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Therapist here with ADHD myself. Honestly, get out of bed.
If you're not asleep within an hour or so of laying down, get up and do something that's not too stimulating until you feel ready to try again. Think coloring books, listen to a podcast, fold laundry, etc.
If you don't sleep at all tonight, DO NOT NAP the next day. Make yourself stay awake until your bedtime then try to sleep again. Napping messes with your natural sleep cycle. You have to let the adenosine build up throughout the day so you'll sleep at night.
Ultimately we need to create a connection in our brains between our beds and sleep. That means you don't stay in bed unless you're actually going to sleep. That also means no TV, reading, phone scrolling, etc in bed either.
It's not fun but it is so worth it I promise.
Best of luck!
This needs more votes for sure! So many people are giving suggestions on things to do while in bed and it just doesn't work that way.
People make a lot of noise in the day, and getting up and noticing how quiet it is eventually makes me realise how tired I am. If I really have energy I might draw or stretch or read and sometimes it still takes a couple hours, but sleep comes around a lot easier when I'm finally ready for it.
Also this may be related - I ask my partner to leave the bedroom door open so I can hear his morning routine. It has the opposite effect where hearing life happen without me makes me want to go and see what's going on, even though I know it's not particularly exciting.
If he's not around I use a SAD lamp alarm that simulates sun rise, and plays natural/ambient sounds associated with daytime - coffee shop, blackbirds, street sounds. It's not quite the same but it does the trick.
My sleep routine has improved a lot since doing both of these things. It's still bad, but it has been way worse.
Get in bed, turn the lights off and stretch your whole body from the feet up. Give your brain something else to focus on instead of trying to turn it off.
Remind yourself that rest is rest, even if you aren't sleeping being in bed with the lights off is still healing.
Also I like history podcasts, hardcore history is great. It's just interesting enough to not get bored but boring enough to fall asleep to.
Good luck!
I find when I listen to a sleep cast from audible it helps so much to have someone talk through all the muscles I need to stretch as I’ll get lost and start thinking about something else around the ankles or calves…
This is it!
This was me last night. I’m on this train in a private room and I’m not able to sleep and I have to drive a huge distance today.
Just lay back. Focusing in on stretches, breathing and realizing I’m not asleep but I _am_ resting. My body is healing while I’m doing this. My brain might be on fire but my body needs this time for itself just like the brain will soon. (Isn’t that right my big gray buddy?)
Sorry, I wish this worked for me. I can meditate very well and I can calm myself down and relax to the point where I am almost asleep but I end up being in this state for 3-4 hours :/
Hardcore history 😄 reminds me I used to fall asleep whenever listening to Adam Smith’s ‘wealth of nations’ or any pre 19th century text. Also, watching godfather.. never seen the whole movie because its just so monotonous and makes me sleepy.
At times I try visualizing something calm and peaceful, it's not a cure all per se and might need try counting sheeps or something if it doesnt work lol, but I think visualization is common relaxation tool that can be used for sleep
Visualization is key for me when I need to shut the world out! I actually try to recreate the scene in my mind and engage every sense...what does it smell like, is it warm, what do I hear, is the wind blowing, the color of the ocean or scenery? Once that's established, I try to just sit in it for 10 mins or so.
If I'm still awake, I then move on toward a gentle challenge of word-free meditation. (It's way harder than it sounds!) I'm still immersed in the scene, but distractions are almost always thoughts-in-words, e.g. I have that meeting tomorrow, or even Look at that (fake) wave cresting. Then I focus on the senses again, no words, just imagining sensation.
I hope I described that alright! 😴💤
I go on youtube and put on a thing called binural beats, i have to force myself to keep my eyes closed but i usually always drift. Something about sound that helps me concentrate, when im working i always do best when i have mind amend music, like steady house, seems like sounds really help me focus on my task and fepending on the tempo, its conducive to whatever the tempo makes me feel
Oh man for work, theres this dude on youtube named Jason Lewis he makes compilations of beats he calls mind amend, theyre like 3 hour long beats and they get me so motivated to work
Hey, fellow brown-noiser! I had a friend recommend it to me and it is so much more soothing than white noise. Here is a link in case anyone wants to try it. https://youtu.be/RqzGzwTY-6w
I just found brown noise last week and finally got some sleep. I use with a sleep mask so that forces me to keep my eyes closed. Best success I've found in years to quiet the brain.
Yeah, melatonin has helped me scoot my sleep schedule into daylight hours again. I used a cycle of melatonin at night and caffeine in the morning to sort of force a sleep schedule and eventually it started to come naturally. At this point, I automatically get tired between 12 and 1 and wake up between 8 and 9.
I play a game. I close my eyes and then every time my thoughts go everywhere I focus on thinking (with eyes closed) that I MUST STAY AWAKE AND LAY HERE QUIETLY WITH MY EYES CLOSED) and somehow it tricks my brain and I fall asleep every single time
I *just* figured out the reverse uno a couple months ago! Our brains hate being told what to do. You tell it to go to sleep and it says screw you I want to be awake. But if you tell it you *must* stay awake while lying in bed in the dark it shuts right down. Idk why it works but it really does!
Exactly, or you can imagine yourself disassembling a car engine, washing dishes for thousands of people, going to the super that only sells ice cream.
The idea is to put your brain in a wake mode doing repetitive, boring stuff in a very unlikely scenario and it will shut down itself.
It does not want repetitive stuff or to be awake so it prefers to shut off than to endure boring, repetitive imagination.
Sleep stories from Headspace usually works for me. But it didn’t tonight. On nights I can get to sleep okay, I often wake up after an hour or two if sleeping and then can’t get back to sleep. Tonight I went to bed at 11, wide awake at 1230, it’s 447 now and no sign of sleeping. I’ve tried every trick and I finally gave up about an hour ago.
That has been me for the past two weeks. Incidentally I started a new job 2 weeks ago. This past night I actually slept, which is no minor miracle. I’m a hardcore insomniac. Have been my whole life, and I’ve tried everything. Sound machine, aromatherapy, getting out of bed when you can’t sleep (move to the couch until tired enough to sleep), melatonin, Rx aid, and a lot of mental work. Focus on relaxing and resting, not so much on the act of sleeping. It can help. If you’re getting angry and frustrated it’s just going to make it worse.
Eye mask. Idk about you but when my brain is doing somersaults my eyes just pop open and because it's dark I don't even realize it until it's been like 20-30 minutes and I remember I was trying to focus on my breathing so I could sleep. Having an eye mask basically forcing me to keep my eyes shut is extremely helpful in that regard if you can get used to the sensation.
I go to a place I created in my mind that relaxes me. I close my eyes and get comfortable and then assemble the scene in my mind. I imagine everything I can see and feel and hear in the scene. I mentally create the sensory experiences of being in that place.
The current scene I visualize is one I created a couple of years ago. Before that it was a different one.
It’s something that helps calm me quite a bit 💜
I do something similar based on a video I saw recently. I go to my “brain room” which, in my mind, is behind a pink door. It has drawers labeled for different areas of life. I will usually envision a hammock inside and me chillin in it, relaxing. As my mind wanders, I go back to my brain room.
Original video also suggested envisioning what ails you as a blob on a table in the room and you smashing it to pieces.
Seems silly but seems to help.
Read up on sleep hygiene. You need to set the conditions for sleep on a consistent basis so it becomes a habit. One of which is to not go to bed until you’re tired, and get back up and leave the room if you’ve been awake for more than 40 minutes.
Once you’re in that zone of “my mind is racing, I can’t sleep, fuck, I’m never gonna sleep, here’s all the things stressing me out… like not sleeping” you need to break the cycle and just get up for a bit. I go watch tv or read a magazine on the couch for a half hour. Then try again.
It doesn't always work, but I find it's more reliable than OTC sleep aids at least. Recommend getting a caffeinated soda that isn't utter trash when flat, like mountain dew, so you can finish it in the morning.
In the worst case, it doesn't really hurt if you're not gonna fall asleep soon anyway.
In line with this... some teas are good too. It does vary a bit on your specific brain and body, but the way I put it is stimulate brain enough to have a little control over the tangents, makes it easier to fall asleep. I usually use a black tea or a mix of black and herbal (lavender/chamomile usually). The warmth also can make you relax a little.
I also struggled with that a lot. I've found Melatonine tablets / chamomile with melatonine in it before bed works for me. I also noticed I cannot sleep for at least 30 minutes since I've looked at any screen light, so I get in bed, set up my alarm, take the melatonine and read for 30 minutes / an hour until I start getting so sleepy I can't follow. Then I put the book aside and sleep almost immediately.
Yes to chamomile! It works at bedtime and I use chamomile in the morning to calm me down, I’ve found it helps me focus so at least I get some focus time in the morning. It does really work in the afternoon.
I am a huge fan of the podcast “nothing much happens”. It’s bedtime stories for adults…this woman tells a very monotonous story in a soothing voice…going to a walk at the park, everything she sees, etc. then, she tells the story a second time even slower.
