If counting sheep just isn’t cutting it for you anymore, there might be a new trick worth trying the next time you’re lying awake and struggling to drift off.
Getting good sleep is a huge part of staying healthy, which is why so many of us are always on the lookout for new ways to fall asleep faster or stay asleep through the night.
And let’s be real—getting a full night’s rest isn’t easy for everyone. In fact, about 89 percent of Americans say they have trouble sleeping. From stress to your surroundings, there are a lot of reasons why it can be hard to get that solid stretch of sleep we all need.
This delay in drifting off is known as sleep latency. According to the Sleep Foundation, the usual amount of time it takes to fall asleep is between 10 and 20 minutes.
To help people hit that sweet spot more easily, TikTok creator Dr. Joe Whittington suggests giving a simple technique a go. He calls it the “Infinity Tracing Technique.”
“I’m going to teach you a technique that might help you calm your overactive brain… Try this weird but effective trick to calm racing thoughts and actually fall asleep.”
The technique itself is pretty simple. You just raise your finger in the air and slowly trace the shape of an infinity symbol, like a sideways number eight.
This part of your brain, once activated, is said to help quiet down all those racing thoughts. Dr. Joe compared it to distracting a toddler with a shiny toy—simple but surprisingly effective.
Plenty of people in the comments of Dr. Joe’s video said it reminded them of EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy.
The method is often used to treat conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), giving people a way to work through difficult experiences from their past.