Key Takeaways
- The military sleep method is a five-step relaxation routine: face, shoulders and arms, breath, legs, then a ten-second mental image.
- The famous “96% in two minutes” figure comes from a 1981 book by coach Bud Winter, not from a clinical trial. It described military pilots after six weeks of daily practice.
- No controlled study has tested this five-step sequence. Its largest component, progressive muscle relaxation, has support, but the study most often cited tested a different version of it.
- A healthy adult normally takes 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep (Sleep Foundation, 2025). Two minutes is not the target.
- If you are still awake and frustrated, get up. Clinical guidelines recommend stimulus control (AASM, 2021), whose standard instructions say to leave the bed rather than keep trying the technique.
You have probably seen the claim in a short video: soldiers can fall asleep in two minutes, anywhere, on demand. The routine attached to it is called the military sleep method, and the number attached to that is almost always 96%.
That number is real in the sense that someone published it. It is not real in the sense most people mean. It comes from a book written in 1981, it described military pilots rather than soldiers, and those pilots had practiced the routine daily for six weeks before anyone counted. Nearly every article repeating the figure drops all three details.
The routine is still worth learning. It just deserves an honest description. Here is where the evidence actually sits, followed by the five steps. For the wider picture of what improves sleep quality overall, see our better sleep guide.
What is the military sleep method?
The military sleep method is a five-step physical relaxation routine that moves down the body, releasing muscle tension group by group, and finishes with a short mental image. It is also called the army sleep method or the military sleep technique. The sequence itself takes about two minutes to perform, which is where the two-minute framing comes from. That is the length of the routine, not a promise about when you lose consciousness.
The technique traces back to the US Navy pre-flight school during the Second World War, where the problem was concrete: aviation cadets in training were making dangerous errors because they could not rest between training flights.
The five steps
- Relax your face. Let go of your forehead, then your eyebrows, then your eyes, then your jaw and tongue. The jaw and the area around the eyes hold tension you often cannot feel until you release it.
- Drop your shoulders, then your arms. Let your shoulders fall away from your ears. Release one upper arm, then the forearm, then the hand. Repeat on the other side.
- Breathe out and let your chest go. Exhale slowly and let your torso sink into the mattress. Winter’s step does not specify a ratio, so simply make the out-breath unhurried.
- Release your legs. Work down from the thighs to the calves, then the ankles and feet, one leg at a time.
- Clear your mind for ten seconds. Hold a still, uneventful image. The two Winter suggested were lying in a canoe on a calm lake with blue sky overhead, and lying in a black velvet hammock in a completely dark room. If images do not hold, repeat the words “don’t think, don’t think, don’t think” instead.
Winter’s own rationale for the order was to work from the muscle groups people clench hardest down to the ones they clench least, finishing with the thinking. That reasoning is his, not a tested finding.
Where does the “96% in two minutes” claim come from?
The source is Relax and Win: Championship Performance, published in 1981 by Lloyd “Bud” Winter, a track and field coach who worked with the US Navy pre-flight school during the war. Winter reported that after six weeks of practice, 96% of the pilots using the routine could fall asleep within 120 seconds, including after drinking coffee and with simulated gunfire playing in the background.
Three things get lost when that sentence travels:
- It was pilots, not soldiers generally. The population was aviation cadets in a specific training program.
- It was after six weeks of daily practice. It was never presented as a first-night result.
- It was Winter’s own account. No controlled study has tested this five-step protocol, then or since. The figure has never been independently reproduced.
None of that makes Winter wrong. It makes the claim untested, which is different from disproven, and very different from how it is usually presented. Cleveland Clinic reached a similar conclusion in its own review, describing the two-minute outcome as a trained skill rather than an instant effect (Cleveland Clinic, 2025). An analysis in The Conversation was blunter, noting that for most people in everyday settings the two-minute figure is not supported (The Conversation, 2025).
Does the military sleep method work?
The honest answer has two parts. The protocol as a whole is untested. Its largest component has support, though less directly than it is usually presented.
Steps one through four are a release-only form of progressive muscle relaxation: you let each muscle group go without deliberately tensing it first. That distinction matters when weighing the evidence, because the research most often cited in support of this routine tested the other version.