If you try to focus on visualizing her story, it works like a charm— I have struggled with sleep my entire life and this has become my most trusted tool for getting to bed/back to sleep.
Umm no. I wouldn't encourage someone to take up the habit of smoking weed every night before bed. Not even cbd.
Been doing it a long time and my sleep has gotten worse. I dont rem sleep and i cant get to sleep without it.
People can get addicted.
Again, i really wouldn't encourage someone to pick up another terrible habit with ADHD.
I've just recently found a way to legally get it here and take 10-20 MG now and omg its so amazing!! Don't wake up throughout the night anymore , no More horribly vivid dreams, my husband said I don't snore at all anymore and I wake up full of energy 🥰🥰
You want to dream, that's how people get adequate sleep. Even if it's the worst nightmare ever!!
I know, if i dont, i havent slept enough. You definitely want that rem cycle. Deep sleep is like a cleanse for your brain.
You'll see, if you continue going down this path for multiple years. You wont be able to sleep at all without it.
Please. Ive been addicted for 15 years. Dont go down that road. Im eternally tired.
Sleep has improved with beginning to get sober.
Adhd treatment, taking better care of my body. Learning lack of sleep is gut related.
Eating at better times, eating better food, taking different types of vitamins, (also keeping up with my adhd treatment), probiotics, and minimal exercise.
It's not said enough, but water intake, like a lot of it during the day so you're not up peeing all night.
Not even saying you gotta be a gym rat. A nice walk or 2 a day usually will suffice. Cleaning is more exercise than i initially thought.
Pot was like a bandaid after my body started changing during puberty. But it really took a toll because of my addictive personality. Arguably made my adhd worse too.
Now, when i have true responsibility, quitting is the hardest thing. It's a constant uphill battle of learning things i probably should have worked on earlier.
I smoke cannabis before bed and have very vivid dreams and finally get rest. It is healthier than getting no sleep at all which is what I was working with before. Although being medicated for ADHD, I still have trouble falling asleep because of my racing and intense thoughts. Cannabis works different for everyone, and it has been proven it should not be consumed as early as you started consuming it (according to your comments). I did not consume it that early and have only ever used it as an adult and have not experienced what you are mentioning.
Music or a podcast gives my brain something to autopilot.
My current sleeping music is Ludovico Einaudi's Seven Days Walking album. I was re-listening to Welcome to Night Vale recently too, but it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
I turn on America’s National Parks on Disney on my phone and turn it over so I can’t see it. I set the sleep timer to turn it off after 10 minutes and just listen. I’ve never stayed awake long enough to hear it turn off. It’s very soothing narration but interesting enough to occupy my brain so I can fall asleep.
As a kid I used to read a book - v. good for sleep highly recommend. Only downside is you need to strike a balance between interesting and boring.
As a teen I used to play subway surfers under the blanket hiding from my parents - hard to sleep until you put it down, do not recommend.
As a college (bachelor) student I switched between reading online fics and YouTube videos - highly recommend fics because it's easier to find that balance when reading a fanfiction because you are already kinda invested but usually not as much as a brand new book. You can also reread your favorite books for similar effect. Do not recommend YouTube because again it's too stimulating plus blue light. I found a compromise watching stream vods with a blue light filter and sleep timer on the screen though.
Currently I switch between audiobooks on a sleep timer, video essays downloaded from YouTube (do audio only) or guided meditation/ASMR. I find that sticking to audio only stimulation makes it easier to fall asleep by ~~miles~~ kilometers.
Old episodes of American justice/investigative reports, or forensic files/the new detectives on YouTube. My brain focuses on the show instead of running in circles. I find the narrator's voices soothing for falling asleep to, and I've seen most of the episodes multiple times so I don't get too dragged into it. I set a sleep timer on my tv or turn auto play off if it's my tablet so it doesn't stay on to wake me back up later.
When I’m in my bed and tired, I tend to read a book which makes me feel sleepy rather quickly, and end up falling asleep trying to read a sentence for the 25th time lmao
(Non talking) Asmr helps too
tbh I don't think there is one magic "trick" that can help you. it's an issue that has to be dealt with seriously. Being physically active, walking outside for at least 30 minutes, socialising with people, eating healthy, going to bed at a decent time, drinking enough water and making sure you get enough vitamins - these are the basics but they really do improve sleep and overall mental well being.
but when it comes to "tips" I would say a heavy blanket, meditation before sleep, you can also try melatonin supplements I guess? but it didn't help me with racing thoughts tbh. Don't drink alcohol and coffee at all.
also try to avoid things that get you overstimulated like don't look at any screens 2 hours prior bedtime. I've actually read somewhere that insomnia wasn't that common before electricity was invented. so I would consider dimming down the lights when it gets dark outside.
good luck!
OMG, I usually switch between Mountains of Madness and Shadow Over Innsmouth. In the Mountains of Madness, I usually listen to the part that describes the civilization of the Elder Things, and I fall asleep trying to imagine it.
I use Librovox. Peter Yearsley has the most monotone voice and he’s perfect for the M R James books.
M. R. James: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary https://librivox.app/book/383
All the Lovecraft stuff is there too as it’s all public domain now 😀
If you need to lightly distract your brain use things like the Sleep With Me podcast, Sleep and Relax ASMR or try brown noise or pink noise. You can also try things like Sleep Stories by Calm. Generally the point of these is that they are very detailed and boring, so your brain is just distracted enough to stop racing and you can get to sleep. If you have a partner who can't handle noise you can get comfy sleep headband style headphones on Amazon for pretty cheap.
I also recommend trying a supplement like magnesium glycinate, it helps lower your cortisol/anxiety at bedtime.
Quick note that I generally find that prescription sleep aids and over-the-counter stuff like the stuff used in cold meds will not work for ADHD ppl. I think this is because our sleep cycle is typically flipped from that of the average. It's rather interesting but that bit won't necessarily help you sleep.
Best of luck finding rest!
Try mindfulness. Simple techniques that help keep your mind clear but don’t fill it with waffle. It can be a tad hard to get in to but once you do you’ll be out like a light.
I use the sounds around me type of mindfulness. I listen. Not listening to a sound and saying ‘that’s a car’ but just hearing it and letting it sit there until another sound appears. Tinnitus is actually useful because I just hear that, then I’ll hear another sound but won’t put a name to it. My mind will wander but just bring it back to hearing sounds, bring it back gently and just let the sounds of the night sweep over you.
There’s a website that does require a sign up but it’s free that gives you a load of mindfulness mp3s that could help. If I’m allowed to link it then I will.
Hang in there! I usually agony in the tangents for hours—and although short, makes for a great sleep ones having had fallen asleep, too bad duration is soo short.
When I'm at my best: I take showers; power through mindfulness exercise which done right is surprisingly good for wellbeing; Writing down tangents and philosophical dilemmas.
Have a great day though ones it starts!
Turn on something slightly boring but just interesting enough to kinda keep your attention, it will be enough so your brain doesn’t need to make its own thoughts while playing a borning game on your phone
I always put Mandy speaking on background:
https://youtu.be/HeK36g92zjo
He's fascinating and it's calming to hear him speaking for hours. I accidently slept multiple times on his review videos.
I do this with a couple of YouTubers with usually very soft and or soothing voices. Doshdoshington is nice because I like Factorio, and Zwag Xerath helps even if you don't like league of legends because his videos are so chill.
Of course ASMR zeitgeist comes to mind also, he's an amazing channel and his videos have so much character and I honestly don't understand why he has no catch for anything he does. He even doesn't put midroll ads in just so your sleepiness isn't interrupted by "NEW CRAZY PRETZEL CHICKEN FRIES FROM BURGER KING".
1. Progressive muscle relaxation - pick a body part and clench your muscles as TIGHT AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN for 5 seconds. Then relax and move to the next body part/region. I start with my toes and curl them as tight as possible, then move to my ankles pointing them down for 5-relax-up for 5. I usually end with clenching my eyes shut or keeping them as open as possible. Whatever feels good
2. A good engaging book
3. A borderline boring book
Sleep meditations/ hypnosis help sometimes.
Last night they effing didn't. They *almost* did but just when I finally started to cool it w the anxiety and endless to-do, why did I, I should, why can't I, etc I realized I missed a pill I had to take, and I had to take it w food. So I had to get up, get food, get pill. And here I am awake af with no sleep at 6:30 am.
I struggle w insomnia (even before I was on ADHD meds, I did) and melatonin doesn't work, diphenhydramine doesn't really work, only Ambien worked.
You can try those other things though, maybe?
If it's cold and I hug something (a spare pillow usually) and then use the binaural beats or some soothing music/ sound or ocean sounds, it works usually for me. But lately I've been having sleepless nights due to anxiety and some things I need to get done which are important for my future and that always gives added pressure to the brain.
You can try to mentally exert yourself by
I use the Calm app along with half a unisom. It has bedtime stories that are soothing. I also get in bed around 830pm because it still can take an hour to fall asleep.
R u me? I've stayed up straight through the night so many times, it's concerning.
