If you find yourself lying in the dark at 3am with your eyes wide open and struggling to fall back asleep, a bizarre hack can help.
According to social media wellness guru Heather Gordon, you should try rolling your eyes.
Gordon, who shares health and wellness content with her 16,000 TikTok followers under the name Pretty sick Heathershared a video detailing the trick that she claims always works.
And science suggests there might be something to it, with studies showing that eye movements can increase levels of the sleep hormone melatonin.
In the clip, that has collected 2.6 million views, she instructed viewers to start by closing their eyes.
The next step is to perform a series of eye rolling movements while keeping your eyes closed.
First, direct your eyes to the floor and then bring them back to the center.
Then look all the way to the left, before bringing them back to the center and then to the right. Then roll them back to the center.
She then tells her followers to look all the way up again before rolling your eyes in a clockwise and then counterclockwise circle.
Finally, to finish, direct your eyes to the bridge of your nose as if you were trying to go cross-eyed.
“You’re going to do this as soon as you wake up at night and you’re going to repeat it until you fall back asleep,” she said.
‘I’ve never gotten past two cycles without falling asleep. I promise you won’t be able to do this and fall asleep again.’
The comments below the video are full of social media users claiming the hack worked for them.
One wrote: ‘It took me three cycles but you feel yourself starting to drift off and feel sleepy!! THANK YOU!!!’
Meanwhile, another said: ‘I did this while watching and fell asleep. Three hours later I still woke up with this video on repeat.”
One woman claimed the hack helped her “sleep longer than I ever have.”
Experts say there is intriguing science supporting the technique’s benefit.
Dr. Willem Gielen, a cardiologist based in Denmark, wrote about the efficacy of the method in a blog post published on the content platform, Medium.
He explained that the rolling motion is linked to the release of melatonin, the hormone that regulates our sleep-wake patterns.
Therefore, by consciously rolling your eyes upward, you can initiate this natural process and prompt your body to start the sleep cycle.
A large number of studies have found that REM sleep – the most restorative period of sleep that requires rapid eye movements – helps trigger the release of melatonin, providing further evidence of the link between the sleep hormone and eye maneuvers.
One in three adults in Britain and almost half of American adults suffer from insomnia, while millions more report sleepless nights.
Long-term sleep deprivation can cause obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Insomnia can be caused by stress, anxiety, alcohol, caffeine or nicotine, noise, shift work and jet lag.
If you regularly have sleep problems, there are simple ways to improve your sleep hygiene.
This includes maintaining regular sleep hours, staying active during the day, and creating a restful, peaceful sleep space.