Thread: What do YOU do if you cant sleep?

Moved to sleep/health

I search rainymoods on YouTube and listen to that for a couple minutes. It helps me go to sleep pretty fast. What about you? Is there a certain noise/sound that makes you sleepy? Try looking it up and just listening toot for a few minutes.

If you still can't fall asleep, just getting up and doing something for lie ten minutes and going back to bed to try to sleep again helps too. Hope you can fall asleep!

Sorry for my spelling errors, not able to edit. XD

Hey thanks for your reply im not gonna lie im listening to that rainy mood stuff and its def working i can fell my self getting tired. i used to watch T.V. to fall asleep in the past but it doesnt seem to work anymore

My life partner lives with insomnia. He's 41 years old and has been getting up every 2-3 hours regularly every night for his entire life. Despite getting "catnaps" at night, he is full of energy during the day.His ways to help him sleep include drinking a toddy before bed, and eating chocolate when he's awake in the middle of the night. Sex before falling asleep helps him too, on those nights he may get up once a night instead of twice/three times. What can I say He's wired differently.

I love rainymood, it really relaxes me. Last night I was having trouble sleeping, I decided to stick it out and just let my mind wander. Before I fall asleep I always get these random flashes of images and feelings, so I just try to let my mind go and create those. That usually works for me. If it doesn't, I like to read a book or play on the computer until I'm exhausted enough to sleep, or it's time to wake up.

The computer is a last resort though, and usually used when I decide to stay up. The electric lights tend to wake me up more than anything.

My mum used to tell me to imagine a blue sky, but I wasn't very good at it. I found that when I tried to look at my eyelids, it's kinda hard, but I fall asleep really fast.
Best of luck!

No drinking less than one hour before bed (only water), no eating less than three hours before sleep. No fizzy drinks or caffiene after your dinner. Try to get a little exercise throughout the day. Sit in a dark or dim room for twenty minutes before going to bed, try to read a book but no bright screen lights, just enough to comfortably read. As you are trying to sleep try to invlove yourself as much as little with your thoughts, don't try to change them just go with them and watch them unravel passively, eventually you will fall asleep.
Often people become insomniac due to depression, so they take sleeping pills which make them drowsy and more tired throughout the day making them more depressed. The best and only solution to stress and depression is try get rid of them (Obviously way harder than it sounds but they are one of the biggest causes of sleeping disorders)
Hope this helped a bit

Doing regular strenuous exercise helps. Stay active throughout the day, so your body feels the need to rest. Warm milk helps. Certain kind of music, without lyrics, on really low volume in headphones..that puts me to sleep as well.

Make sure your routine is good. As in, wake up a similar time every day, don't oversleep, and go to sleep around the same time too.

My ultimate resort to not being able to fall asleep is creating a fantasy world in my head where I imagine out a movie. I'm sure many people do this, but it puts me to sleep lol.

Originally Posted by ExtraSour

Im having trouble sleeping right now and was wondering what do you guys do if you cant sleep? like maybe some tips on what you guys do to fall asleep? anything helps!

Wake up and read, as simple as that, thought is just a provisional solution...

UNLESS you try to go polyphasic:
polyphasicsociety.com

Try segmented sleep, your sleeping problems may be just related to sleeping all at once

some times if you are anxious about an ongoing issue in your life that can prevent you from sleeping . You need to figure out what is the source of your stress, you might not even be aware of it .it could be something that is bothering you and worry you unconsciously. doing yoga and exercise during the day and eating healthy non spicy decaf stuff also helps.

I normally take a nice warm shower and then lay comfortably in my bed, and see how long I can stay awake(by just laying there). I've found that trying to stay awake subsequently makes you more tired.

Originally Posted by Nexi

I normally take a nice warm shower and then lay comfortably in my bed, and see how long I can stay awake(by just laying there). I've found that trying to stay awake subsequently makes you more tired.

I'm quite interested in that technique, trying to stay awake to sleep, the only problem is that when I try it I can't sleep! How do you do it?

I usually meditate or listen to music.

Try sleeping on the floor for 15 minutes, then go back to fall asleep on your bed, the contrast usually causes one to fall asleep easier.

I often just get up and stay up for quite a while, but to get back to sleep with 30 minutes to an hour, reading usually does the trick for me.

