Getting to sleep - Tip and Tricks

reallyrose

This is the Nocturnal Forum for dark twisty creatures of the night or those who feel dark and twisty because they can't sleep and are turning into creatures of the night.
But sometimes, y'know, you just want to get to sleep. Sure, you might be a traitor to the Lair. But you don't care because sleep is awesome. Just unatainable sometimes.

There are the standard things recommended by every insomnia website out there.

• Only use your bed for sleeping (and y'know, that other thing )
• Avoid nicotine and caffine for four hours before bedtime.
• Don't have a big meal before bed, but a snack is ok.
• Go to bed at the same time everyday.

There was a documentary on tv a year or so ago called "Ten Things You Need to Know about Sleep" It was really good, if you can get to watch it, I recommend it! The ten things are here We all have our own little tricks though. I thought it would be nice if we shared them. Because we all need a decent nights sleep at times!

I get insomnia a lot. I spent a lot of time staring into the dark in my bedroom, too tired to move or do anything else but just not able to drop off into sleep.
It's crap. Your brain constantly calculates the amount of time left before you have to get up and hen you get stressed because "oh god, only 6 hours left, now it's 5, now it's 4, I can't cope with 4 hours sleep, etc"



These are the thing I find really help if I'm having a really bad week/month for sleeping.

• I say my multiplication tables in my head. Starting with 1X1 is 1 and got up to 12X12 and if I'm not asleep yet I work my way back down to 1X1

• Another thing I do, which sounds really stupid is I sing a song in head. There's just one song I use for this which I've been trying to get my brain to associate with sleep. This works pretty well. If I hear the song anywhere else I tend to feel sleepy though!

• I do the muscle relaxation thing from the BBC documentary. I scrunch up my muscles, starting with my toes and work my way up until I am trying to scrunch my head. It's pretty relaxing and at the very least I feel less stressed afterwards.

What do ye do?

Maguined

Going to bed at the same time every night? who wants to do that, that's so boring, sometimes you got to stay up till 2am searching the internet for the lulz.

Also it may sound a bit crude but many will agree, nothing will get you to sleep better than a quick hand shandy. :pac:

FewFew

I think there's a sure fire trick that all guys can do that works better than any other technique.

Just sayin'.

Edit: Mags got there first. Yes, hand shandy puts one right out.

reallyrose

:rolleyes:

Maguined

reallyrose wrote: »

:rolleyes:

Don't act like you are above all that missy, we all know ladies do that too!

cyberwolf77

Maguined wrote: »

Don't act like you are above all that missy, we all know ladies do that too!

yes, but they call it double clicking the mouse button.

FewFew

cyberwolf77 wrote: »

yes, but they call it double clicking the mouse button.

Or diddling their skittle

Maguined

I have found reading a bad book helps me sleep, If I do not enjoy the book but I have already started reading it so stubbornly need to finish it then a couple of pages finishes me off. Best example of this was reading Stan Nicholls Orc Trilogy, so bloody dreadful but wanted to finish it so I could deride it with informed facts to my friends that recommended it.

Baggly

Hot milk or Night nurse. Liquid sleep.

FewFew

Pter wrote: »

Hot milk or Night nurse. Liquid sleep.

... thought you hate milk...


:cool:

Baggly

I dont drink it....It does work though.

ive no problem getting to sleep. My conscience is clear :P

IamtheWalrus

I try to think of something nice and enjoyable when I can't sleep. I'm into football so I imagine latching onto a through ball and rattling one in from the underside of the crossbar. All my team mates run over to me and worship me. Or a few years ago I used to be desperate for a girlfriend so I would imagine I'm in a bar and there's a real hottie there and she's eyeing me up over everyone else.

My point is, when I imagine nice things, it takes my mind off trying to sleep and I start to drift off without realising.

If I have a heavy weekend of drinking, I find it next to impossible to sleep on the Sunday night after. This usually drags onto to Monday but on Tuesday night, I'm so tired and happy to be in bed I usually feel so comfy that I wouldn't care if I slept or not, just being in bed would fell so good. Seconds later zzZZZZ.

I do all this if **** doesn't work.

stupidusername

The only things that help me get to sleep are....

-*ahem*
-trying to work out some maths, actually helped me this morning trying to get back to sleep after my first alarm, was trying to work out how much rent i could afford to pay
-drink (but I'm not advocating for that or anything)

FewFew

stupidusername wrote: »

The only things that help me get to sleep are....

-*ahem*
-trying to work out some maths, actually helped me this morning trying to get back to sleep after my first alarm, was trying to work out how much rent i could afford to pay
-drink (but I'm not advocating for that or anything)

I thought *ahem* didn't make women sleepy? I thought it was some sort of evolutionary yokey

stupidusername

Fewcifur wrote: »

I thought *ahem* didn't make women sleepy? I thought it was some sort of evolutionary yokey

I dunno what goes in general, I just know it makes me tired as hell... but then I'm a big tired lump most of the time anyway.

Handsome Bob

Usually listening to the radio works for me. After a while you'll get drained by the lack of a good music being played and it'll knock you out eventually.

squishykins

@Few, I find one go isn't enough to send me to sleep, but try ten, I'll be out like a light I swear I'm generally not high maintenance :rolleyes:

FewFew

Saucy! I do of course assume you're talking about listening to radio shows.

boomkatalog

Fewcifur wrote: »

Or diddling their skittle

Flicking the bean.

FewFew

boomkatalog wrote: »

Flicking the bean.

Your favourite kiiiiiind of jelly bean

RolandIRL

i find if i read a book, i just drop off. so many times have i fell asleep with the light on and woke up at 6am to turn it off

also find thinking of a blank room with nothing in it helps clear my mind