The app Gentle Wakeup can support you in getting a healthy fall asleep phase. Please note that the app is not a medical product and that it only uses natural methods to support you. But it may be able to relieve you from sleeping pills or any sleep disorders.
Gentle Wakeup is already used by over 300,000 people to improve their sleep & wakeup. Whether you have a sleep disorder, simply want to fall asleep quicker, fall asleep more relaxed or in a more natural way, the app can support you with this.
In case you do not have the app yet you can download it from here:
What is a normal time to fall asleep?
Most people need between 10 and 25 minutes to fall asleep. According to a survey from the National Center for Health Statistics the average time of an American to fall asleep in 2007 was 22 minutes.
What can be the reason if I can not fall asleep?
If you need longer than this time then there can be one or more reasons for this. Some examples:
- You are simply not tired
- You are sleeping too much
- You are going to bed hungry
- You take your work into bed
- You are exposing yourself to bright light at evening
- You drink caffeine or alcohol at evening
- You have not exercised enough during the day
- You have exercised in the evening
- There is too much glowing light in your room at night
- You hear a disruptive sound
- You can not stop thinking
- You have a sleep disorder caused by stress, jet lag, depression, migraine, headache, motivation, tinnitus, insomnia, burn-out, autism, PTSD, anxiety disorder, ADHD, mental disorder
If you are having difficulties falling asleep then you should consult a doctor to clarify the exact reasons.
How do I use the app “Gentle Wakeup” for falling asleep?
Here are the 3 steps to follow:
Step 1: Prepare your room
When it is dark in the evening go into your bedroom and turn out the light. Take a look at your window. Is there any light from street lamps or other light sources reaching your room? Make sure your curtain can prevent this light reaching your room. Our cardiac rhythm is mostly influenced by light and humans can not sleep well if there is too much light during the night.
Now check for light sources in your room. No light source from any electronic devices should be so intense that they light up the room even if it is just a little light. Switch off unnecessary small light sources or paste them over.
Are there any unsolved problems in your head? Thinks you need to remember? Write all unsolved problems on a ToDo list to get them out of the head.
Put your tablet or smartphone with the app “Gentle Wakeup” on a night stand beside your bed. The device should be pointed into the direction of your head in the bed. Some covers can be bend this way that the device is lying on the edge. You can also buy a holder for your device. Best is to buy a holder which can also charge your device over night so that you are fully charged in the morning.
Buy 4 in 1 USB Hub Charging Station and Holder from eBay.com
Step 2: Use the sleep timer to tell your body that it is time for sleep
Your body needs to know when it is time to sleep so that it can prepare for it. Over thousands of years the human brain was oriented on the sunset. With artificial light by lamps and electronic devices in the modern world this orientation is often not available and distracted.
With the app “Gentle Wakeup” you can get the sunset back into your bedroom. Tap on the timer icon to start the sleep timer. The screen will turn to a red sunset immediately. And you will hear a nice night owl from time to time.
Step 3: Do nothing but listen to the owl
The clue of falling asleep fast is to be able to clear the mind just like people do when they meditate. This can be done best by focusing on something very simple. If you already feel tired then close your eyes and listen to the owl only. Otherwise you can watch the sun at the beginning and close the eyes after a while. If the seeing the time is putting you on too much pressure for falling asleep or you want a more natural sun then you can configure the app to hide the time information in the settings.
Over a period of 30 minutes the sun will lose intensity and turn to a moon with blue background. The sound of the owl or any other sound you have selected will also lose in volume. The gentle decrease in light and sound will get you to the first stage of sleep phase. Your brain waves and muscle activities will start to slow down. This stage will last about 5-10 minutes.
Now you enter stage 2 of the sleep phase which is a light sleep. Your heart rate will slow down and your body temperature will decrease. You may have partial contractions and relaxations of your muscles in this time. This stage will last about 20 minutes.
Now you enter stage 3 which is the start of deep sleep phases. Your body becomes immobile. Your blood pressure and temperature fall again and you will breathe slower.
Congratulations: You successfully fell asleep now.
What if I still have problems falling asleep or want to fall asleep even faster?
The app offers a sleep aid function which slows down your breathing to get you asleep even faster and more relaxed. Read this article how it works: Fall asleep up to 3x faster by using the sleep aid function
How can I adjust the sleep timer for my personal needs?
There are several configuration possibilities for the app. The most important one is the +5 button on the main screen. With a single tap on the button you can extend the sleep timer for 5 minutes each time. This is very useful if the sleep time duration was not enough but you are already very tired so you can tap on it without getting fully awake again.
You can find more configuration options in the app settings.
Tap on the gear icon when there is no sleep timer or alarm active and then on the sub settings for the “Sleep Timer”.
It is also important that you configure your personal sound volume. Whether you find a sound pleasant or disturbing mainly depends on the volume you hear it.
You can also set a longer or shorter duration for the sleep timer depending on your needs. On default the sound and light start to fade out from the beginning but you can configure them to keep a constant brightness and volume for a while. When they start to decrease you can set the speed in which they should reach their final brightness and volume.
If you want another sound you can choose from over 50 natural and instrumental sounds. According to an internal study most people love to fall asleep by rain, followed by white noise, wave and crickets. The app offers light rain, medium rain, rain on umbrellas and even rain on a window sill. A thunderstorm can also be chosen with a pleasant, low volume thunder far away.
You also need to decide what the app should do when the sleep timer is finished. If the app simply returns to the main screen with the sun to wait until the display turns off automatically then this may disturb your sleep. That is why the default option is to turn the display off by the app without any intense light in between. Another possibility is that the app switches into the night mode automatically which will show a night clock.
Continue reading: How to sleep through the night with the app “Gentle Wakeup”
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The sleep timer function is also available in the separate app “Sunset Sleep Timer – fall asleep quickly”