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The short answer The military sleep method is a short relaxation routine: loosen your face, drop your shoulders and arms, breathe out to soften your chest, relax your legs, then hold a calm image in your mind for about 10 seconds. There’s no study showing it puts you to sleep in two minutes, but each piece borrows from techniques with some evidence, and it’s free and safe to try.
Here’s the routine as it’s usually taught online. Read it through once in daylight so you aren’t trying to remember steps in the dark.
- Get comfortable and close your eyes. Lie in your usual sleep position. Take a few slow breaths.
- Relax your face. Let your forehead go smooth. Unclench your jaw and let your tongue rest loosely. Relax the small muscles around your eyes.
- Drop your shoulders. Let them sink as far toward the mattress, or away from your ears, as they’ll go.
- Relax your arms, one side at a time. Upper arm, forearm, hand, fingers. Then the other side.
- Breathe out and let your chest soften. A long, slow exhale. Let the next breath happen on its own.
- Relax your legs. Thighs first, then calves, ankles and feet. Let them feel heavy.
- Clear your mind for about 10 seconds with a calm picture. The classic images are lying in a canoe on a still lake under a clear sky, or lying in a black velvet hammock in a dark room. If no image comes, silently repeat a neutral phrase such as “calm, calm, calm”.
- If you’re still awake, go around again. Start back at your face. If you’ve been at it for roughly 20 minutes and feel more alert, get up for a while (more on that below).
The whole loop takes two or three minutes. Some versions tell you to repeat “don’t think, don’t think” instead of using an image. We’d pick the image: telling yourself not to think is a form of thought suppression, and the imagery research below suggests a specific, absorbing picture works better than vague distraction.
Where the military method comes from
The routine traces back to Relax and Win: Championship Performance, a 1981 book by Lloyd “Bud” Winter, a sprint coach at San Jose State. Winter taught athletes to perform by deliberately relaxing muscles that weren’t needed, and the book includes a chapter on getting to sleep quickly.
The “military” label comes from the story, repeated in countless articles, that the techniques were developed with U.S. Navy flight trainees during World War II, and that almost all of them could fall asleep within two minutes after six weeks of practice. We couldn’t find any published study or primary record behind those numbers. Treat them as part of the legend, not as data.
Does the military sleep method actually work?
As a complete package, nobody has tested it. Cleveland Clinic says plainly that there’s no scientific evidence that the method works as claimed. So the honest answer comes from looking at its parts.
| Ingredient | Evidence | What’s known |
|---|---|---|
| Muscle relaxation (face, shoulders, arms, legs) | Moderate | Relaxation therapy carries a conditional recommendation in the AASM’s 2021 insomnia guideline |
| Slow exhale | Limited | Breathing exercises are part of many relaxation programs; little sleep-specific research on their own |
| Calm mental image | Limited | One trial in people with insomnia found imagery distraction shortened time to fall asleep |
| “Two minutes” promise | None | No published data |
The relaxation part has the most support
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s guideline on behavioral treatments suggests relaxation therapy as a stand-alone treatment for chronic insomnia. That’s a conditional recommendation, the guideline’s lower tier, not a strong one. NIH’s complementary health center describes the evidence for relaxation alone as a small amount of low-quality evidence, and notes these techniques are often built into cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I).
The military method is a fast form of body-scan relaxation. Classic progressive muscle relaxation differs in one way: you tense each muscle group before releasing it, which makes the “let go” easier to feel. If the military version leaves you unsure whether you’ve actually relaxed anything, try that. An NHS guide to progressive muscle relaxation walks through it.
The mental image part has one good study
In a 2002 Oxford study, 41 people with insomnia got one of three sets of instructions for a night: distract yourself with a detailed, engaging image; distract yourself however you like; or no instructions. The imagery group fell asleep faster and had fewer unwanted thoughts than the no-instruction group. General distraction didn’t help. The authors’ explanation is that a specific image takes up enough “cognitive space” to keep you from drifting back to your worries.
That’s the useful lesson for this method. A vague “think of something nice” is weak. A detailed scene you can explore (the sound of water against the canoe, the color of the sky, the drift of the boat) is stronger.
How long until it works?
Expect it to feel clumsy for the first week or two. Relaxation is a skill, and most programs that teach it have people practice daily. Practicing once during the day, when you’re not under pressure to fall asleep, helps it become automatic by bedtime.
Keep your expectations realistic, too. Cleveland Clinic notes that most people without sleep problems fall asleep within 10 to 20 minutes. Two minutes isn’t the normal target, and chasing it can make you more alert.
What to do if you’re still awake
The method can’t override caffeine in your system, a bedtime that’s earlier than your body clock wants, or a mind that’s spinning. If you’ve been lying there for a while, the AASM’s advice is to get out of bed if you don’t fall asleep after 20 minutes and do something quiet in low light, without screens. Come back when you feel sleepy and run the routine again.
Estimate the 20 minutes rather than watching the clock; checking the time tends to wake you up further.
Pair the routine with a fixed wake-up time. Relaxation helps you drift off; a consistent morning alarm is what builds enough sleep pressure for drifting off to happen. Our sleep calculator can set a bedtime from that wake time.
Military method vs other techniques
If the military method doesn’t click, the alternatives use the same ingredients in different proportions:
- Progressive muscle relaxation is the tense-and-release version, with the strongest backing of the bunch.
- Cognitive shuffling swaps the single calm image for a stream of random, unrelated pictures, which some people find easier to keep up.
- Slow breathing, such as the NHS’s simple count-to-five in and out, is a good fit if your body feels tense but your thoughts are quiet.
For a ranked list of every method with the evidence for each, see how to fall asleep fast.
When to see a doctor
- If you have trouble sleeping at least three nights a week for three months or more, that fits the definition of chronic insomnia. Relaxation tricks rarely fix it alone; ask about CBT-I, which the AASM strongly recommends.
- Loud snoring, gasping or pauses in breathing, or heavy daytime sleepiness can point to sleep apnea and need an evaluation.
- If you’re drowsy while driving, pull over and talk to a doctor soon.
Want more techniques like this one? Browse Fall Asleep, or if you tend to wake at night rather than at bedtime, read how to fall back asleep.
Common questions
Does the military sleep method really work in 2 minutes?
There's no published evidence for the two-minute claim. Its parts, muscle relaxation and a calming image, have some research support, so it may help you relax, but most people take 10 to 20 minutes to fall asleep.
Who invented the military sleep method?
It traces to the 1981 book Relax and Win: Championship Performance by track coach Lloyd "Bud" Winter. The story that it was proven on World War II Navy pilots isn't backed by any study we could find.
What do you picture during the military sleep method?
The usual images are lying in a canoe on a calm lake or in a black velvet hammock in a dark room. Research on imagery suggests a detailed, engaging scene works better than vague distraction.
What if the military method doesn't work for me?
If you're still awake after about 20 minutes, get up and do something quiet in dim light until you're sleepy. If trouble sleeping lasts three months or more, talk to a doctor about CBT-I.
Written and checked by the Sleep Brief editors. We base every article on published research and guidance from medical bodies, and link the sources inline. How we research.
This article is for general education and isn't medical advice. If poor sleep lasts more than a few weeks, or you snore loudly, stop breathing in your sleep or feel sleepy while driving, talk to a doctor.
