Can Slow Eye Movements Help You Fall Asleep? What the Research Says
The unusual bedtime practice Andrew Huberman shares, what it might do, and how to use it without turning sleep into another thing to get right.
By Dr. Yelena Gidenko, PhD | Neurocoach | Brain Health & Performance
It sounds a little strange at first.
Lie down. Close your eyes. Move them slowly from side to side, then up and down, then in gentle circles. Finish with a long exhale.
The idea is that this might help you settle into sleep.
I first heard Andrew Huberman talk about this practice on a podcast a while ago. It stayed with me because it sounded a little strange, but it was simple enough to try. When I saw the same practice included in his new book, Protocols, I decided it was worth taking a closer look at what it may, and may not, do for sleep.
In the book, he describes a closed-eye sequence that can be used before bed or when you wake during the night.
Here is the important part: this is not a magic trick, and it is not a proven treatment for insomnia.
Slow, rolling eye movements are associated with drowsiness and the transition toward sleep. But that does not mean deliberately creating them will make you fall asleep. It may help some people feel less mentally activated. It may do nothing for others. It may take a few tries before you can even tell whether it belongs in your routine.
That does not make it useless.
It makes it one option in a fuller sleep toolbox.
Key Takeaways
This eye-movement practice may help you shift attention away from bedtime overthinking, but it is not a guaranteed sleep solution.
This closed-eye sequence is a low-pressure experiment, not a protocol you have to perform perfectly.
It may work some nights and not others. That is normal.
The goal is to settle the late-night mental loop, not to force sleep.
Ongoing sleep problems deserve evidence-based support, not more sleep hacks.
Why a Simple Sensory Task May Help at Bedtime
You can be tired and still be mentally active.
Your body is in bed, but your attention is still reviewing the day.
What do I need to remember tomorrow?
Did I handle that conversation well?
What does my swimmer need this weekend?
Why am I still awake?
For many people, that last question can make sleep harder. Your brain shifts into monitoring mode. It starts checking whether you are asleep rather than settling toward sleep.
Trying to solve, evaluate, or force sleep can create more activation rather than helping sleep arrive.
A short, neutral sensory task can interrupt that loop. It gives your attention somewhere else to go besides the mental meeting you are trying to finish in the dark.
That may be the most useful part of this practice.
Not because moving your eyes switches off your brain. Not because you can force your nervous system to settle with the right sequence. But because slowing down, noticing a gentle movement, and adding a longer exhale can give your brain a smaller job for a moment.
What the Research Supports, and What It Does Not
The evidence boundary here is simple.
Slow eye movements have long been observed around drowsiness and sleep onset. But a sign that something is happening is not automatically the cause of it.
People yawn when they are tired. You can yawn on purpose, but that does not guarantee sleep. The same caution applies here.
Some online explanations connect this eye practice to the vestibular system, which helps your brain process movement and balance. There is interesting research on gentle rocking as a possible sleep aid. A systematic review found mixed but promising findings, including faster sleep onset in some studies. But that research used rocking devices, not intentional eye movements in bed.
So it does not prove that this eye-movement routine causes sleep.
The long exhale is also reasonable as a calming practice. In a small study of presleep slow breathing, researchers found changes in immediate autonomic measures and some sleep-related brain activity, but not robust changes in basic sleep outcomes. You can read the slow-breathing study here.
That is the right way to hold this practice:
Interesting. Plausible. Worth trying. Not guaranteed.
The Closed-Eye Sequence From Protocols
Before you begin, keep every movement small and comfortable. Stop if you notice dizziness, nausea, headache, eye pain, visual discomfort, or increased tension. You can skip any step, especially the inward-crossing movement.
In Protocols, Huberman describes this sequence for use while lying down with your eyes closed, before bed or when you wake during the night.
You do not need to rush it. You do not need to count perfectly.
Look slowly to the right, then to the left.
Look slowly up, then down.
Trace a slow circle counterclockwise with your eyes.
Trace a slow circle clockwise.
Gently bring your eyes slightly inward, as if looking toward the bridge of your nose. Keep the movement small. Skip this step if it feels effortful, dizzying, or uncomfortable.
Take one easy, fuller inhale, followed by a long, unforced exhale.
Begin with one slow round. If it still feels easy and calming, you may repeat it once or twice.
Then stop.
Let your eyes become still. Let your breathing return to normal. Do not start checking whether you feel sleepy.
The goal is to redirect attention briefly, not to check whether the routine made you sleepy.
The Simplified Version
Use the full sequence when it feels calming and easy to follow.
