The military sleep method: does it work?

The military sleep method is a five-step relaxation routine: you let your face, shoulders, arms, chest and legs go loose one after the other, then hold a calm picture in your mind for about 10 seconds. The famous promise, that it gets you to sleep in two minutes, comes from a 1981 book and has never been tested in a study. What's left once you drop the promise is a sensible, low-effort way to relax in bed, and that part is worth trying.

Below you'll find the steps, where the method comes from, what the evidence actually is, and a slower version that doesn't set you a deadline.

The military sleep method in 5 steps

This is the version most articles share. We checked it against two write-ups, Cleveland Clinic and Healthline; the details vary a little between versions.

1. Relax your face. Forehead, eyes, cheeks, and the muscles inside your mouth: let your jaw hang loose and your tongue rest.
2. Drop your shoulders. Let them sink as low as they go, then let your upper arms, forearms and hands go heavy, one side and then the other.
3. Breathe out and let your chest relax. A long, easy exhale, and let your chest stay soft afterward.
4. Relax your legs. Thighs, then knees, calves, ankles and feet.
5. Clear your mind for about 10 seconds. Picture a calm scene. Healthline's version says that if this doesn't work, you can repeat the words "don't think" for 10 seconds.

The whole thing is often described as taking about 120 seconds. You don't have to hit that time. Go at whatever speed lets each part actually soften.

Where the military sleep method comes from

The method is traced to Lloyd Bud Winter's book Relax and Win: Championship Performance (published in 1981; Open Library lists A.S. Barnes and Tantivy Press as publishers). According to Healthline, Winter developed the technique during World War II for airmen at the US Navy's preflight school, and it was brought back to mainstream attention by a writer on Medium.

Cleveland Clinic is more careful: it says reports are conflicting about where the method started and whether it's actually taught to military personnel.

We have not read the book itself, so we can't tell you exactly how Winter described his results. What secondary sources report is this: after about six weeks of practice, 96 percent of pilots could supposedly fall asleep within two minutes, even after drinking coffee and with gunfire in the background. Healthline adds right away that a lack of scientific research supports these claims.

Does the military sleep method work? What the evidence says

Short answer: nobody has tested it. Here is what we found when we looked on September 25, 2026.

The individual ingredients have a little more behind them, with limits:

• Muscle relaxation and breathing. The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) says there is "a small amount of low-quality evidence" that relaxation techniques by themselves help with chronic insomnia. They're often one part of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which remains the most strongly recommended treatment.
• Picturing a calm scene. In a 2002 study from the University of Oxford, 41 people with insomnia were given one of three instructions for one night. Those told to occupy their mind with an engaging mental image fell asleep faster and had fewer unwanted thoughts than those given no instructions. That's a small study over a single night: encouraging for the imagery step, not proof of the method.
• Saying "don't think". This one is shaky. A well-known theory in psychology (Wegner, 1994) holds that trying to push a thought away sets up a mental process that keeps checking for it, and when you're tired that checking can win. If repeating "don't think" makes your thoughts louder, drop it and use the picture instead.

Cleveland Clinic's sleep psychologist sums it up well: the techniques "may help to facilitate a calm and restful state that may increase the likelihood of falling asleep," but they "are likely not the things that are putting you to sleep."

Why the 2-minute goal can backfire

The deadline is the weakest part of the method. Cleveland Clinic points out that when sleep doesn't arrive after 120 seconds, people get frustrated, and that pressure makes sleep harder. The Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) says the same in general terms: lying in bed and worrying about not being able to fall asleep can actually prevent you from sleeping.

It helps to know what's normal. IQWiG's patient site says it's perfectly normal to need about half an hour to fall asleep once the lights are off. Falling asleep in two minutes every night isn't a target most people need to reach.

So use the steps, and skip the stopwatch.

A gentler version you can practice tonight (script)

We wrote this slower version for bed. It keeps the order of the military method but gives each part time and has no finish line. Read it once during the day, then go through it in your mind at night. Each (pause) is about two calm breaths.