A 2022 randomized trial in the Journal of Sleep Research found that progressive muscle relaxation increased slow-wave sleep during a daytime nap, with participants spending about 10 minutes more in slow-wave sleep than controls. The details matter here. That randomized trial used tense-and-release PMR, delivered by a 10-minute audio recording. Its participants were 38 healthy college students with a mean age of 20. And it measured a 90-minute afternoon nap, not falling asleep at night (Simon et al., Journal of Sleep Research, 2022). So it is real evidence that releasing muscle tension does something measurable. It is not evidence for Winter’s specific sequence, in bed, at night.
The routine also overlaps with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which combines relaxation training, stimulus control and sleep restriction. Clinical guidelines from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine give CBT-I a strong recommendation as the first-line care for chronic insomnia in adults (AASM clinical practice guideline, 2021). The military method borrows one ingredient from that package. It is not a substitute for it.
| Component | Military sleep method | Standard PMR | CBT-I |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muscle work | Release only | Tense, then release | Often included |
| Breathing | Yes, unhurried exhale (no ratio given) | Sometimes | Sometimes |
| Visualization | Yes, 10 seconds | No | Sometimes |
| Changes sleep timing or bed habits | No | No | Yes, core component |
| Tested as a whole protocol | No | Yes | Yes, extensively |
| Recommended in clinical guidelines | No | Yes, conditional (single-component relaxation therapy) | Yes, first line |
For the deeper version of the muscle-release component, including the tense-then-release variant Winter’s routine leaves out, see our guide to progressive muscle relaxation.
Sleep onset latency: how long should it actually take to fall asleep?
This is the question that reframes the whole topic. A healthy sleep latency period typically ranges from 15 to 20 minutes (Sleep Foundation, 2025). Sleep researchers call this sleep onset latency.
Falling asleep almost instantly, every night, is not a sign that you have mastered a technique. Clinicians treat very short sleep latency as a marker of sleepiness rather than skill: in the Multiple Sleep Latency Test, a standardized daytime nap study, an average latency under eight minutes is read as excessive daytime sleepiness (AASM Sleep Education). That test measures daytime naps rather than your night, so it is not a direct comparison, but it does show which direction clinicians read the number. Faster is not automatically better.
So the two-minute target is not just unrealistic for most people, it is pointed at the wrong outcome. That matters practically, because lying in bed checking whether the method has worked yet is exactly the kind of mental effort step five exists to stop.
How to practice it so it has a chance of working
Winter’s framing was that this is a trained skill. Treat it like one.
Practice it outside of bed first. Run the sequence sitting in a chair during the day, when there is no pressure to fall asleep. You are learning what releasing each muscle group feels like, which is hard to learn while also trying to sleep.
Give it six weeks before you judge it. Six weeks is the only duration Winter’s account ever attached to, so it is the fairest test of the claim on its own terms. Judging it after two nights tests nothing either way.
Slow the exhale. Step three is the one most people rush. Winter’s routine does not prescribe a breathing ratio, but a deliberately extended out-breath is the feature that tested breathing practices such as 4-7-8 breathing for sleep and cyclic sighing have in common. Borrowing that from them is a reasonable extension of step three, not part of the original.
Check the room before you blame the technique. A bedroom that is too warm or too bright works against any relaxation routine, and temperature is worth ruling out first, which we cover in how to stay cool while sleeping.
Give it somewhere to land. In our reading of the CBT-I components, a single technique tends to do less on its own than at the end of a consistent pre-sleep sequence, which is the case for a wind-down routine.
When the military sleep method will not help
If you are lying there frustrated, get up
Stimulus control is one of the behavioral treatments the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends for chronic insomnia (AASM clinical practice guideline, 2021), and it says the opposite of “keep trying the technique”. Leave the bedroom, do something quiet in dim light, and return when you feel sleepy. Staying in bed while frustrated teaches your brain that bed is where you are frustrated.
The standard stimulus-control instructions put a rough number on it, commonly around 20 minutes. The number comes from those instructions rather than from the AASM recommendation itself, and it is meant to be estimated, not timed. Do not turn over to look at the clock, which is its own source of arousal.
Paradoxical intention and insomnia
Paradoxical intention is the deliberate practice of lying still and gently trying to stay awake, which removes the performance pressure that keeps some people alert. It sounds like a contradiction, and it is a recognized behavioral technique for that specific pattern. Worth knowing: the 2021 AASM guideline reviewed it and did not carry it forward as a recommended single-component therapy, so treat it as an option to discuss rather than a guideline-backed treatment.
