How to fall asleep anywhere in 120 seconds or less

Make a pot of coffee. Get yourself a nice, straight-backed chair with no cushioning -- something you might find at the DMV. Keep the lights on, fluorescent if possible. Play some machine gun sounds on a loop at maximum volume. Take a seat, close your eyes, and relax.

That's how legendary sprinting coach Bud Winter taught a bunch of Navy pilots to fall asleep during World War 2. It took them six weeks of practice to get to this level, but once they did, it worked every time. And Winter's technique is something we can apply in situations even more hostile to peaceful slumber than combat. Flying coach from Philadelphia to Tampa, for example.

Here's the technique, often called the "Military Method," as described in Winter's book "Relax and Win." It has two parts: relaxing the body, followed by relaxing the mind.

Relaxing the body

Start in a chair (no need for coffee and sound effects). Feet flat on the floor, knees apart, hands limp in your lap.

Close your eyes and drop your chin until it rests on your chest.

Keep breathing, slowly and deeply. Relax your forehead and your scalp.

Relax your jaw. Let your mouth go slack. Relax your face, your lips, your tongue. "Get that brook trout look on your face," writes Winters.

Relax your eyes. They're controlled by eight muscles — try to feel each go limp. (Winters claims this can improve vision and that he once saw a Finnish Olympic coach throw out his glasses after mastering eye relaxation. Not sure about that.)

Drop your shoulders as low as you can. This is important, as it relaxes the back of the neck, which Winter calls "one of the headquarters for tension for your whole body ... a saboteur of your strength and energy."

Relax your chest: Take a deep breath, hold it, then exhale. Feel your chest collapse. Repeat this, each time feeling more and more tension release. Imagine you are a blob sinking into your chair.

Relax your arms (the key to getting your whole upper body to relax). Start with your right bicep. Tell it to relax. Then the forearm, followed by the hand and the fingers. Repeat on the left side. If you feel a tingling in your hands, that's good — it means your capillaries are dilated and easing blood flow.

Your entire upper body should now be relaxed. With this should come a sense of secure, confident well-being. Associate this state with the word "calm."

Now the same process for the lower body: thigh, calf, ankle, foot. One side, then the other. Imagine your legs without bones — just heavy, dead weight.

You should be fully relaxed. Just to make sure, take three deep breaths and exhale, feeling any remaining tension leave your body.

The first few times you do this, it might take longer than you want, maybe up to ten minutes. That's fine. With practice you'll become more efficient. And once you perfect this technique, you should be about ten seconds from falling asleep.

Mental relaxation

If you can clear your mind of active thoughts for ten seconds, you should fall asleep. Winter has three different tricks to achieve this (just see whichever works best for you):

1. Imagine you are lying in the bottom of canoe floating on a very calm lake on a warm spring day, looking up at the blue sky. Hold this picture for ten seconds, or

2. Imagine you are in a big, black velvet hammock, and everywhere you look is black. Hold this picture for ten seconds, or

3. Simply repeat the phrase "don't think" for ten seconds.

You could easily substitute your own scenario for either of the above images. The key is to avoid any movement in the image — you shouldn't be running or skiing or bouncing a ball, as just picturing activities can cause the relevant muscles to contract.

Willing yourself to sleep requires a certain paradoxical concentrated relaxation — anyone who plays golf or tennis knows the disastrous results that can come from trying to "kill" the ball. Butler's larger theme is how to apply this effortless effort to all aspects of our life: sports, work, even courtship. As befits the topic, Winter's tone is casual and chatty, while packing in much useful information. Best of all, his techniques don't require a yoga mat or a ponytailed hipster shaman to guide you.