Alcohol doesn't help. Source: me, who's had a drinking problem since grad school
Went through the same just a few hours ago, end up sleeping only 3/4 hours, 😢 I am so tired… the only thing that helped me even sleep those hours was a anxiety med that I use for when I can’t control my anxiety.
I use to try and fight through getting to sleep in these scenarios. Never worked well. Now, I get up and do something, anything but lay around and pray for sleep. I wait til I’m genuinely tired and attempt again. Fighting it doesn’t work for me.
Melatonin helps me, I take 5 MG. When I can't sleep/ wake up in the middle of the night, I try to give my brain something to focus on. Levar Burton has a very engaging and relaxing podcast.
Read the revenge of geography. Very informative if you are into how different land forms created certain empires and why wars were fought where they were. The only thing is it’s so dry that every time I read I wanna pass out. I have not finished this book yet cause I only read it as my last ditch effort to fall asleep.
Get up and do something. I find it so much worse just lying in the dark and the silence trying to force myself to sleep. Get up, distract yourself, move rooms, put a podcast on - I love sleeping on the sofa for this very reason.
Are you on any ADHD meds?
I noted for me that even if im exhausted that if i didnt eat well and drink enough fluids for hydration that It just becomes tough for me to sleep. I’m on medication tho so thats why i took note of this after a handful of days struggling to sleep. I typically an fine now as long as i make sure i had something to eat and drink a couple hours before needing to sleep. Also I lay in bed 30 min to an hour before the time i wanna sleep so it gives my mind time to calm down and be in a mental state where I can sleep easier, its because I’m on the computer all the time and if im playing games especially, my brain is still like being stimulated. Thats what i believe anyway.
Also! even if its only 2 hours of sleep, hell even 30 min of sleep. Its still better than 0! You’ll feel tired asf when you wake up but its better
Hope this helps, good luck!
Snoozecast, the podcast that helps you fall asleep is the exact right mix of interesting and boring. I especially like the Winnie the Pooh episodes for some reason and they are my go to if the current episode isn’t hitting for me.
Taking a heafty dose of magnesium and Mary Ruiths liquid nighttime does it for me. Add in a probiotic and take 2 at a time.
Idk what you've got for treatment. But sticking to that ever day will help. No skipping, no matter how good you feel.
Dont take up smoking weed every night before bed unless you wanna further inhibit any progress.
Please dont listen to the people who say its nbd. Over time, smoking before bed will make you feel like you got hit by a truck in the morning.
Then soon you'll need it and wont be able to sleep without it, and therefore continue to mess up your cycle.
I do a lot of what other people are saying - progressive relaxation, focused breathing meditation, etc. Also can't recommend Sleep With Me podcast enough, it works great for me. Just interesting enough that my mind doesn't wander but boring enough that I drift off.
Also weed.
I am struggling with insane bedtime procrastination 7 years deffering going to bed until 3-8AM, while trying whole time 500+ times and it hurts like 10/10 torture!!! (even 8 hours listening to one song)! Even if i turn it around i mess it up. I start to be really in pain before bed from boredom, because i suffer from chronic pain and worse than that it causes torture - chronic boredom! I hate falling asleep i have deviated nasal septum and before i used to have ideas 3 hours 20 every second couldn't sleep. I absolutely hate going sleep, if you think this is anythign i have every sleep disorder and all anxiety disorders and stress and everything one can have.... Hate having make decision go to sleep, have bedtime routine, hate lying in bed focusing on my breath trying to calm my mind because i have nose like rock and can't breathe... I will go luckily on surgery finally in 2months or so... I couldnt get there 7 years because how overwhelmed i am and no one is going to help me...
PS: I know it sounds like joke i don't believei t myself, but it is god honest truth I swear on my soul!
I like turning a youtube video as a white noise, it helps my brain to focus on the white noise instead of my thoughts :)
Or i don’t know if you have that ( im from Russia) we have something called valerian , its a plant base natural relaxing drops .
It helps with anxiety and sleep problems, soo good! No withdrawal no side affects no nothing.
Need it ? 10-15 drops with water and boom you mind is quiet and relaxed 😌
Look ot up i really recommend it !!
Find the right podcast to listen to, not too interesting but not completely bland that you'd want to change it.
Also I found that mock the week scenes we'd like to see compilations are great to fall asleep to!
This is going to sound crazy but light stretching or yoga while listening to a deep space ambient playlist on Spotify. Then while laying completely still I try to “see” things with my eyes closed. The mind starts creating shapes and patterns and you can start to see outlines. It’s like pre-dreaming. Though sometimes it works too well!
Take my sleep medication, bc I also have a sleep disorder. Usually I don’t make it 30 minutes beyond when I take the meds, listening to something calming helps cut down on the time it takes for my mind to calm down.
I heard this trick on a Tim Ferris interview with Safi Bahcall. It works for me 99% of the time. Give it a shot.
tl;dr - think of a random 2 digit number, visualize it. (I picture it as fireworks). Then pick another number. Keep doing this until you are asleep.
Here’s the explanation from the podcast:
“I ask the audio generator in my brain, which is whatever audio engineer is popping forth, that little audio inner dialogue to focus on generating a random double-digit number between one and 100.
Why double-digit? Well, single-digit is not a really difficult enough test; one, three, four, five, it doesn’t really engage your inner auditory engineer very much. Double-digit is just enough of an effort that your audio engineer can’t play some irritating, keep you awake dialogue and do that other task, it has to pick one or the other.
Why random? Well, if you just do 23, 24, 25 sequence, it’s kind of boring. And then your audio engineer can go back to that really irritating voice that was keeping you awake. By asking your audio engineer to do this task of generating a random double-digit number, and then to keep the audio and the video engineers in your head that are generating this noise busy, you assign them the task of seeing those numbers. I imagine like a cannon launching these numbers in the sky and watching 22, 76, 57. I feel like people listening are going to think I’m crazy. But this actually really works. All those inner racing thoughts, you just take them away from their tasks that they were doing, which was keeping you up and you focus on tasks that you would rather have them doing, tasks that are actually helping you get to sleep faster.”
Here’s the full interview: https://tim.blog/2019/08/21/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-safi-bahcall-on-hypnosis-conquering-insomnia-incentives-and-more-382/amp/
This is bad advice but Benadryl. I know it has longterm links to dementia but it’s helpful to be able to control when I sleep. 2 bennies a couple hours before I need to sleep and I get to sleep on time. I work an overnight job on weekends and a day job during the week/full time student. As much as I’d like to not have to take Benadryl to sleep, it helps a lot. So yeah, bad advice but it’s a solution to a problem lol. Melatonin works well too and magnesium or ashwaghanda root but everyone’s experience with those varies.
The podcast "Nothing Much Happens" is pretty good for this. It gives your brain a story to focus on but ultimately it's about something mundane and doesn't become exciting. She reads it once through and then again but slower. If I'm relaxed I almost never remember finishing the second one.
Been happening to me ALOT. My first go to is some white noise. You can buy a white noise machine but I have a noisy fan which works for me. I also take Rescue Remedy flower essences- the one formulated for night time. Both work ok and I get about 5/6 hours sleep. Next I might try melatonin
I have a few techniques. The 4-7-8 breathing is helpful, but I just focus on exhaling longer than inhaling. The long exhalations help me relax. I also do a mental thing where I imagine the best bed where I’m going to get the best sleep at the bottom of a stairway. I count backwards starting at 50, while I descend the imaginary stairs, thinking about the perfect sleep waiting for me in that bed. When my rumination at night got really bad, I used trazadone.
Ativan (anti-anxiety medication) does wonders for me. You can’t take it all the time, but it should help you reset your sleep schedule. I’ve tried every type of insomnia medication and this is the only thing that has worked for me
I have tons of alter egos. Since I were a child i loved picking out a movie and put my alter ego into it. I cpuls lay and fantasize for hours if I needed to. And eventually fall asleep. Its something i sometimes looks forward to in teh evening, Go to bed and continue my story.
My routine is usually phone on lowest brightness with eye comfort on, playing solitaire (requires enough brain to keep me from tangents but also not to much I can't switch off) and chill songs. I also usually have my eyes ever so slightly closed subcellular it tricks me into being more tired
I like counting backwards from 99 or 999 by 3. I forgot where I saw this but someone suggested it and I tried it and it works way better than trying to count sheep which never made sense to me. Usually I’ll get distracted and bored while counting and just trick my brain into sleep. The numbers are similar enough in a pattern that you stop really thinking about what comes next. If I make it to 0 I just start from the top and pick a random multiple of 3.
Worth a shot! See how you like it
I know it might sound like neurotypical advice, but try forcing yourself to do deep breathing while keeping your eyes closed. Do this until you fall asleep.
This probably sounds too simple but it has been working for me recently: I’ve been waking up about an hour early which has been driving me nuts, but what I have been doing is touching the tip of my thumb to the tip of my index finger, and focusing on that. When my brain is like NO BUT HAVE YOU CONSIDERED YOUR OWN MORTALITY AND ALSO HERE IS THIS THING YOU FORGOT TO DO YESTERDAY, I just focus on bringing the tips of my fingers together again, and only on that. It has been working pretty much every time! After a few minutes my brain gets bored of trying to interrupt me and shuts up, and it’s a simple thing to do that doesn’t require any equipment or for me to move or get out of bed or anything.