Face

Let your forehead go smooth, as if someone had just stroked it. (pause) Let your eyes rest heavy in their sockets. Your cheeks soften. (pause) Let your teeth part a little. Your tongue rests on the floor of your mouth. Your jaw hangs loose. (pause)

Shoulders and arms

Let your shoulders sink, a little lower with each out-breath. (pause) Your right upper arm, heavy. Your right forearm, heavy. Your right hand, loose. (pause) Your left upper arm, heavy. Your left forearm, heavy. Your left hand, loose. (pause)

Chest

Breathe in normally. Breathe out slowly, as if you were sighing without a sound. (pause) After the out-breath, let your chest stay soft. Don't pull the next breath in. Let it come. (pause)

Legs

Your right thigh sinks into the mattress. Your knee, your calf, your foot. (pause) Your left thigh sinks into the mattress. Your knee, your calf, your foot. (pause)

A calm picture

Now picture one quiet place. A small boat on still water. A warm room with snow falling outside the window. A path through a field at dusk. (pause) Fill in one detail at a time: what you see, what you hear, the temperature of the air. (pause) When your mind wanders, come back to the picture, or to the heaviness of your arms. There's no clock. (long pause)

If you're still awake at the end, go back to your shoulders and start again, more slowly. If you'd rather have a full scene to follow, our guided visualization for sleep has one written out.

Military sleep method breathing

The method's breathing step is simply a long, relaxed exhale with your chest staying soft. There's no counted pattern in the versions we checked. If you'd like a structure, a longer exhale than inhale is the gentlest option; our breathing techniques guide explains it and seven others, and you can practice even breathing with the breathing exercise during the day.

Military sleep method PDF: the steps to copy

If you want the steps on your nightstand, copy this:

1. Face: forehead, eyes, cheeks, jaw and tongue loose.
2. Shoulders down. Right arm heavy, then left arm heavy.
3. One long, slow breath out. Chest stays soft.
4. Right leg heavy, then left leg heavy, down to the feet.
5. Picture one calm place and fill in the details.
6. No clock. If still awake, start again at the shoulders, slower.

Military sleep method audio: follow it in the app

If you'd rather listen than remember the order, Body Scan for Deep Relaxation in AI Meditation: Sleep & Calm covers the same muscle-by-muscle release, spoken slowly with pauses. Our body scan meditation and progressive muscle relaxation guides have full scripts for both styles. For the tense-and-release version in the app, Dream Journey with Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) has you tense muscle groups briefly and let go before a calm scene by the sea. At bedtime, Falling Asleep Gently: Settling In, Letting Go combines a longer exhale, a body scan and optional muscle relaxation.

You can make a session shorter or longer within its range, and the voices are AI voices. See how the app works, try it for free, no account needed.

When falling asleep is a problem most nights

A relaxation routine can help on ordinary restless nights. It isn't a treatment for insomnia. The NHS suggests seeing a GP if:

• "changing your sleeping habits has not helped your insomnia"
• "you've had trouble sleeping for months"
• "your insomnia is affecting your daily life in a way that makes it hard for you to cope"

If you often can't switch off because of worries, our guide to racing thoughts at night has a plan for the evening before, and the sleep meditation guide explains what meditation in bed can and can't do.

Sources

All pages accessed on September 25, 2026.

• Cleveland Clinic: Will You Really Fall Asleep in Two Minutes With the Military Sleep Method? (published October 31, 2024). Steps, "no studies have been done on the method itself", conflicting reports on its origin, why the deadline backfires.
• Healthline: How to Fall Asleep in 10, 60, or 120 Seconds (updated February 1, 2024). Steps, attribution to Winter's book, the reported 96 percent figure and "a lack of scientific research supports these claims".
• Open Library: Relax and Win: Championship Performance, Lloyd Bud Winter, first published 1981. Book record only; we have not read the book.
• PubMed search for the phrase "military sleep method", run September 25, 2026: no paper using the phrase.
• Harvey AG, Payne S (2002). The management of unwanted pre-sleep thoughts in insomnia: distraction with imagery versus general distraction. Behaviour Research and Therapy 40(3): 267-277. 41 participants, one night.
• Wegner DM (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review 101(1): 34-52.
• NCCIH: Sleep Disorders: In Depth (last updated May 2024). Relaxation techniques and CBT-I.
• InformedHealth.org (IQWiG): What can you do if you have trouble sleeping? (updated July 31, 2024) and Sleep disorders and problems (insomnia) (updated July 31, 2024). Worrying about sleep, half an hour to fall asleep is normal.
• NHS: Insomnia (page last reviewed March 19, 2024). When to see a GP.
• NHS Every Mind Matters: How to fall asleep faster and sleep better. The 20-minute rule.