Asklemmy

Easy, I wake up three hours later and toss and turn or give up and read.

I lay down, close my eyes, and then in my mind I imagine slowly pushing all sensation down to my feet starting from my head while I slow my breathing. I'm usually out before I even get to my knees.

ADHD...two minutes tops. Could even gulp down a litre of energy drinks or coffee right before. And I even have to force myself real hard to go to bed at around 3-4am. Otherwise I would just stay awake in my hobbies another day 😁

Pot.

Waking up early everyday, and getting stoney mcstone stoned about an hour before bed each night. Fucking bliss.

I read fiction that requires almost no brain power. Either print or e-ink (no bright screen). Sherlock Holmes type stuff is like a sleeping pill.

I'm an introverted person who finds people exhausting, and I'm around people all day long. I hit some kind of point of extreme burnout about three years ago and things never let up, so I'm functional pretty much all the time but if I get any peace and quiet for more than about 30 seconds I just pass out indefinitely until someone wakes me up again lol.

I have separated my living space into "zones" in my head. When I am awake, I am not allowed in the sleeping zone, aka my bed. By only being in my bed when I am going to sleep, I have trained my body that it is the "sleeping place."

No secret technique. I go to bed when I’m tired, I’m asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. Literally-sometimes I fall asleep on the way down to the pillow. Just how I’ve always been. /shrug

It's a ritual. The secret for me is basically counting sheep. Except, I don't actually count sheep, but there's lots of other things. Nowadays I can just clear my mind, but that was not always so.

When I was a kid, I had trouble sleeping. I was scared of the dark or something. So I closed my eyes and started focussing on the shapes I saw to take my mind off it. It were basic geometric shapes in different colors that floated to the edge of my vision. Than new ones would pop up. That helped and eventually I was using that methid every day to fall asleep fast.

In my teenage years I was into "lucid dreaming". Never managed to really do that, but they use special methods to fall asleep which also create some kind of ritual. Like looking at your alarm until you fall asleep. And than when it shows weird numbers, you know you're asleep, but that part is speculative lol.

Like that there are a few otger "rituals" you can try. I think tge most important part is a semi regular sleep schedule and a ritual. Also, don't watch tv or phone in bed. That's the kind of ritual to prevents you from sleeping.

CBTI is the answer to everyone’s inability to sleep. Cognitive behavioral therapy (Insomnia) it’s worth looking up and learning about, if you can’t get there alone it’s worth finding a CBTI therapist if sleep is that problematic

I do now, but I used to lay in bed for multiple hours most nights before being able to fall asleep. Here's a list of things I do that I think help:

• get exercise during the day
• mostly avoid caffeine and alcohol
• avoid spending time in my bedroom other than for sleep
• take 0.5mg melatonin half an hour before bed
• only take naps occasionally and not as a regular habit
• sleeping mask + earbuds playing white noise + specific pillow arrangement that keeps my head in one place, basically a whole set of stimuli that is specific to sleeping
• eat breakfast in the morning

It doesn't work every time (I am very much not someone that can just switch off), but I have found "floor time" to help as a method of meditating. Initially I was just doing stretches of time for the sake of countering being slumped posture all day without a specific intention of being a sleep aid. Some of us randomly do it on the cold floor at work if physically stressed out, which is why I thought to try it at home in the dark.

Tend to either have some long form video play that I have watched before and find nice for sound, or put buds in and set like a 20~30min sleep timer for podcast episodes I like and marked to never delete in a favorites section of the app. Ended up also finding some buds (Soundcore Sleep A10 for anyone that wants to know) that can auto-stop playback if they detect sleep (guessing they use like a heart-rate sensor). So they can act as an additional stop if I fall asleep before the actual sleep timer (sadly I have misplaced them ATM). Which help silence my own thoughts, and anchor onto the audio (and thoughts get kept to the video/podcast). And use the timer to formerly end the "floor time" or to avoid losing my place.

Only other thing I try to allow myself to drift into thinking about is if I feel like I have tensed-up or periodic moving my head to each side for a few mins each to stretch my neck. I just stare into the back of my eyelids, but sometimes the darkness of the room (or into something covering my eyes) for times that staring into the back of my eyelids feels weirdly stressful in the same way a staring contest does when open (very annoying feeling).

I have a high level (in my understanding) of Aphantasia, which for people that haven't heard of it, is not being able to "see" imaginations like folks that talk about "imagine a ball of light" or other guided things. Not fully lacking complete ability to "see" things, but ranging from only the idea (nothing) to extremely quick flashes of mostly super low details. So I try to learn how to focus on keeping the flashes a little longer and "see" simple things or pull the image of the room as I would be seeing it from my spot on the floor if my eyes were open. Made some progress here and there, while still not being able to do it outside of these times. Which I think might be helping me start to nod-off into really light sleep where dreams are close to starting.