If your mind is racing rather than your body being tense
The muscle work will not reach the actual problem. In our reading of the literature, rumination is better addressed by where you put your attention than by releasing muscle tension, which we cover in mindfulness for rumination.
If you snore heavily, wake gasping, or feel unrefreshed after a full night
No technique on this page addresses that. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine lists loud snoring, gasping or choking sounds, and unrefreshing sleep among the signs of obstructive sleep apnea (AASM Sleep Education), which is a matter for a doctor rather than a relaxation routine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the military sleep method really work in 2 minutes?
Not for most people, and not straight away. The two-minute figure describes the length of the routine, and it comes from a 1981 book reporting on pilots who had practiced daily for six weeks. No controlled study has tested the protocol, so there is no verified success rate for it at any duration. A healthy adult normally takes 15 to 20 minutes to fall asleep.
Where does the 96% statistic come from?
From Relax and Win: Championship Performance by Bud Winter, published in 1981. Winter reported that 96% of pilots could fall asleep within 120 seconds after six weeks of practice. It is the author’s own account rather than research, and it has never been independently replicated.
What is the difference between the military method and standard PMR?
Steps one through four are a release-only form of progressive muscle relaxation. Standard progressive muscle relaxation has you deliberately tense each muscle group before releasing it, which makes the contrast easier to feel. The military version drops the tensing step and adds a ten-second visualization at the end.
How long should a healthy adult take to fall asleep?
Typically 15 to 20 minutes, a measure called sleep onset latency (Sleep Foundation, 2025). Faster is not automatically better: clinicians read very short sleep latency as a marker of sleepiness rather than skill, so two minutes is not a goal worth chasing.
Can I use the military sleep method if I have insomnia or another medical condition?
Relaxation techniques are generally low-risk, but they are not a treatment for a sleep disorder. For chronic insomnia, clinical guidelines recommend cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia as first-line care (AASM, 2021). If you have a heart, lung, neurological or psychiatric condition, or take medication that affects sleep, check with your doctor before adding any new practice, because the underlying condition rather than the technique will drive what is appropriate.
What should I do if the military sleep method does not work after a week?
One week tells you very little, because the 96% figure that made the method famous only ever applied after six weeks of daily practice. Keep going if nothing else is wrong. But if you are regularly lying awake well past the point of settling, roughly twenty minutes by your own rough sense of it rather than by the clock, add stimulus control instead of repeating the routine: get out of bed, leave the room, and come back when you feel sleepy.
References
- Winter, L.B. (1981). Relax and Win: Championship Performance in Whatever You Do. Original source of the “96% of pilots within 120 seconds after six weeks” claim.
- Edinger, J.D. et al. (2021). Behavioral and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia disorder in adults: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine clinical practice guideline. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 17(2), 255-262. PMID 33164742. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33164742/ (The companion systematic review and GRADE assessment is 17(2), 263-298, PMID 33164741.)
- Simon, K.C., McDevitt, E.A., Ragano, R. & Mednick, S.C. (2022). Progressive muscle relaxation increases slow-wave sleep during a daytime nap. Journal of Sleep Research, 31(5), e13574. n = 38 healthy college students, daytime nap. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9786620/
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Multiple Sleep Latency Test. Sleep Education. https://sleepeducation.org/patients/multiple-sleep-latency-test/
- Sleep Foundation (2025). How to Fall Asleep Fast: Science-Backed Tips for Better Sleep. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/how-to-fall-asleep-fast
- Cleveland Clinic (2025). Will You Really Fall Asleep in Two Minutes With the Military Sleep Method? https://health.clevelandclinic.org/military-sleep-method
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Sleep Education. https://sleepeducation.org/sleep-disorders/obstructive-sleep-apnea/
- The Conversation (2025). Will the “military sleep method” really help me fall asleep in 2 minutes? https://theconversation.com/will-the-military-sleep-method-really-help-me-fall-asleep-in-2-minutes-265193
Update history: revised 2026-08-10. The previous version attributed the “96%” figure to a study and to Sharon Ackerman; the claim originates with Lloyd “Bud” Winter’s 1981 book and is his own account, not research. Two source links in the opening section were dead and have been replaced with verified references.