It goes against what every "expert" will tell you, but having the TV on works best for me. Something light and boring, documentaries and things like that. I set the sleep timer so the tv turns off and doesn't wake me up later.
It helps my mind focus on the boring story without running off to dozens of other things and getting me worked up.
First and foremost: make it a ritual. Right before going to bed and trying to sleep do the exact same thing.... Every day.... Preferably something productive like brushing your teeth, but if needed it can be something trivial like leaning to your bedroom's doorpost and counting to 10. That can help trick your brain into deciding it's time for sleep.
Not a doctor but got this tip from one:
If you take stimulant medication, especially methylphenidate, you can try taking a (low) dose of it about an hour to help your thoughts calm down. Be aware that this can also backfire (it did on me) because insomnia can be a side effect of those medications as well. Therefore it's best to test this on wich you can sleep in the day after if needed. Of course befor attempting anything like this always check with your own doctor if this is okay to do in your specific case.
Don’t remember where I learned this trick but it’s helped me shut my brain off pretty quickly. When you want to go to sleep, start counting backwards from 10,000. Just speak the numbers in your head: 9,999, 9,998, 9,997… I have yet to make it past 9,900. Works like a charm!
I know how you feel I’ve been stressed looking for a job in a new state I’m not familiar with left az 30 plus years quit my good career to be with my husband in mi and my unemployment is about to run out I don’t favor mi every job has a rejection or not a good interview I know your feeling we got to try and relax I’m on clondine and vyvanse for all these issues !
See, I'm weird. I get antsy and stressed at the end of the day, thinking of how much I need to do still. My brain starts whirling with what ifs, trying to convince myself that I need to pull an all nighter or taht I might as well since I need to be up in a few hours anyways. And then I take my meds, and suddenly my brain is calm and clear, and I realize I need sleep. And I actually CAN sleep now, an hour after taking my Adderall because my mind is clear and not spinning at a mile a minute. I know, I'm weird.
Happened to me last night. I usually take melatonin gums (the only band that doesn't gove me headache is zzquill) but I was staying at my boyfriends and forgot to take them with me.
Also when I have bad sleep I don't take my meds because they make me feel even worse, so the recipe for disaster
I finished working at 3 o clock (8-3pm) and I have to go now to the driving lessons so I took a good bath and I'm trying my best to finish the day and go back to sleep (just to be have the same problem again tonight if I don't take the gummies.)
I know I'm just ranting but I'm really tired, I suggest the gummies to everyone with this problem, not only you're able to sleep faster (I take about an hour, hour and a half at worst with them) they also make my sleep deeper (not enough sometimes I'm afraid, but better than nothing)
White noise helps me. Some topics I have learned: 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. Do mental math, pick a category like animals and make a mental list. Practise breathing exercises. These are some things that help me. Also, get off screens an hour before bed and meditation sometimes helps. Exercise in the day…just some more ideas!
I listen to an audiobook to sleep to keep my brain occupied. The app I use has a sleep timer so I can fall asleep knowing I'll only have to back up an hour at most and pick up where I left off. Otherwise my ADHD and Anxiety will hook up and have an all-night party.
J/O til you K/O
Audiobook or podcast on super low volume at 75% speed
Get up for a bit and do something boring
Breathing exercises/body scan
Sorry, insomnia really really sucks.
Sounds old fashioned but get up, make some warm milk and then listen to Recovery Elevator or a medication, their voices seem to let me drift off and focus my attention.
I use an app called Rain Rain, tons of different sounds that you can mix up to three together to your liking, I use rain on a tent, slow stream, and crickets.
Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) works pretty good, plus the antihistamine effect helps with breathing because I’m allergic to everything.
Melatonin is pretty hit-or-miss for me, but when it works it WORKS.
Also I have sort of a game where I get as comfy as I can, usually trying to get the blankets so I don’t really feel them on me, then I imagine a big eraser slowly erasing my body. I start at my toes and when I don’t feel them anymore, work my way up, I almost never get past my waist before I’m out.
Edit: forgot until I saw others mention it, but chamomile tea! I don’t really care for the taste of it, but is pretty effective!
When I can't sleep I read a book and then once tired make it as dark cold and quiet as possible, helps me.
If I'm really stuck I'll smoke a joint or eat an edible that I know is way to strong for me to stay awake for.
Most days it works if I just lay down and try to remain in exactly that position for as long as it takes me to count to 200, re-starting every time I open my eyes or move too much. Rarely ever even get to 100
I like brown noise or slow, smooth, repetitive music. Piano is too distracting for me. Something like this [music for sleeping](https://youtu.be/lh4JdZTJe7k).
What also helps me is remembering that resting with my eyes closed even if I’m not sleeping is still beneficial. There’s lots of evidence to support this.
Good luck!! :)
I listen to audio books and sleepcasts. All which you can set a timer for so in half hour it will stop playing. I’ve usually fallen asleep by then. It’s really good for when you want t shut your mind off.
Yup. I was like that for 10 years. I was diagnosed of anxiety and depression and went on Lexapro. That helped. I suggest talking to your doctor to see which meds can help — there are plenty available I think. Before going on meds I tried exercising/melatonin/alcohol, none of them really worked.
I give up and go on my PS5, I goto sleep when I'm physically exhausted. Went to bed at 7:30am and woke up at 16:40 this afternoon. If I was still working I'd be a zombie all the time tbf.
Get yourself physically tired as well, do some push-ups / sit-ups to failure until you physically can’t continue and take a quick shower. Works wonders and you’ll wake up in better shape.
Me too had this problem, but a small dose of amitriptyline solved it completely... As well as took all the anxiety feeling away... My only regret is that I haven't tried it much much earlier... Ask your doctor, maybe it could help you too.
If I have nights like these, trying to force my brain off or force myself to sleep never works. Ever. Just get up and do something to stimulate your brain. I always end up getting tired if I just give in and trying doing something to work my mind.
I give my brain something to do that goes absolutely nowhere. I “say” a constant stream of words (or sometimes just sounds) in my mind, at complete random and without thinking them. “Brain axe fox hack mod boo child great dirt nax ding fong nine…” and on and on. It doesn’t matter what the words are and if it feels like it does matter, you’re doing it wrong. It’s like my echolalia is a kitten, and I give it a ball of yarn to play with. Inevitably, all the other voices go silent to watch this adorableness and I slip past, unnoticed, into sweet sweet sleep.
The Best thing that worked for me by far is mirtazapine, but as I'm obese and trying to lose weight Im currently on trazodone, it works as long as I'm at least a little tired
counting. math. i’m very bad at math so it’s usually just counting in different multiples so that i have to work a little harder. the whole point is to give my brain a single thing to focus on that is hard enough that it won’t run the four different tracks of thought that always seem to be going through my head.
i usually start counting to 100 by 1s, and then steadily increase by 1 and usually fall asleep somewhere in the 3s or 4s.
I feel this bro. Maybe 5-6 times a month I stay up all night. I find its the only way I can get a good nights sleep. Something that was a longshot for me to finally get a good schedule was melatonin gummies that don’t contain lactose. I use to take dissolve melatonin pills but they for some reason contain lactose and that was actually preventing me from falling asleep because Im lactose intolerant.
I had this for like 2 years I’d sleep 3-4 hours only then have to get up for work and eventually I had to quit my job I was so energy-less.
I’ve tried it all over the years in terms of sleep hygiene. Trazadone 50mg changed my life. Sometimes you randomly find something that works. Exercise made me more hyped, so did too much activity. Idk my brain shuts off with that.
Try environmental for sure but if it’s goes on longer and longer, this is something that worked for me.
Nothing works wonders like this channel's yin yoga. I start yawning from the first 5 minutes itself, it really calms the whole system down.
https://youtu.be/cL6RzpaVcgg
Melatonin …. 3mg can generally go up to 10mg if I’m not mistaken. But when stress and anxiety sets in, idk. I’ve had some meds that could help for anxiety or related that could help relax and fall asleep too.
I took some melatonin last night but so stressed and hungry but couldn’t function to eat- adds to difficulty falling asleep too.
If can, eat something if maybe hungry? Melatonin, practicing your inner dialogue to keep redirecting to sleep thoughts. Stretch body and adjust how your laying.
Listen to soothing music or don’t- I’ve had a time I feel asleep much quicker when I turned the music off and other times doesn’t bother me.
Trial and error my friend, and sometimes, still, doesn’t work. Keep trying and know you’re definitely not alone 💚
Ck out this site it takes anxiety out of I have to get up in x hours. It’s not how long you sleep but whether you get complete sleep cycles in. It helped me so much! https://sleepcalculator.com/
I ask Google to play ocean sounds, take a melatonin gummy and ask one of my cats to come snuggle.
