Asklemmy

you wont like this answer:
sometimes** start your day by wakeing up at 3am

Some things that help me at least:

• Only use bed for sleeping.
• Don't use screens at least an hour before bed.
• Keep phone out of arms reach when in bed. Ideally in another room (these devices weigh heavy on our psychology, and the further they are from us, the less distracting they are).
• Leave blinds open at night so you wake up with the sun. Try to sync your body / circadian rhythm with your environment if possible.
• Get lots of walks and outside time during the day. If you have a lot of energy, work out more during the day.
• No coffee / intoxicants in the evening.
• Drink lots of water.
• Don't try to fix your sleep problems at night. Most of your remedies should be getting on the right foot the next day, and making habits of those.

My husband can do that, and honestly I think it's because he doesn't sleep deeply enough, and gets up too early. So exhaustion works.

I fall asleep in a reasonable amount of time (satisfied with it) and exercise is the main thing I can tell helps me. Next most important I wait until I am actually sleepy before trying to sleep. Smaller factors but still helpful - progesterone (post menopause) before bed, putting down the phone an hour before bed, and a routine - I take a shower & do skincare.

weed

I've had problems with insomnia in the past.

I generally find the easiest way for me to sleep is to be very physically tired.

Use a chair when doing anything productive, when laying down avoid using your phone at all, wait til your eyes glaze basically

I tire my brain out, whenever I lay down, I dont want to move at all, I fall asleep in whatevery uncomfy position dehydrated

Narcolepsy - a blessing and a curse.

Train yourself. Pavlov’s sleep. Every time you go to bed, watch/listen to the same thing. Eventually, your brain associate the thing with “time to sleep”. That’s how it works for me, anyway. I turn on the same movie and pass out in minutes. Don’t do it with one of your favorites, though.

And also, don’t do things like lay in bed watching TV or messing with your phone all the time. You want the bed to be mostly mentally associated with sleep

As someone who used to be like that but now has a real fucked up sleep schedule due to unemployment, I can tell you the deciding factor is a consistent sleep period. The vast majority of my career has been waking up at 4am and going to sleep at 8 or 9pm. Thats easy to fall into and even when you're off your body just knows when its time to sleep and when its time to get up. Ive gotten up on time a few times despite the alarms failing to go off for whatever reason. You want good sleep? Set wake up and bedtime. Your body will adjust.

The secret ingredient is exhaustion

I've always been this way, but every so often I still have trouble turning my thoughts off enough to get to sleep.

There's a technique I use on those occasions that helps a lot. Basically, just try to imagine a shape - it could be a circle or a sphere or a triangle or whatever - and just try to rotate it in your head. Pick a colour too. Try to keep it going. Any time you lose focus because another thought takes over, try to get the shape back.

I got old.

Children.

I only use my bed for sleeping, when I go lie down body knows it's night night time

A strict wake-up time that's the same every day helps. I put the alarm far away from my bed so I have no choice to drift back off.

All the usual tips apply: a cool room, no blue light at night, no distractions in the bedroom, get up for a while if it's not working...

I have what I self proclaim a "float switch". Once my head tilts a 45 degree angle, I fall asleep. I've been like this all my 39 years of existence. I cannot go to these new movie theaters labeled "Dream Lounger Ultra XL" with those reclining king size sofas because I can't justify paying $30 to take a nap.

My wife gets mad at me how fast I fall asleep. I can't fucking help it!

Genetics
Don't even need to hit a pillow

I fall asleep when my exhaustion overwhelms my anxiety; I get up when my anxiety overwhelms my exhaustion.

I used to take at least an hour to fall asleep. Then I had two kids. I can now fall asleep within a minute or two.

Worth it.

Parenthood. You reach the point of pure exhaustion somewhere around 6 months. Depending on your child, it can last for years.

Within minutes?

I think I'm asleep in the split second before my head even touches the pillow.

No secret, just born with it.

I hate sleep, so I get it over with as quickly as possible. I fall asleep quickly and I wake up quickly and spend as little time as possible in between

Masturbation

fap cum crash

Had insomia in highschool. Didn't know what it was but taught myself guided meditation to overcome it.

For me, it was usually a song being stuck in my head. I would see myself floating up and away from the earth amd into space where the void was silent.

I also learned to pay attention to the mental "feel" I had while driftong off to sleep and pictured myself sinking into sleep like a submarine beneath the waves.

I know these aren't super helpful descriptions because if I could really verbalise and teach it I would be doing that for a living.

No secret, I'm hammered before bed.

In my head i'm making a "movie". I make the same "movie" pretty much for 30 years now. I didn't got really far at all, i always start from the beginning and usually fall asleep bevore i reach the end of my already existing script. During the day or before i go to bed, i sometimes think about things that could happen in the "movie" later on, but i usually never make it that far. I often end up tweaking the beginning over and over until i fall asleep. It hardly ever takes me longer than 5 - 20min to fall asleep.

