… I just wanna sleep
Noise canceling headphones plus Brownian noise.
https://archive.org/details/brownnoise_202103
In my case Sennheiser hd450bt.
Turn off phone data, so only regular texts from VIP can break through DND.
Solitaire, crosswords or codewords app to sleep. Voyager with pagination on if you really want to read but have an end page.
Drugs hard core prescription sleeping pills. I’m sorry but if you’re as desperate as I was and have tried everything then hard sleeping drugs typically with a benzodiazapine in it
Turn on some video without commercials and something at a more or less constant volume, like Ancient Aliens or How It’s Made. Set the sleep timer for 30 min. Turn the screen off if your TV supports it. Set the volume low/moderate. Get comfortable in bed in your favorite position, close your eyes, and listen to the video. I usually don’t ever hear the sleep timer turn it off.
I did this back when I had insomnia. It worked great. I would usually do it while some movie that I am very familiar with was playing, even if it had a lot of sound variation. For me, that involved a lot of Jaws and Alien movies.
YMMV but when I’ve listened to videos with action and peril, the sudden shouting/explosions/whatever would wake me up.
If you have ad-free YouTube, James May The Reassembler, Astrum, and John Michael Godier are excellent to fall asleep to.
Body Scan meditation exercise. https://youtu.be/BlWo7sqWLNk here is an example
If I cant watch/listen to content I try to “render” a pov trip of like a rollercoaster or some sort of “on rails” vehicle going through some sort of landscape whether its a realistic cityscape, abstract and colorful shapes, a tunnel underground or though an ocean. I let my brain sorta just decide what it wants to do like if the landscape changes I dont try to go back to the previous one or try to “customize” it. Its a bit hard to explain what I mean without me sounding like im talking about my brain as a completely separate entity from myself but it really is like it has a mind of its own and im just letting it do its thing as long as the topic is “strictly” to generate a scene of going through a tube or riding a “pre determined” path. If it starts to get “bored” and even very slightly veer back into normal thoughts or something else I sorta quickly but gently nudge it into another scene or to increase the detail which is hard for maybe the first minute or two but with this method im asleep really quickly. At the start ill probably switch “scenes” a couple times a second.
It feels like im letting the brain sorta tire itself out with a method that can be described as gently guiding a boat downstream
My (probably not very healthy) hack is to watch YouTube. My brain focuses on one thing and all the thoughts keeping me up just stay quiet.
If you have persistent sleep problems even after applying all the advice, if you can afford it, consider taking a sleep test/study to learn what’s the core issue
If you have trouble sleeping in general, it might be a bad habits thing. Melatonin supplements can help to get you tired. 1mg before you go to bed is enough, if you try to relax and sleep. They don’t do anything if you do stuff that keeps you awake however.
This particularly anything exciting like sports, listening to energetic music, watching tense movies, playing fast or demanding games etc. Avoid any such thing for at least two hours before you try to sleep.
Apps that generate soft sounds of rain or waves.
I’m gonna chime in here. My wife asks me this a lot because she too has trouble going to and staying asleep. I however have some kind of sleep superpower. I can be asleep within 2 minutes after going horizontal.
I’ve always done this: start building a scene in your head. Any scene. Action, nature, whatever. Now picture yourself there in first person. Focus on the details. Make sure the trees have leaves. The pavement has lines and cracks and texture. Imagine feeling the wind on your body. From grass to cars to sky paint as detailed a picture as you can. Begin to form a story. Walk around and interact with things, people, animals. Maybe you have a storyline. As a boy I had an action sequence I would play out every night. Cuz you know. Boys. But as I got older those turned into hikes in fun places. Or keeping company with my current crush. Or a fun road trip…You get the idea.
I promise not long after you begin you will naturally begin to drift off. At least this is what has always come naturally to me.
Good luck and sweet dreams!!!
This is going to be really hard for those of us who are aphantasic.
I’d never heard of this. So do you dream at all?
Very vividly and every night. I just can’t really call up pictures in my mind. I can call them up for maybe a fraction of a second with poor detail, but I can’t hold on to them.
Stop thinking about falling asleep. With your inner voice tell yourself you’re going to stay up all night. Close your eyes, relax, lie still, and tell yourself that you’re going to stay up all night; you’ll pass out after a while.
Also invest in a high quality white noise generator or weighted blanket.
People have said to relax your face and jaw. Take it a step further and relax your tongue from the roof of your mouth. It sounds silly, but I found it works for me.
That was a tip from the other site I saw years ago, and now if I’m tired and have 15 minutes I can usually grab a power nap by keeping this in mind.
This sounds very much like what I read about how pilots on the front line rest. They would spend a lot of time in the air, and anytime there was downtime you took it. Some kind of research went into it and they came up with an entire process that would involve relaxing your body from head to toe, and then visualizing yourself somewhere else, like a boat in a lake or relaxing on a hillside. If you fail, you do the whole thing over. With enough training your mind becomes very adaptive and you can fall asleep faster and in highly disruptive environments. I believe it also had roots in meditation, where the more you do it the easier it gets.
I have never tried meditation intentionally, but I’ve probably reached a similar state through relaxation. You’ve piqued my curiosity so I’ll look into it, thank you
Breathing exercises, actuating that vagal nerve
That’s a great question to not have a good answer to. I’ve been smoking weed and drinking vodka cause I’m bored and will inevitably pass out eventually but that’s not good advice
Sleeping hygiene is a good point. No phone in bed.
But also try to make it cozy
Have a nice duvet cover, I like cotton. No synthetics. Change it more often.
Temperature in your bed room should be lower, open your window before going to bed.
Have good curtains. But not too dark. Whenever I have a window shutter and I close it completely, I just don’t wake up and sleep over 8-10 h.
Here are my things I do when I can’t sleep
If my feed are cold, wear socks, or cloth but don’t heat the room too much.
Try to sleep in a different room (if you can). When I am just too active I move to my sofa for a change. It really helps me.
Important question. Are you alone or is someone next to you. If your sleeping schedule or preferences don’t mix with your partners, try separate beds. Cuddling sounds cute until you cannot sleep because of a snoring person next to you. And don’t be angry when your partner prefers to be separate.
I follow all those ideas except the couch. When I can’t sleep I change the scene, I sit in my bed and start reading. Eventually I’m sleepy enough to lie down again.
If I can’t sleep again I go back to reading. This is just to not associate lying down in bed and not sleeping. Reading in another room is probably best though.
Whenever thoughts are too much for me, I try to focus my focus my eyes on the black presented whilst they’re closed. Don’t think about all the stuff that’s bothering you, just focus on that bit of black, right there in front of you. keep focusing long enough, and it always sends me to sleep.
Course, I also take a muscle relaxer (or couple benedryl if I’m out) before bedtime and that shit helps immensely lol
