muscle relaxation, slow breathing and absorbing imagery all have small studies behind them, and sleep doctors accept relaxation as a modest, low-risk insomnia treatment.

Pick the option that matches what keeps you up, give it a couple of weeks, and keep expectations realistic. If sleepless nights keep piling up, CBT-I has the strongest evidence, and a clinician can help you get it.

Related reading

• Mindfulness beat sleep-hygiene classes in a trial, but CBT-I still leads for insomnia
• A warm shower and a to-do list do more for sleep than a nightcap
• Moving can ease anxiety, though viral shaking and somatic workouts are less proven
• Wellness apps help a little if you keep using them, and most people don’t
• Yoga builds balance and calm, and the style you choose shapes the risk

Sources

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9. Randerson J. “Discounting sheep.” New Scientist, January 26, 2002 (on Harvey AG, Payne S, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2002;40:267), reproduced by Université de Lorraine. rpn.univ-lorraine.fr
10. Rogers K. “Cognitive shuffling may help quiet racing thoughts to fall asleep.” CNN, April 8, 2025 (via ABC17NEWS). abc17news.com
11. Datta K, Tripathi M, Verma M, Masiwal D, Mallick HN. “Yoga nidra practice shows improvement in sleep in patients with chronic insomnia: A randomized controlled trial.” National Medical Journal of India, 2021;34(3):143-150. nmji.in
12. Perez C. “Need Better Sleep? Consider the Cognitive Shuffle.” Sleep Review, June 10, 2016. sleepreviewmag.com
13. MedlinePlus. “Sleep Disorders.” National Library of Medicine, updated December 4, 2025. medlineplus.gov
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