Expert shares 'Alpha Bridge' sleep hack that's so 'simple' it even works on planes
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@erica_terblanche/Getty Stock Images/ Leren Lu
Having trouble snoozing on your long-haul flight?
Well, a sleep expert is sending people into a lulled nap after sharing her fantastic sleep technique, dubbed the ‘Alpha Bridge’ method.
Getting comfy on a flight is pretty difficult which can make the hours sludge by ever so slowly, so a nap would be the perfect thing to make time go faster and feel as though you’ve got less time on the plane.
But it’s not something that everyone feels they can accomplish.
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That’s where Erica Terblanche comes in.
This psychologist posted the sleep technique to her Instagram page, sharing her wisdom to get her followers off into a deep sleep on their flight in very little time.
She began explaining to her viewers: "Do you want to know a skill that will help you fall asleep on an airplane, or pretty much anywhere else?
"It's called 'going over the alpha bridge'."
According to Terblanche, it takes just four 'simple' steps to fall asleep.
Step one begins by lying or sitting comfortably (we know this is tough on a plane, but give it a try). Then, close your eyes, and count to 30.
On the last step, she told people to ‘open your eyes again to a little half-moon sliver, count to five, and then close your eyes again and just watch your breathing go in through your nose and out through your nose.’
Most people will ‘fall asleep in the first cycle', Terblanche says.
She explained to her Instagram followers that ‘there are four science based parts to this practice’ which allows a person to fall soundlessly to sleep quickly.
She broke it down:
“1. First we count to 30 to stop our mental rumination and to give us something else to focus on - like counting sheep.
“2. Then we force our eyes open a little and trigger ironic processing - it is a psychological phenomenon that makes us do the opposite - eg. Don’t think of a dancing white bear.
"Immediately we think of a dancing white bear. When we force our eyes open we signal ‘don’t fall asleep’ and do a little clever trick on the brain - because now the brain rebels and says ‘i dont want to wake up!’
“3. In the third step of counting to 30 our breathing deeeeeepens and slows and the moment this happens our brain waves go from busy beta of wakefull states to alpha - the calm brain wave just before we drop off to theta and delta brain wave in sleep…
“4. And bam! Step four we trigger ironic processing again - and thr brain says aikona! I am sleeping!!!… and for most people now follows zzzzzzzzzzzzz”.
That’s only if you can actually snooze on the seat though.