When you cant sleep..

What do you do? Do you have anything that particularly helps you to fall asleep?

Develop a sleep hygiene routine. Keep with it. It will take about three weeks. No caffeine after noontime. I find a short guided meditation and talk radio important as it gets you off screens before bed. I was a very bad sleeper, but these things have helped me in a big way.

It depends on how bad it is and what’s keeping me up. I make it a point to not notice the time because then I think I’ve been up for x hours. My upstairs neighbor is inconsiderate and often wakes me up.

I do a puzzle for about 15 minutes, as a distraction. Sometimes I think of the thread on how did you sleep, then realize someone else is probably up too.

If I don’t have to be anywhere the next day I tell myself that. If so I can cancel or take the bus instead of driving. Another thing I do is focus on how QUIET my building is and enjoy it, as it’s the only time I get that kind of peace. It will often relax me enough that I can sleep again. No caffeine or sweets after lunchtime.

Also sometimes I just accept I’m up and tell myself everyone has trouble sleeping at times and it’s normal. Valerian root or melatonin an hour before bedtime could help.

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Hi @MangoPassion:

I usually zonk out right after getting comfortable in bed. But there are breathing techniques that can help.

One is to breathe a bit slower and focus on making the duration of the inhalation the same as the exhalation.

Another (which I just learned about in the Finch app) is to inhale to a count of four, hold the breath for a count of 6 and then breathe out to a count of 6. I'm yawning just thinking about this.

I'd add onto @Deejay14's good advice about avoiding caffeine too late in the day and say that some OTC drugs such as Exedrine can contain caffeine. Also avoid chocolate in the evening and take antidepressants in the morning. All this assumes you're trying to sleep at night.

Another thought is to have some room ambient sound that will mask abrupt noises such as annoying clicks, creaking floors, flushing toilets and all that stuff.

You can buy these "white noise generators" but if you have an FM radio, you can try to tune it between broadcasting stations and get a nice fluffy hissing sound. An air purifier with HEPA filter works well, too. If you're into apps, try myNoise, by Dr. Ir. Stephane Pigeon.

I have sound machines or white noise machines but because I wear earplugs I don’t use them at night. My neighbor is so bad that I can hear him even with earplugs so I give up on that. I’ve tried the machine and the plugs and it’s hopeless. I curse the day he was born, laminate flooring up there and he has no rugs at all. The sound machine can be just a competing noise of its own.

Sometimes I say out loud or think breathe in through the nose, out through the mouth. I never knew why they say that, why not the nose both times.

So it depends on what’s keeping me up, my thoughts or my neighbor. The weather matters too, sometimes it’s too hot to sleep or it’s too cold to get out of bed….. I have to adjust what I do depending on various factors.

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I try to have a dialog in my head of some situations. I close my eyes in bed and start down that route. If it becomes a regular occurrence, your mind takes over and runs down some alternative situations and you could train yourself to know you're going to sleep. It's like forcing your brain to head into a dream.

Some great thoughts and ideas on everyone’s responses. Very interesting to read.

I like the term “developing a good sleep hygiene”.

When I’m at my best, I find it helps if I stick to a set sleep time window, and one that is realistic - even if it is short to begin with. So go to bed at the same time and get out of bed at the same time. This isn’t easy at first, but it’s worth bearing with it.

The aim is to see the bedroom as a place purely for sleep. All too often it is easy to drift into a mindset where going to bed is associated with fear and anxiety over whether or not you will sleep. So no reading in bed, no electronic devices, no TV, as all of these things will hinder the sleep process.

I make sure I stop using my mobile phone, or any electronic devices at least an hour before bed. I usually sit and read a book in as low a light setting as is comfortable.

As soon as I get up in a morning I step outside to get natural light for at least 15 minutes, and try and ensure I’m out and about getting as much natural daylight as possible in the first third of the day. I appreciate this is a tough one, depending on your work and family commitments.

I also try and do a walk for at least thirty minutes, or a cycle ride at some stage during the day, but not too late in the evening.

If for some reason I still can’t sleep, then I will get up, but just for a short period, and go to another room (not the bedroom) to read a book, and then go back and try again.

Cutting out stimulants, such as alcohol and caffeine will also help, but it may take a few days, weeks, to adjust and get it out of your system.

It’s not easy, and it takes hard work.

Jeff.