Hey, I can do it in minutes. Just, like, 90-120 of them.

Self control mostly. I was taught to meditate by doing nothing but sitting, eyes closed, counting my breaths. It gave me a strong control over my thoughts. Now if I want to sleep, I lie down and turn my brain off. I’m out in a few minutes if it’s not too hot.

I avoid screens (with one exception mentioned in a bit)—especially social media (including fediverse)—for like an hour ahead of time, read a book, make sure I'm well fed and hydrated without eating too close to bedtime, wear a sleep mask, and put on some soothing music, podcast or (mostly audio-based) video—with the screen off as soon as I hit play. Sometimes I even resort to my noise-cancelling headphones—or earplugs, if the sounds of my own breathing, swallowing, and bloodflow don't bother me too much that night. It helps to meditate and/or make sure to exercise/work hard enough to wear myself out each day.

Comfort helps. Finding the right position, having the right sheets, mattress, pillow, getting the ac/fan/heater so the room feels perfect, maybe cracking a window for fresh air. Feeling secure and safe where I'm sleeping, confident that I'll make it through the night without rude awakenings. Each isn't very powerful on its own, bit all together make a big difference in how readily I drift off.

Finally, I just try not to worry too much whether I fall asleep or not; if it's not looking like it's happening, I'll try to write a story for myself or draw a masterpiece in my minds eye. If that doesn't work, I'll focus on invoking some Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming instead: forcing myself to lie perfectly still with my eyes closed, not even shifting for comfort nor to scratch itches nor swat flies, letting my mind wander wherever it wants to and just going with the hypnagogic hallucinations (they can get a little uncomfortable at times). This rarely has the intended effect, but I usually do end up waking up later, realizing I fell asleep without knowing it.

Disclaimer: my routine won't solve insomnia, it won't fix neurological disorders that affect circadian rhythm, it probably won't work on the first night even if you don't have the aforementioned issues. But adding any part of it to your routine (if you can) will make it just that much easier to fall sleep, when you can get around to it, even if you do have underlying conditions.

Also, at the risk of sounding like a boomer, screens are really bad for sleep. I grew up with them: my family had a habit of watching tv until bedtime, I trained myself to fall asleep while staring at my laptop (which I often have on my bed), or I'll pick up my phone after I put the laptop down. Nowadays I can feel how awake my brain gets when I check lemmy or read news around bedtime. If I have my phone near me, I'll have this nagging feeling to do "just one more" check of all my socials.

And it always keeps me awake until I will myself to turn it off and close my eyes.

I day dream until I fall asleep, and it takes less than a minute. Doesn't matter if I just had a coffee, browsing a phone or whatever.

I like to think about designing something. What I'd do on a isolated island, designing the cockpit in a space craft or building a self sufficient homestead. Fiction stuff. Everything is possible. It doesn't work if I think about actual real life problems.

I usually fall asleep very quickly. Yes, having some kind of anxiety about the next day or such can keep me up and sometimes there's a night where I just don't seem to fall asleep instantly by myself.

Rule number one: Keep your bed the place you sleep in. Don't do anything else in it. You can't fall asleep because of anxiety? Get up, go somewhere else, try to deal with it/calm down and then get back to sleep.

If you don't know why you can't fall asleep, get up, try to wind down a bit. Maybe drink a little bit of water, go to the toilet, whatever then come back and try again. Try to keep the lights off or as dimmed as possible in that time.

Sometimes if that doesn't help, you can use some relaxation techniques to help. My go to: Lay down, find a comfy spot. The easiest: Focus on you I this moment. How does it feel in your bed? Focus on the warm fluffy place you're in. "Feel" how you sink in more and more into your pillow and mattress with every breath. Usually that's enough to get me to sleep. If you can't fall asleep doing this, go a bit further. Imagine you're in a meadow/on a beach/wherever in nature. Feel the imaginary sun on your skin. The sand/gras/moss/... Under your bare feet. Breathe the fresh air. Focus on your imaginary sensations and observe them.

Those imaginations can be hard if you're not used to them. It's OK if you're not focused on them in the beginning and that some random ideas and thoughts cross your mind and keep breaking the illusion. Find a way to deal with them. Accept that it has happened and move on. My preferred way to "block them": imagine a red heavy curtain falling like in a theater completely blocking your view of those thoughts/images. Acknowledge that you identified and consciously ignored them, "turn around" and return your focus to your imagination.

Be tired enough. I jave ADHD and my strategy is to stay up until I am literally falling asleep. The next day can be tough sometimes though if I need to get up early. On those nights I just take Melatonin

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Ive always had trouble sleeping, too active an imagination I suppose. So for me the trick was drugs, they work a treat... Maybe too much of a treat.