Originally Posted by Miguelinileugim

I'm quite interested in that technique, trying to stay awake to sleep, the only problem is that when I try it I can't sleep! How do you do it?

I wouldn't use it if you need to go to sleep quickly. Just lay in your bed, or anywhere else comfortable, turn off all the lights/distractions, and wait. The goal is to stay awake longer, not to make yourself tired. Think of it like whenever you're in class, and you get so extremely tired of boredom but you have to stay awake, and you try to force yourself too. I'm sure you know the outcome to that

I use rainymoods when the environment is getting too noisy and I need to think.

And I usually just stay up really late if I can't sleep.

In most times, I just let my mind go off =D. Don't concentrate in anything. You will notice some unusual (even crazy) things pass through your head as you fall asleep. It usually works .

Originally Posted by Nexi

I wouldn't use it if you need to go to sleep quickly. Just lay in your bed, or anywhere else comfortable, turn off all the lights/distractions, and wait. The goal is to stay awake longer, not to make yourself tired. Think of it like whenever you're in class, and you get so extremely tired of boredom but you have to stay awake, and you try to force yourself too. I'm sure you know the outcome to that

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Nexi

I wouldn't use it if you need to go to sleep quickly. Just lay in your bed, or anywhere else comfortable, turn off all the lights/distractions, and wait. The goal is to stay awake longer, not to make yourself tired. Think of it like whenever you're in class, and you get so extremely tired of boredom but you have to stay awake, and you try to force yourself too. I'm sure you know the outcome to that

I find it hard to sleep even with this technique, the more I try to stay awake, the more awake I am, especially if I have things to do or thoughts to play with if it's too dark to do anything. However, studying and working makes me sleeper because I'm not doing what I want. Thus the brain finds that boring and I find myself sleepy.

When I wake up at 2 in the morning and I can not sleep what I do it is go to the computer room and check the news until 6 in the morning and it's time to go to work.

Life style changes such as regular physical exercise and a somewhat consistent sleep schedule help immensely. Other than that, a more immediate technique I've begun to master lately is not consciously thinking. Don't plan your day tomorrow or think about what just happened that day or anything that requires active focus or conscious effort to maintain your train of thought. It's okay if you find yourself thinking, but stop even thinking about how you are thinking--just let it happen. If you catch yourself consciously thinking about subjects then stop, but other than that thinking is perfectly okay to do. If anything, random, incoherent thinking actually helps me doze off quicker. It's like your brain is allowed to unwind on it's own, while you just shut yourself off... like your brain is still going but you've taken what's *you* out of the picture. The brain is active during sleep anyway right? Naturally it will continue to do its own thing while *you* (or in other words, your consciousness) are allowed to fade out and drift off to sleep.

Originally Posted by snoop

Life style changes such as regular physical exercise and a somewhat consistent sleep schedule help immensely. Other than that, a more immediate technique I've begun to master lately is not consciously thinking. Don't plan your day tomorrow or think about what just happened that day or anything that requires active focus or conscious effort to maintain your train of thought. It's okay if you find yourself thinking, but stop even thinking about how you are thinking--just let it happen. If you catch yourself consciously thinking about subjects then stop, but other than that thinking is perfectly okay to do. If anything, random, incoherent thinking actually helps me doze off quicker. It's like your brain is allowed to unwind on it's own, while you just shut yourself off... like your brain is still going but you've taken what's *you* out of the picture. The brain is active during sleep anyway right? Naturally it will continue to do its own thing while *you* (or in other words, your consciousness) are allowed to fade out and drift off to sleep.

The opposite concept can be applied for staying awake or WILD right? The problem would be which opposite will let you WILD and which one will keep you awake

Practicing maintaining consciousness during such an "out-of-it" kind of mind state could potentially help with WILDing, yes. It would help actually bring on dreaming or "sleep" more quickly. However the way I do it is meant to get me to sleep, so if you just do it the way I do it now you'll just wind up falling asleep instead of WILDing. The opposite would probably make it harder to WILD because you aren't able to get to sleep. You have to remember, sleep is necessary for WILD. Focusing on maintaining a train of thought and consciously thinking is a means of stimulating the mind, keeping it in the awake state. This might help to stay in a dream once already dreaming, but before sleep it will most likely just hinder you.