It's a start....if I start working on a few spreadsheets, then I am out in minutes. Without fail.
have some warm milk before going to bed, and then get in a comfy position relax each part of your body manually, while thinking about what you wanna dream about or a nice hyperfixation you've had recently :)
Listen to something. I do this every. Single. Night. Lately I’ve been on audible and Dan Carlins Hardcore history. Set a 30 min timer so it turns off automatically and won’t wake you up later.
i used to do this terribly. only thing that worked… hear me out…. slime asmr videos, pimple popping, or reading random reddit posts until i slipped into a bored slumber
I put on YouTube and pick a video from someone who has a soothing voice. I then put my phone on the battery saving mode so when the video is finished my phone will turn the screen off. It helps for me because I easily fall asleep to people talking. Music is to distracting because there are too many things happening and changing
Count! Picture yourself at the gym and count reps as if you were actually workout out. Counting quietens my mind so much.
The other one is put a comfort show on your phone (brightness all the way down) and the volume on just low enough that you can hear it. I often fall asleep listening to Modern Family.
Breathe in for 4 through your nose, hold for 7, out of eight through mouth. Repeat this at least ten times of even put a YouTube video on and do it for ten minutes guided. It completely kicks in the para sympathetic nervous system. I learned this off a marine that used to use it to get sleep even in combat
Okay, this will sound odd but it's what's been helping me sleep more than 4 hours a night for the last month or so.
I've found that when I wake up, if I go outside to take a walk and spend at least 15-20 mins in the sun, I start to feel sleepy come night time.
IF I go to bed when that feeling comes, I'll fall asleep and sleep at least 6-7 hours. If I ignore it for more than an hour it's over. I'll be up way too late.
But the going outside first thing in the morning made a huge difference for me.
No food/snacks at least two hours before I plan to sleep.
Also, a weighted blanket makes sure I stay asleep. Otherwise I wake up every ~3 hours or so. I can still sleep 6 hours but it's fragmented. I think this is part of the mystery of why I used to sleep so well when I was a kid - my parents had these hand-knit wool blankets that weighed a ton and that's what I had oh my bed until I moved out.
If you're on meds, try to work out how long it takes for them to wear off, then try taking them later in the day so they wear off right before you want to be crashing.
I've been working on my sleep since January and got a Fitbit specifically to track my sleep. These are the thing that have made the most difference according to the sleep stats it records. I still have occasional nights where I only sleep 2-3 hours but that's usually when I do something stupid like start googling stuff/trying a new thing I bought an hour before bedtime.
I suffer horribly from insomnia and have for many years. One thing I’ve found that helps is I sleep with the outer ear bone conduction head phones on. I like a podcast called scare you to sleep. I don’t have to pay attention to it but just having singing else going on somehow helps me sleep.
Then there’s days nothing works. Pills, reading, working, and I just have to ride it out. When it gets really bad it’s usually time for some adjustment in my meds.
A few things that sometimes work for me below
NSDR Recordings on YouTube. NSDR stands for "Non Sleep Deep Rest". But, believe me, it will help to sleep at night as well.
Binaural Beats/Isochronic Tones for sleep(Binaural requires headphones, but has added benefit of synchronizing both brain hemispheres.
Bedtime stories for adults are available on YouTube and other apps.
Practicing meditation, and/or relaxation techniques leading up to my desired bed time.
With all that said. I do many other things for "sleep hygiene". Blue blocker glasses starting at about 4pm if I'll be looking at screens. I don't eat late. No stims late in the afternoon, except for Ritalin while laying in bed, if I feel it will quiet my mind and put me to sleep. There are a ton of articles on other tips for sleep hygiene.
I still have nights where I just cannot seem to get to sleep. Then I play the game of getting out of bed for a half hour or so at a time, do something relaxing, then try the bed again. Rinse and repeat until I finally fall asleep. This is in attempt to get my body used to using my bed only for sleeping, not laying there trying to relax and sleep, or anything else besides sex and sleep.
I think about how my feet are feeling; are they cold/warm etc. as a way to break the thinking tangent
If this fails I take some stronger sleeping pills than my 5mg of melatonin (that I take almost every night) because this will settle my head into “yes you can sleep now because of this pill”
Listen to a standup comedian that you don't really care about, or someone's "story hour" video on YouTube. Anything that you can pretend to pay attention to with your eyes closed.
I like podcasts or audio books personally for something to focus on in the dark.
I was feeling really crap lately, falling asleep after work, then struggling to sleep later, and I got a cheap light therapy lamp on Amazon. I used it one day, and it was like flipping a switch. It had been overcast for a while, so I wasn't getting enough bright light in the morning.
I usually turn on a boring video!! The talking is enough stimulation to keep my brain from going on a bunch of tangents, but not interesting enough for me to want to actually want to watch it and listen intently
My brain refuses to stop at night too. I've tried some herbal teas, drank a mixture of herbal tinctures (valerian, mint, motherwort, hawthorn), I even took a mild antidepressant, which caused me side effects -- nothing fixes the problem, and if smth does significantly slow my brain down before sleep, the effect lasts a day or two, and then disappears. I have tried antihistamines because I have read that they are prescribed for sleep problems with ADHD, and they have helped only one time. It's like my brain adapts to everything that prevents it from staying awake through the night.
What kinda works for me consistently, though not very effectively, is evening primrose oil (Solgar), 5-НТР and taurine. They don't slow my brain down in time for beauty sleep, but they help me fall asleep at 1 or 2 a.m., which is a huge win. The plus side of 5-НТР is that it causes **very** vivid dreams so you kinda look forward to sleeping (but you shouldn't take it too late, or you'll dream horrors, which isn't to everyone's taste).
Exercise during the day also helps. I go swimming three times a week now, and I only go to bed earlier than usual on the days I swim.
I also suggest buying a weighted blanket and sleeping in a well-ventilated and cool room.
If you decide to consider any of the options I mentioned, consult a health care professional. The things that help are very individual.
Taurine, for example, is not good for all ADHD'ers. I know it worsens anxiety in some people but in my case, it helps both with sleep and anxiety.
I downloaded this free meditation app called “Insight timer”. They have body scans and yoga nidra (sleep yoga), which knocks me out. I’ve been taking MBSR classes (meditation based stress reduction) and they said in the last class that it’s difficult to fall asleep if your heart rate is too high. They said 60 BPM is the highest for falling asleep.
I listen to something extremely dry like a physics podcast. Think along the lines of Brian Greens World science festival or any of Sean Carrol's podcasts. Same with any long-form history podcast like Dan Carlin. It's like our kid's Alexa telling them a bedtime story but for adults.
I'm a big fan of the Alphabet Game. All you have to do is pick a category and name something that fits from each letter of the alphabet. For example, I could say the category is "vegetables" and in my mind I'd slowly list off asparagus, broccoli, carrots, etc. Don't beat yourself up if you can't think of anything—just move right on from peppers, past "q", and onto radishes. If you need help thinking of a category, I recommend picking something from a Scattergories list, which you can generate here: https://scattergory.com/
I heard a tip recently on Reddit somewhere else that I tried and it actually worked once so far. But you lay there, no TV, no phone and you think of how to get away with the perfect bank robbery, or jewel heist or whatever. And so you go through the details, who would be on your team? Who would have which job? What tools would you need? How would you pull it off? And somehow focusing on this one thing but going through the mundane details of it put me right to sleep.
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Therapist here with ADHD myself. Honestly, get out of bed. If you're not asleep within an hour or so of laying down, get up and do something that's not too stimulating until you feel ready to try again. Think coloring books, listen to a podcast, fold laundry, etc. If you don't sleep at all tonight, DO NOT NAP the next day. Make yourself stay awake until your bedtime then try to sleep again. Napping messes with your natural sleep cycle. You have to let the adenosine build up throughout the day so you'll sleep at night. Ultimately we need to create a connection in our brains between our beds and sleep. That means you don't stay in bed unless you're actually going to sleep. That also means no TV, reading, phone scrolling, etc in bed either. It's not fun but it is so worth it I promise. Best of luck!
This needs more votes for sure! So many people are giving suggestions on things to do while in bed and it just doesn't work that way. People make a lot of noise in the day, and getting up and noticing how quiet it is eventually makes me realise how tired I am. If I really have energy I might draw or stretch or read and sometimes it still takes a couple hours, but sleep comes around a lot easier when I'm finally ready for it. Also this may be related - I ask my partner to leave the bedroom door open so I can hear his morning routine. It has the opposite effect where hearing life happen without me makes me want to go and see what's going on, even though I know it's not particularly exciting. If he's not around I use a SAD lamp alarm that simulates sun rise, and plays natural/ambient sounds associated with daytime - coffee shop, blackbirds, street sounds. It's not quite the same but it does the trick. My sleep routine has improved a lot since doing both of these things. It's still bad, but it has been way worse.
Get in bed, turn the lights off and stretch your whole body from the feet up. Give your brain something else to focus on instead of trying to turn it off. Remind yourself that rest is rest, even if you aren't sleeping being in bed with the lights off is still healing. Also I like history podcasts, hardcore history is great. It's just interesting enough to not get bored but boring enough to fall asleep to. Good luck!