Use this version when the full sequence feels like one more thing to remember.
Keep your eyes closed.
Slowly look right and left three to five times.
Let your eyes become still.
Take three easy breaths, allowing each exhale to be a little longer than the inhale.
Stop.
That is enough.
The simplified version does not need circles, inward crossing, exact counts, or another round. The point is not to complete the most thorough protocol. The point is to give your attention a quiet place to go for a moment, then let sleep happen on its own timeline.
My Experience With It Was Not Perfect, and That Was the Point
I tried it myself before recommending it to anyone else.
The first time I tried it, I did feel more relaxed.
Then I did what many of us do. I started analyzing what was happening.
Was it working?
Did I feel different?
Why was I still awake?
That analysis probably kept me awake longer than it should have.
But it also clarified something important: the practice was never supposed to become another thing to monitor and get right.
For me, it does help on some nights. Not every night.
Some nights slow breathing works better. Some nights I need to get off my phone earlier. Some nights I need to stop trying to solve tomorrow before I have even slept through tonight.
This is simply one more tool I can use when my mind is too alert, and I need a gentler place to put my attention.
That is how I want you to approach it too.
Not as “the trick that has to work.”
As one tool you can test, notice, and keep if it helps.
Let It Be a Reset, Not a Test
People who carry a lot can turn almost anything into a performance goal.
A helpful practice becomes a standard.
Then the standard becomes pressure.
“I need to do this every night.”
“If I am still awake, I must be doing it wrong.”
“Now tomorrow is ruined.”
That is the pattern to interrupt.
You are not trying to earn rest. You are making space for it.
Structure says, “Here is a small action that may support my body before bed.”
Control says, “If I do this correctly, I can guarantee sleep.”
The first is a realistic goal. The second asks more of the practice than it can promise.
If you try the sequence and you remain awake, nothing has gone wrong. You may feel more settled even if sleep does not happen immediately. Or it may not help that night at all.
That is why it helps to have more than one practical option.
One night, the best tool may be this eye-movement sequence.
Another night, it may be a slower exhale, a quiet prayer, a phone in another room, a warm shower, or briefly getting out of bed for a quiet activity in dim light, such as reading a paper book, when you feel more frustrated than sleepy.
You do not need every tool to work every night. It can help to have a few practical ways to stop feeding the loop.
When to Use It, and When to Get More Support
Try this when you are tired but mentally busy. Use it when you catch yourself replaying a conversation, planning tomorrow, or checking whether you are asleep yet.
Keep it gentle.
Stop if it causes dizziness, nausea, headache, eye pain, or more tension. You do not need to push through discomfort for a possible sleep benefit.
If you have a condition that affects eye movement or balance, or if dizziness is a frequent symptom for you, check with a qualified healthcare professional before making this part of your routine.
And if you regularly struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep, wake exhausted, snore loudly, gasp at night, or feel sleepy while driving, do not depend on a bedtime routine alone. Talk with a qualified healthcare professional.
For chronic insomnia, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia as a first-line treatment. CBT-I is an evidence-based approach that may include sleep scheduling, stimulus control, relaxation, and work with the thought patterns that maintain insomnia.
A bedtime tool can be helpful. Persistent sleep problems deserve more than a bedtime tool.
A Faith-Integrated Way to Use This Practice
Prayer matters. Paying attention to the body God designed matters too.
You do not need to choose between asking God for peace and using a simple practice that helps you stop feeding a late-night thought loop.
And if you pray and you are still awake, that is not evidence of weak faith. If you need more support for sleep, that is not a spiritual failure.
At bedtime, this may be enough:
“God, I am releasing what I cannot solve tonight. Help me take the next right step.”
Then take the next right step.
Maybe that is one round of slow eye movements. Maybe it is putting your phone away. Maybe it is getting help for a pattern that has been going on too long.
Peace often grows through gentle, consistent practice rather than intensity.
Start Here Tonight
Try one round of the sequence.
Right and left. Up and down. Counterclockwise. Clockwise. Gently inward. One long exhale.
Then let it go.
Do not ask, “Did this fix me?”
Ask, “Did this help me step out of the loop?”
That is a more useful question.
If you want a few more brief tools for moments when your body feels keyed up, download Calm Your Nervous System Now. It gives you quick regulation practices you can use without turning your day or bedtime into another project.
If stress, disrupted sleep, and overthinking have become an ongoing pattern, you can also book a free 30-minute clarity call. We can identify what may be maintaining the cycle and discuss one practical next step.
You do not need one perfect sleep trick. You need a few practical ways to stop carrying tomorrow into the night.