I have a pretty good routine and really only have trouble sleeping if my neighbors are having a 6 hour rifle party in the middle of the night. Sometimes my thoughts are a little maddening, but honestly, if that keeps me up I rub one out real quick and go to sleep pretty easily. If all else fails, I have a PRN sleep med that does its job.

microdosing melatonin seems to help me
it means taking 300 mcg (micrograms) ~ 5-6 hours before intended bedtime

I also take Seroquel when I go to bed. Low doses.

Sometimes, Meditation can help. Meditation has been proven to offer many benefits and enhance a person's life for the better. It can provide mindfulness and make our lives more peaceful. Meditation has been considered to help lessen the effect of anxiety and also depression on a person by bringing a lot of positive effects on our minds. Meditation has worked for many people to achieve peace and fuller lives, while it can differ for each of us, as certain things work for some people. The most common problem faced by people with anxiety and depression is not being able to sleep, and meditation has been found to help have undisturbed sleep. Beginning meditation can be a little difficult, but it is necessary to be consistent in our efforts. So, finding out if meditation will work for you by practicing or trying it firsthand is essential.

I used to meditate a lot. Then tried it for this, and it did nothing. In fact my situation has gotten worse. Going to be on two drugs for this.

I agree it doesn't work for everyone yet it is pushed as if it does.

Well to each their own. I appreciate people trying.

Yup.....

I have a sleep routine plus meds. I take my meds just before beds, climb in and read a cozy for about 30 minutes then it’s lights out. But still I have to empty my mind. Null set, nothingness. If I don’t do that I’ll be awake thinking of this or that.

Sometimes despite everything I can’t sleep, I get up and move to the recliner and turn tv to a mindless show, hopefully if I can, cartoons. The loony tunes are best. Within 30 mij I’m ready for bed again.

I have just listened to a video on YouTube by a biologist who popularizes science. He did a review of literature that adepts of meditation refer to claiming that this literature proves that meditation is this amazingly helpful thing. He started with putting the keyword 'meditation' into PubMed search and indeed there were thousands of articles. He then narrowed down to articles that reported on research that used active controls and go, I think, only 42 articles. He then read them and was appalled at how poor the methodology was. Tiny samples, unsubstantiated and sensationalist claims that then get picked up and broadcast by media. Basically nothing of substance and when you zoom in the actual findings, they may be as rudimentary as 'brain activity was noted by MRI when subjects were meditating'. This biologist clearly likes playing video games - he makes many references to video games in his educational videos - so he said that when he plays video games, an MRI would note activity in his brain, too. It is obvious and proves exactly nothing. It is not specific.

The video was not to discourage meditation if it helps you but to promote critical thinking and awareness of the paucity of actual research, as well as to make consumers aware of the multitude of unsubstantiated claims by gurus and coaches peddling their, commercially available, approaches to do meditation "the right way".

I am going to tell my pdoc about this video because even he, being generally a reasonable person not liable to fall for sensationalist claims, occasionally says that research has found something helpful about meditation.

I found this video vindicating as in the past, back when I would be sent to IOP following hospitalizations, I was irritated to no end by how IOP "teach" meditation and mindfulness as a cure all, cure what ails you, the very thing mental health patients need, and a research-backed practice. Only once, at an IOP for patients recovering from psychosis did we hear that meditation could actually be harmful for people prone to psychosis.

I would post a link to this video but it is not in English.

I think meditation is effective amongst those that demonstrate a scatterbrain situation. Like a lot of tools that deal with stress and anxiety, they simply are distractions. They teach you to turn the noise down and provide a distraction, even if you're told it's not focussing on anything. Not focussing on anything means you've actively shut off the noise. Then the physiological symptoms go away and you've re-mapped your current route. I find myself adopting distraction techniques all the time. Even work provides a distraction to the situation I'm in.

On a side note, check out the OpenAI model called Consensus, which has been trained on published science journals. It's a great way to get insight past the generalistic models, which have limited exposure to proper science papers. Take your science questions there.

There are different types of meditations, and I think many do try to distract clients from their thoughts. But at least one meditation teaches you to "sit with your thoughts" and "move through them" one at a time.

At its core, meditation trains us to be mindful, not just of our environment, but also of what's going on internally. Most of what I work on with my therapist involves this process. Whether it's called RAIN, CBT, MBSR, it seems to boil down to the same thing, AFAIC.

I usually read a book, I do some colouring /art stuff or drink a herbal tea and might sometimes do a crossword. I also find having a bath before I go to sleep works quite well too.

I have read it is because when you take a bath which is hot or warm, your body later cools down in response and when the body is at a lower temp, falling asleep is easier.