The Time It Takes To Fall Asleep Can Reveal A Lot About Your Health

After a long day, falling asleep quickly can feel like a blessing. Getting the right amount of sleep can be hard enough as is — especially if you struggle with revenge bedtime procrastination — so when your head hits the pillow, you want to be able to actually sleep, right? At the very least, it’s better than the alternative: lying in bed for hours.

However, according to sleep specialists, both falling asleep too quickly (and too slowly) can be a symptom of a larger problem. The time it takes you to drift off to dreamland is clinically called ”sleep latency.” And while there is no set “normal” ― or better yet, healthy — amount of time it “should” take your body to fall asleep, there are some general guideposts.

“The ideal amount of time for the body to fall asleep truly varies from person to person,” said Kristen Casey , a licensed clinical psychologist and insomnia specialist. “The National Sleep Foundation suggests that it should take about 15 to 20 minutes for a healthy person. However, people are complex, so we may have more issues that stop us from falling asleep soundly that are likely out of our control.” People with health conditions, for example, may take 30 or 40 minutes, she said.

Sleep hygiene can help. “It’s good to spend the half hour before bed winding ourselves down while we’re awake and do a kind of night bedtime routine,” said Dr. Dave Rabin, a neuroscientist, board-certified psychiatrist, and co-founder and chief innovation officer at Apollo Neuroscience , which developed wearable technology meant to improve sleep. Falling asleep “within a half hour is a good goal.”

What Your Body Is Telling You When It Falls Asleep Quickly

Falling asleep minutes after your head hits the pillow isn’t necessarily a