dont move at all. get comfy, then stop moving. dont even scratch a slight itch

• Only lay in bed for sex and sleep, nothing else.
• Make sure your screens are off or have an orange filter for nighttime.
• Toke it up, if you want and it’s legal, about 20 minutes before bed.
• Go to bed around the same time each night.
• and the most important… INVEST IN A GOOD MATTRESS!

Not affiliated at all, just a customer, but AmeriSleep beds have been the best beds I’ve ever laid in! They have just enough give in firmness to avoid hip pain while sleeping on my side, but support those pressure points evenly with your spine.

I had insomnia for decades. I did everything under the sun: workout, hot shower, warm milk, counting, breathing techniques, melatonin (beware of side effects with continous use), no screens, etc etc. Nothing worked and then per my doctor’s orders I take magnesium glycinate and it works like magic

Have a 2 year old that falls asleep at 9, wakes up at 2:30ish Falls asleep at 4:30 after 2hrs of struggle and the wakes up at 0630.

Step 1: Acquire idiopathic hypersomnia

Step 2: Sleep and never stop

• Sleep and wake at the same time every day.
• Wake early.
• Avoid caffeine after mid day.
• Cool temperature bedroom as you go to sleep.
• Avoid stimulation immediately prior to sleep e.g. screens, intense exercise, arguments.
• Make the bedroom a place of rest exclusively, no screens, noise, etc.
• If sleep is elusive don’t stay in bed, go do something and come back later to try again.
• Worrying about sleep only makes sleep more difficult.
• Don’t use alcohol or drugs to help sleep except very briefly to get over a hump. Of the benzodiazepine class, zopiclone is effective for short periods to re-establish a sleep pattern.

I’m just someone on the internet, take everything with a grain of salt.

Only go to sleep when you really intent to. No scrolling on your phone in the bed, no reading books,…

The moment you lay/sit down, you intent to sleep.

If it doesn’t work: get up, do something else, try again later.

Isolate factors that could keep you awake like sugar, caffeine, alkohol,… Even a handfull of gummies could influence when you fall asleep.

Check on air-quality, room temperature and moisture, dryness of bedding, room -brightness, -light sources, noice levels.

Try out keeping a journal of these things, as well as your mental state and reflect on your sleep in the morning.

If available, ask your SO or room-mate about their sleep, that’s a great way to identify external influences.

If your data stays inconsistent, ask a doctor, as there might be medical conditions influencing you falling asleep, ike high blood pressure or hormone imbalances.

I manually slow my breathing just a little bit evertime but not too much that my body will notice, and see how slow I can go

Something like counting sheep - but in reverse.

1. Count down from 100 to 0
2. Imagine each number ( like you are viewing in a calculator display or in any font you like )
3. External thoughts may come and go , consistently come back to the last number you have seen.

I usually wander in external thoughts for .5 or 1 sec and come back to the last number. Then, sleep somewhere between 50-30

4. For morning time / loud surroundings, use a White noise music. Low volume on a Noise cancellation earphone.

I couldn’t sleep for decades until I started listening to audiobooks. It’s a bedtime story. Shut your mind off, let go of stress and just listen. It can still take a little while but now I fall asleep in minutes instead of 3 hours. It also helps me go back to sleep if I wake up from nightmares.

Same time every night. Consistency is key.

Use your bed only for sleep. No screens for a few hours before bed. Milk before bed. Reading or audio books are a great way to settle your mind.

If you aren’t asleep after 30 or so minutes get up and do something chilled for a little bit. Laying there getting pissed you aren’t asleep doesn’t help.

Stick to a sleep / wake schedule. I’ve found getting up early and consistently much more effective for sorting out my sleep.

Do relaxing activities before bed.

I had absolutely debilitating insomnia for my entire life. In the last couple of years I discovered something interesting. I’ve got a condition called aphantasia which means that I cannot see any images in my mind. For my whole life I heard the phrase counting sheep and thought it was a metaphor. Just like. Thinking about sheep since visualizing wasn’t something that I thought people could do.

Anyway, in researching about the condition I found an article online for an exercise where you can work on trying to visualize something. Basically you close your eyes and use the flashing remnants of vision to try to force a shape to exist. Sometimes you need to push on your closed eyes and a little pressure will cause some patterns to appear. You’re supposed to do this exercise while talking to someone outloud. Even if it’s just making a recording. The article I read said you must say it out loud or you will fall asleep. Me having never fallen asleep in my life without hours of concerted effort completely ignored this warning and much to my surprise it absolutely made me fall asleep within minutes.

Ever since then I’ve been able to use this technique to fall asleep every night. It’s like my mind finally learned how to do it. Most of the time I don’t even need to do these exercises any more.

That being said I was so pleased with this side effect I never even tried the say it out loud to try to improve mental images and I still can’t see anything in my minds eye. But being able to sleep every night without fail is a freaking miracle. So I highly recommend giving it a shot.

Here is the original instructions I found on it. https://photographyinsider.info/image-streaming-for-photographers/

I like a podcast called Fall of Civilizations. It’s very calming, quiet accounts of dark periods in history. Despite the juxtaposition, it’s very chill and relaxing.