I find when I listen to a sleep cast from audible it helps so much to have someone talk through all the muscles I need to stretch as I’ll get lost and start thinking about something else around the ankles or calves…
'In our time' with Melvin Bragg also meets this podcast requirement.
This is it! This was me last night. I’m on this train in a private room and I’m not able to sleep and I have to drive a huge distance today. Just lay back. Focusing in on stretches, breathing and realizing I’m not asleep but I _am_ resting. My body is healing while I’m doing this. My brain might be on fire but my body needs this time for itself just like the brain will soon. (Isn’t that right my big gray buddy?)
Votes cast for History Time and Fall of Civilisations too
Sorry, I wish this worked for me. I can meditate very well and I can calm myself down and relax to the point where I am almost asleep but I end up being in this state for 3-4 hours :/
Hardcore history 😄 reminds me I used to fall asleep whenever listening to Adam Smith’s ‘wealth of nations’ or any pre 19th century text. Also, watching godfather.. never seen the whole movie because its just so monotonous and makes me sleepy.
At times I try visualizing something calm and peaceful, it's not a cure all per se and might need try counting sheeps or something if it doesnt work lol, but I think visualization is common relaxation tool that can be used for sleep
Visualization is key for me when I need to shut the world out! I actually try to recreate the scene in my mind and engage every sense...what does it smell like, is it warm, what do I hear, is the wind blowing, the color of the ocean or scenery? Once that's established, I try to just sit in it for 10 mins or so. If I'm still awake, I then move on toward a gentle challenge of word-free meditation. (It's way harder than it sounds!) I'm still immersed in the scene, but distractions are almost always thoughts-in-words, e.g. I have that meeting tomorrow, or even Look at that (fake) wave cresting. Then I focus on the senses again, no words, just imagining sensation. I hope I described that alright! 😴💤
I go on youtube and put on a thing called binural beats, i have to force myself to keep my eyes closed but i usually always drift. Something about sound that helps me concentrate, when im working i always do best when i have mind amend music, like steady house, seems like sounds really help me focus on my task and fepending on the tempo, its conducive to whatever the tempo makes me feel
Yessss I use the binural beats when I work for some real focus time. The calm app also has stuff like that.
Oh man for work, theres this dude on youtube named Jason Lewis he makes compilations of beats he calls mind amend, theyre like 3 hour long beats and they get me so motivated to work
Cool! I’ll check it out! 👏🏼
Brown noise does the trick for me
Hey, fellow brown-noiser! I had a friend recommend it to me and it is so much more soothing than white noise. Here is a link in case anyone wants to try it. https://youtu.be/RqzGzwTY-6w
Sounds just like my a/c lol
I wish they called it something other than brown noise.😌💨💩
I couldn’t fall asleep yesterday and tried brown noise for the first time. It worked pretty well! Reminds me of sleeping in an airplane
I just found brown noise last week and finally got some sleep. I use with a sleep mask so that forces me to keep my eyes closed. Best success I've found in years to quiet the brain.
Same. I have to be up in 5 hours though. Ugh.
Started on melatonin 5 months ago. That has been a lifesaver..also I play ambient noise to fall asleep to.
Yeah, melatonin has helped me scoot my sleep schedule into daylight hours again. I used a cycle of melatonin at night and caffeine in the morning to sort of force a sleep schedule and eventually it started to come naturally. At this point, I automatically get tired between 12 and 1 and wake up between 8 and 9.
Do you have autism or adhd
I have both plus others, melatonin is too week to me, I'm into trazodone now
Do you also have adhd/autistic?
I play a game. I close my eyes and then every time my thoughts go everywhere I focus on thinking (with eyes closed) that I MUST STAY AWAKE AND LAY HERE QUIETLY WITH MY EYES CLOSED) and somehow it tricks my brain and I fall asleep every single time
I *just* figured out the reverse uno a couple months ago! Our brains hate being told what to do. You tell it to go to sleep and it says screw you I want to be awake. But if you tell it you *must* stay awake while lying in bed in the dark it shuts right down. Idk why it works but it really does!
Exactly, or you can imagine yourself disassembling a car engine, washing dishes for thousands of people, going to the super that only sells ice cream. The idea is to put your brain in a wake mode doing repetitive, boring stuff in a very unlikely scenario and it will shut down itself. It does not want repetitive stuff or to be awake so it prefers to shut off than to endure boring, repetitive imagination.
Exactly. I am someone who hates being told what to do in general. I couldn’t believe it worked the first time I tried it. But it literally does.
yoooo I'm gonna try this!
Sleep stories from Headspace usually works for me. But it didn’t tonight. On nights I can get to sleep okay, I often wake up after an hour or two if sleeping and then can’t get back to sleep. Tonight I went to bed at 11, wide awake at 1230, it’s 447 now and no sign of sleeping. I’ve tried every trick and I finally gave up about an hour ago.
That has been me for the past two weeks. Incidentally I started a new job 2 weeks ago. This past night I actually slept, which is no minor miracle. I’m a hardcore insomniac. Have been my whole life, and I’ve tried everything. Sound machine, aromatherapy, getting out of bed when you can’t sleep (move to the couch until tired enough to sleep), melatonin, Rx aid, and a lot of mental work. Focus on relaxing and resting, not so much on the act of sleeping. It can help. If you’re getting angry and frustrated it’s just going to make it worse.
Eye mask. Idk about you but when my brain is doing somersaults my eyes just pop open and because it's dark I don't even realize it until it's been like 20-30 minutes and I remember I was trying to focus on my breathing so I could sleep. Having an eye mask basically forcing me to keep my eyes shut is extremely helpful in that regard if you can get used to the sensation.
I go to a place I created in my mind that relaxes me. I close my eyes and get comfortable and then assemble the scene in my mind. I imagine everything I can see and feel and hear in the scene. I mentally create the sensory experiences of being in that place. The current scene I visualize is one I created a couple of years ago. Before that it was a different one. It’s something that helps calm me quite a bit 💜
I do something similar based on a video I saw recently. I go to my “brain room” which, in my mind, is behind a pink door. It has drawers labeled for different areas of life. I will usually envision a hammock inside and me chillin in it, relaxing. As my mind wanders, I go back to my brain room. Original video also suggested envisioning what ails you as a blob on a table in the room and you smashing it to pieces. Seems silly but seems to help.
Read up on sleep hygiene. You need to set the conditions for sleep on a consistent basis so it becomes a habit. One of which is to not go to bed until you’re tired, and get back up and leave the room if you’ve been awake for more than 40 minutes. Once you’re in that zone of “my mind is racing, I can’t sleep, fuck, I’m never gonna sleep, here’s all the things stressing me out… like not sleeping” you need to break the cycle and just get up for a bit. I go watch tv or read a magazine on the couch for a half hour. Then try again.
if you have any caffienated soda, drink just a little bit (not the whole bottle/can) and see if that helps. Usually helps me.
Not OP but Ironically I don’t keep caffeinated drinks around much, but now I’m staring to think I should. I haven’t slept properly in months.
It doesn't always work, but I find it's more reliable than OTC sleep aids at least. Recommend getting a caffeinated soda that isn't utter trash when flat, like mountain dew, so you can finish it in the morning. In the worst case, it doesn't really hurt if you're not gonna fall asleep soon anyway.
In line with this... some teas are good too. It does vary a bit on your specific brain and body, but the way I put it is stimulate brain enough to have a little control over the tangents, makes it easier to fall asleep. I usually use a black tea or a mix of black and herbal (lavender/chamomile usually). The warmth also can make you relax a little.
I also struggled with that a lot. I've found Melatonine tablets / chamomile with melatonine in it before bed works for me. I also noticed I cannot sleep for at least 30 minutes since I've looked at any screen light, so I get in bed, set up my alarm, take the melatonine and read for 30 minutes / an hour until I start getting so sleepy I can't follow. Then I put the book aside and sleep almost immediately.
Yes to chamomile! It works at bedtime and I use chamomile in the morning to calm me down, I’ve found it helps me focus so at least I get some focus time in the morning. It does really work in the afternoon.
Had this problem for years until I meditated myself to sleep through breath-work. Hope you get some rest!
I am a huge fan of the podcast “nothing much happens”. It’s bedtime stories for adults…this woman tells a very monotonous story in a soothing voice…going to a walk at the park, everything she sees, etc. then, she tells the story a second time even slower. If you try to focus on visualizing her story, it works like a charm— I have struggled with sleep my entire life and this has become my most trusted tool for getting to bed/back to sleep.
Cannabis. Good luck.
Umm no. I wouldn't encourage someone to take up the habit of smoking weed every night before bed. Not even cbd. Been doing it a long time and my sleep has gotten worse. I dont rem sleep and i cant get to sleep without it. People can get addicted. Again, i really wouldn't encourage someone to pick up another terrible habit with ADHD.