Which can slip into that weird sudden falling feeling people have sometimes before fully falling asleep. However even if that happens, I can use that as a stopping point for "floor time" and move into the bed and fall asleep soon after. As my mind/body are much closer to whatever state needed for going over the edge of sleep. If the "falling" thing doesn't happen, I might reach a slightly deeper sleep where I am dreaming but can either still hear the show/podcast in the dream or it is influencing the dream to some in the short time I nod-off.

Constantly exhausted.

Wake up early and exercise at least 30 min. Makes me feel actually tired at the end of the day so it's easier to fall asleep. Exercising later on the day doesn't work because it amps me up.

One year old child.

Zzzquil

(This comment was sponsored by zzzquil "zzzquil, when you're too lazy to fix your own issues try drugs!")

I can (mostly intentionally) zonk out pretty quickly in most sitting or laying positions. Clear calm mind helps me. I might use 1 of 2 exercises. The first I started using is for when my mind is too active from the day and thoughts just keep popping up, each time one does, I imagine putting it in a cardboard box, closing it up and tossing it away. The second one I use more when my body is physically tired, but I'm not mentally sleepy, I imagine I'm laying down at the trunk of an impossibly tall tree, looking at a single leaf near the edge that I can just barely make out, then imagine I'm rapidly floating up where I can see the trunk rapidly moving "down" behind my head, but the leaf just only so very barely seems to get any closer, and just keep that up until I fall asleep.

The times I fall asleep quickest are days where I've been out in the sun. Doesn't matter if it's intense yard work, or relaxing on an inner tube, the sun takes it out of me and I don't even want to open my phone before bed.

Vitamin D deficiency

100% bedtime ritual. No screens for at least an hour, no social media, low light and quiet. I really hate not being able to sleep.

THC. I use it in the form of a vape which is perfect for bedtime because it takes effect quickly and doesn't stay in my system for too long, unlike an edible.

I can be out in 30 seconds. My wife hates it, LOL. Especially because I can self check and give her an accurate prediction of when I will be tired enough for sleep.

I.e. she might say "what do you want to do tonight? And I'll say " we can watch a short episode of a show or a quick board game,, because I have 45 minutes before I'll be asleep"

Main things are routine:

• I eat a balanced diet of protein, fats, carbs. And I don't often snack on sugary foods.
• I don't go to bed unless I'm actually tired.
• I wake up about the same time every day. Usually with the sunrise.
• I don't have worry, or anxiety, that would keep my brain busy at night. Everything can be tomorrow's problem.
• if my body is tired out, but my mind isn't, I'll put in earbuds and listen to a podcast in bed , but with everything set for sleeping. Lights out, eyes shut, comfortable in the covers.

My approach:

Get really comfortable, making sure nothing is off balance, applying unneeded pressure, or likely to lead to soreness later. Make sure it’s not too bright, too noisy, too warm or cold. Then from head to toe, take stock of your body state and relax every muscle. Let your shoulders sink, your hands open, neck loosen. Sink into the bed. Exhale and you should feel like a pile of noodles.

Then just listen to your own breathing. Don’t breathe deeply, just breathe comfortably. Listen to the sound. The goal is literally to bore yourself to sleep. If you catch yourself thinking, stop. Just go back to the breathing. Don’t count, manage, or time anything. Just relax and breathe, listening to the air moving.

Hopefully, the next step is to wake up.

While I am not one to fall asleep in minutes usually, I've had a few cases where I was extremely tired and fell asleep the moment I put my head on the pillow and also woke up instantly the next morning. What's interesting is that I did not feel rested at all but I also were not sleepy.

That's never particularly been me, except when I'm sleep deprived. But in recent years I've been consistent about my sleep and wake times (including not changing them on weekends) and that seems to help a lot. According to my tracker it usually takes me about 10 min to fall asleep.

Always been like that. I fall asleep on planes before take off and wake up when we hit tarmac.

Dissociation.

I read for a bit until I get sleepy. Usually takes 30-45 minutes. Having a consistent bedtime helps a lot too. On the rare occasions I can't sleep I'll take a melatonin but that stuff makes me have nightmares.

Alcohol.

When I stopped doing things from bed, I was able to sleep a lot easier. If the bed equals sleep, the body gets it.

But I also only sleep when I'm sleepy, I never try to force myself to sleep early even if I have early morning responsibilities.