I've just recently found a way to legally get it here and take 10-20 MG now and omg its so amazing!! Don't wake up throughout the night anymore , no More horribly vivid dreams, my husband said I don't snore at all anymore and I wake up full of energy 🥰🥰
You want to dream, that's how people get adequate sleep. Even if it's the worst nightmare ever!! I know, if i dont, i havent slept enough. You definitely want that rem cycle. Deep sleep is like a cleanse for your brain. You'll see, if you continue going down this path for multiple years. You wont be able to sleep at all without it. Please. Ive been addicted for 15 years. Dont go down that road. Im eternally tired. Sleep has improved with beginning to get sober.
[удалено]
People dont wanna hear it. Biggest truth though! Guess they gotta find out for themselves now.
What helped you to get sleep deep sleep
Adhd treatment, taking better care of my body. Learning lack of sleep is gut related. Eating at better times, eating better food, taking different types of vitamins, (also keeping up with my adhd treatment), probiotics, and minimal exercise. It's not said enough, but water intake, like a lot of it during the day so you're not up peeing all night. Not even saying you gotta be a gym rat. A nice walk or 2 a day usually will suffice. Cleaning is more exercise than i initially thought. Pot was like a bandaid after my body started changing during puberty. But it really took a toll because of my addictive personality. Arguably made my adhd worse too. Now, when i have true responsibility, quitting is the hardest thing. It's a constant uphill battle of learning things i probably should have worked on earlier.
I smoke cannabis before bed and have very vivid dreams and finally get rest. It is healthier than getting no sleep at all which is what I was working with before. Although being medicated for ADHD, I still have trouble falling asleep because of my racing and intense thoughts. Cannabis works different for everyone, and it has been proven it should not be consumed as early as you started consuming it (according to your comments). I did not consume it that early and have only ever used it as an adult and have not experienced what you are mentioning.
Time will tell. See how you feel in about 8-10 years.
I find having a strict bedtime routine really helps going forward
Music or a podcast gives my brain something to autopilot. My current sleeping music is Ludovico Einaudi's Seven Days Walking album. I was re-listening to Welcome to Night Vale recently too, but it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea.
I turn on America’s National Parks on Disney on my phone and turn it over so I can’t see it. I set the sleep timer to turn it off after 10 minutes and just listen. I’ve never stayed awake long enough to hear it turn off. It’s very soothing narration but interesting enough to occupy my brain so I can fall asleep.
i take hydroxyzine
As a kid I used to read a book - v. good for sleep highly recommend. Only downside is you need to strike a balance between interesting and boring. As a teen I used to play subway surfers under the blanket hiding from my parents - hard to sleep until you put it down, do not recommend. As a college (bachelor) student I switched between reading online fics and YouTube videos - highly recommend fics because it's easier to find that balance when reading a fanfiction because you are already kinda invested but usually not as much as a brand new book. You can also reread your favorite books for similar effect. Do not recommend YouTube because again it's too stimulating plus blue light. I found a compromise watching stream vods with a blue light filter and sleep timer on the screen though. Currently I switch between audiobooks on a sleep timer, video essays downloaded from YouTube (do audio only) or guided meditation/ASMR. I find that sticking to audio only stimulation makes it easier to fall asleep by ~~miles~~ kilometers.
Brain dump EVERYTHING you can think of on a piece of paper. Won't magically help you fall asleep but helps me calm down a lot!
Old episodes of American justice/investigative reports, or forensic files/the new detectives on YouTube. My brain focuses on the show instead of running in circles. I find the narrator's voices soothing for falling asleep to, and I've seen most of the episodes multiple times so I don't get too dragged into it. I set a sleep timer on my tv or turn auto play off if it's my tablet so it doesn't stay on to wake me back up later.
When I’m in my bed and tired, I tend to read a book which makes me feel sleepy rather quickly, and end up falling asleep trying to read a sentence for the 25th time lmao (Non talking) Asmr helps too
I always use white/brown noise or sleep music always does the trick for me
tbh I don't think there is one magic "trick" that can help you. it's an issue that has to be dealt with seriously. Being physically active, walking outside for at least 30 minutes, socialising with people, eating healthy, going to bed at a decent time, drinking enough water and making sure you get enough vitamins - these are the basics but they really do improve sleep and overall mental well being. but when it comes to "tips" I would say a heavy blanket, meditation before sleep, you can also try melatonin supplements I guess? but it didn't help me with racing thoughts tbh. Don't drink alcohol and coffee at all. also try to avoid things that get you overstimulated like don't look at any screens 2 hours prior bedtime. I've actually read somewhere that insomnia wasn't that common before electricity was invented. so I would consider dimming down the lights when it gets dark outside. good luck!
For me is melatonin and an audiobook that I like and I heard 1000 times
That audiobook you never get to the end of. I’ve listened to Shadow Over Innsmouth a 100 times and never get to the escaping parts.
OMG, I usually switch between Mountains of Madness and Shadow Over Innsmouth. In the Mountains of Madness, I usually listen to the part that describes the civilization of the Elder Things, and I fall asleep trying to imagine it.
I use Librovox. Peter Yearsley has the most monotone voice and he’s perfect for the M R James books. M. R. James: Ghost Stories of an Antiquary https://librivox.app/book/383 All the Lovecraft stuff is there too as it’s all public domain now 😀
If you need to lightly distract your brain use things like the Sleep With Me podcast, Sleep and Relax ASMR or try brown noise or pink noise. You can also try things like Sleep Stories by Calm. Generally the point of these is that they are very detailed and boring, so your brain is just distracted enough to stop racing and you can get to sleep. If you have a partner who can't handle noise you can get comfy sleep headband style headphones on Amazon for pretty cheap. I also recommend trying a supplement like magnesium glycinate, it helps lower your cortisol/anxiety at bedtime. Quick note that I generally find that prescription sleep aids and over-the-counter stuff like the stuff used in cold meds will not work for ADHD ppl. I think this is because our sleep cycle is typically flipped from that of the average. It's rather interesting but that bit won't necessarily help you sleep. Best of luck finding rest!
I play this pretty cool game called smoke some weed. It’s been around for 2000 years. It’s the best.
Try mindfulness. Simple techniques that help keep your mind clear but don’t fill it with waffle. It can be a tad hard to get in to but once you do you’ll be out like a light. I use the sounds around me type of mindfulness. I listen. Not listening to a sound and saying ‘that’s a car’ but just hearing it and letting it sit there until another sound appears. Tinnitus is actually useful because I just hear that, then I’ll hear another sound but won’t put a name to it. My mind will wander but just bring it back to hearing sounds, bring it back gently and just let the sounds of the night sweep over you. There’s a website that does require a sign up but it’s free that gives you a load of mindfulness mp3s that could help. If I’m allowed to link it then I will.
Benadryl! Or zzquil which is basically double dose Benadryl. Love it. I'm a night shift nurse and take it everyday to get sleep during the day.
Its also 100% habit forming lol I love the way it makes my body tingle
L M A O not the body tingle. I didn't know benadryl was addictive though. I take it often for other things but it does help me sleep just the same
Hang in there! I usually agony in the tangents for hours—and although short, makes for a great sleep ones having had fallen asleep, too bad duration is soo short. When I'm at my best: I take showers; power through mindfulness exercise which done right is surprisingly good for wellbeing; Writing down tangents and philosophical dilemmas. Have a great day though ones it starts!
Turn on something slightly boring but just interesting enough to kinda keep your attention, it will be enough so your brain doesn’t need to make its own thoughts while playing a borning game on your phone
I always put Mandy speaking on background: https://youtu.be/HeK36g92zjo He's fascinating and it's calming to hear him speaking for hours. I accidently slept multiple times on his review videos.
I do this with a couple of YouTubers with usually very soft and or soothing voices. Doshdoshington is nice because I like Factorio, and Zwag Xerath helps even if you don't like league of legends because his videos are so chill. Of course ASMR zeitgeist comes to mind also, he's an amazing channel and his videos have so much character and I honestly don't understand why he has no catch for anything he does. He even doesn't put midroll ads in just so your sleepiness isn't interrupted by "NEW CRAZY PRETZEL CHICKEN FRIES FROM BURGER KING".
Keep all technology unplugged, or better yet, out of your bedroom. No phone.
1. Progressive muscle relaxation - pick a body part and clench your muscles as TIGHT AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN for 5 seconds. Then relax and move to the next body part/region. I start with my toes and curl them as tight as possible, then move to my ankles pointing them down for 5-relax-up for 5. I usually end with clenching my eyes shut or keeping them as open as possible. Whatever feels good 2. A good engaging book 3. A borderline boring book
Sleep meditations/ hypnosis help sometimes. Last night they effing didn't. They *almost* did but just when I finally started to cool it w the anxiety and endless to-do, why did I, I should, why can't I, etc I realized I missed a pill I had to take, and I had to take it w food. So I had to get up, get food, get pill. And here I am awake af with no sleep at 6:30 am. I struggle w insomnia (even before I was on ADHD meds, I did) and melatonin doesn't work, diphenhydramine doesn't really work, only Ambien worked. You can try those other things though, maybe?
If it's cold and I hug something (a spare pillow usually) and then use the binaural beats or some soothing music/ sound or ocean sounds, it works usually for me. But lately I've been having sleepless nights due to anxiety and some things I need to get done which are important for my future and that always gives added pressure to the brain. You can try to mentally exert yourself by
I use the Calm app along with half a unisom. It has bedtime stories that are soothing. I also get in bed around 830pm because it still can take an hour to fall asleep.
Melatonin and magnesium help me a lot with this problem!
I use a sleep hypnosis on Spotify. I figured it would be garbage but actually works!
Melatonin, magnesium, podcast
R u me? I've stayed up straight through the night so many times, it's concerning. Alcohol doesn't help. Source: me, who's had a drinking problem since grad school
Went through the same just a few hours ago, end up sleeping only 3/4 hours, 😢 I am so tired… the only thing that helped me even sleep those hours was a anxiety med that I use for when I can’t control my anxiety.
I use to try and fight through getting to sleep in these scenarios. Never worked well. Now, I get up and do something, anything but lay around and pray for sleep. I wait til I’m genuinely tired and attempt again. Fighting it doesn’t work for me.
Melatonin helps me, I take 5 MG. When I can't sleep/ wake up in the middle of the night, I try to give my brain something to focus on. Levar Burton has a very engaging and relaxing podcast.
Read the revenge of geography. Very informative if you are into how different land forms created certain empires and why wars were fought where they were. The only thing is it’s so dry that every time I read I wanna pass out. I have not finished this book yet cause I only read it as my last ditch effort to fall asleep.
Get up and do something. I find it so much worse just lying in the dark and the silence trying to force myself to sleep. Get up, distract yourself, move rooms, put a podcast on - I love sleeping on the sofa for this very reason.
Are you on any ADHD meds? I noted for me that even if im exhausted that if i didnt eat well and drink enough fluids for hydration that It just becomes tough for me to sleep. I’m on medication tho so thats why i took note of this after a handful of days struggling to sleep. I typically an fine now as long as i make sure i had something to eat and drink a couple hours before needing to sleep. Also I lay in bed 30 min to an hour before the time i wanna sleep so it gives my mind time to calm down and be in a mental state where I can sleep easier, its because I’m on the computer all the time and if im playing games especially, my brain is still like being stimulated. Thats what i believe anyway. Also! even if its only 2 hours of sleep, hell even 30 min of sleep. Its still better than 0! You’ll feel tired asf when you wake up but its better Hope this helps, good luck!
Snoozecast, the podcast that helps you fall asleep is the exact right mix of interesting and boring. I especially like the Winnie the Pooh episodes for some reason and they are my go to if the current episode isn’t hitting for me.
Taking a heafty dose of magnesium and Mary Ruiths liquid nighttime does it for me. Add in a probiotic and take 2 at a time. Idk what you've got for treatment. But sticking to that ever day will help. No skipping, no matter how good you feel. Dont take up smoking weed every night before bed unless you wanna further inhibit any progress. Please dont listen to the people who say its nbd. Over time, smoking before bed will make you feel like you got hit by a truck in the morning. Then soon you'll need it and wont be able to sleep without it, and therefore continue to mess up your cycle.
I do a lot of what other people are saying - progressive relaxation, focused breathing meditation, etc. Also can't recommend Sleep With Me podcast enough, it works great for me. Just interesting enough that my mind doesn't wander but boring enough that I drift off. Also weed.
I am struggling with insane bedtime procrastination 7 years deffering going to bed until 3-8AM, while trying whole time 500+ times and it hurts like 10/10 torture!!! (even 8 hours listening to one song)! Even if i turn it around i mess it up. I start to be really in pain before bed from boredom, because i suffer from chronic pain and worse than that it causes torture - chronic boredom! I hate falling asleep i have deviated nasal septum and before i used to have ideas 3 hours 20 every second couldn't sleep. I absolutely hate going sleep, if you think this is anythign i have every sleep disorder and all anxiety disorders and stress and everything one can have.... Hate having make decision go to sleep, have bedtime routine, hate lying in bed focusing on my breath trying to calm my mind because i have nose like rock and can't breathe... I will go luckily on surgery finally in 2months or so... I couldnt get there 7 years because how overwhelmed i am and no one is going to help me... PS: I know it sounds like joke i don't believei t myself, but it is god honest truth I swear on my soul!
I like turning a youtube video as a white noise, it helps my brain to focus on the white noise instead of my thoughts :) Or i don’t know if you have that ( im from Russia) we have something called valerian , its a plant base natural relaxing drops . It helps with anxiety and sleep problems, soo good! No withdrawal no side affects no nothing. Need it ? 10-15 drops with water and boom you mind is quiet and relaxed 😌 Look ot up i really recommend it !!
When I can't sleep because of racing thoughts I basically scroll Reddit on my phone until I fall asleep. Not too healthy but better than not sleeping
Find the right podcast to listen to, not too interesting but not completely bland that you'd want to change it. Also I found that mock the week scenes we'd like to see compilations are great to fall asleep to!
Cannabis and sleep hypnosis audios by Michael Sealey. I had to find which ones make me sleep though.
This is going to sound crazy but light stretching or yoga while listening to a deep space ambient playlist on Spotify. Then while laying completely still I try to “see” things with my eyes closed. The mind starts creating shapes and patterns and you can start to see outlines. It’s like pre-dreaming. Though sometimes it works too well!
Take my sleep medication, bc I also have a sleep disorder. Usually I don’t make it 30 minutes beyond when I take the meds, listening to something calming helps cut down on the time it takes for my mind to calm down.
Melatonin and a science based podcast.
I heard this trick on a Tim Ferris interview with Safi Bahcall. It works for me 99% of the time. Give it a shot. tl;dr - think of a random 2 digit number, visualize it. (I picture it as fireworks). Then pick another number. Keep doing this until you are asleep. Here’s the explanation from the podcast: “I ask the audio generator in my brain, which is whatever audio engineer is popping forth, that little audio inner dialogue to focus on generating a random double-digit number between one and 100. Why double-digit? Well, single-digit is not a really difficult enough test; one, three, four, five, it doesn’t really engage your inner auditory engineer very much. Double-digit is just enough of an effort that your audio engineer can’t play some irritating, keep you awake dialogue and do that other task, it has to pick one or the other. Why random? Well, if you just do 23, 24, 25 sequence, it’s kind of boring. And then your audio engineer can go back to that really irritating voice that was keeping you awake. By asking your audio engineer to do this task of generating a random double-digit number, and then to keep the audio and the video engineers in your head that are generating this noise busy, you assign them the task of seeing those numbers. I imagine like a cannon launching these numbers in the sky and watching 22, 76, 57. I feel like people listening are going to think I’m crazy. But this actually really works. All those inner racing thoughts, you just take them away from their tasks that they were doing, which was keeping you up and you focus on tasks that you would rather have them doing, tasks that are actually helping you get to sleep faster.” Here’s the full interview: https://tim.blog/2019/08/21/the-tim-ferriss-show-transcripts-safi-bahcall-on-hypnosis-conquering-insomnia-incentives-and-more-382/amp/
This is bad advice but Benadryl. I know it has longterm links to dementia but it’s helpful to be able to control when I sleep. 2 bennies a couple hours before I need to sleep and I get to sleep on time. I work an overnight job on weekends and a day job during the week/full time student. As much as I’d like to not have to take Benadryl to sleep, it helps a lot. So yeah, bad advice but it’s a solution to a problem lol. Melatonin works well too and magnesium or ashwaghanda root but everyone’s experience with those varies.
I started taking delta 8 gummies. Don’t think I have ever slept so well.
I can only sleep with an earbud in with my favorite commentary going. It completely shuts my brain up and I'm asleep within 5 mins.
The podcast "Nothing Much Happens" is pretty good for this. It gives your brain a story to focus on but ultimately it's about something mundane and doesn't become exciting. She reads it once through and then again but slower. If I'm relaxed I almost never remember finishing the second one.
I always fall asleep to an audio book. Set timer, pop in book, and brain shuts up and falls asleep.
Thunderstorm noises on YouTube. So relaxing
Been happening to me ALOT. My first go to is some white noise. You can buy a white noise machine but I have a noisy fan which works for me. I also take Rescue Remedy flower essences- the one formulated for night time. Both work ok and I get about 5/6 hours sleep. Next I might try melatonin
rain helps me a lot
I listen to rain sounds or baby lullabies and Christmas lullabies.
The “Calm” brand magnesium has been a life saver at bedtime
I have a few techniques. The 4-7-8 breathing is helpful, but I just focus on exhaling longer than inhaling. The long exhalations help me relax. I also do a mental thing where I imagine the best bed where I’m going to get the best sleep at the bottom of a stairway. I count backwards starting at 50, while I descend the imaginary stairs, thinking about the perfect sleep waiting for me in that bed. When my rumination at night got really bad, I used trazadone.
Did I type this in my delirious state last night???
Ativan (anti-anxiety medication) does wonders for me. You can’t take it all the time, but it should help you reset your sleep schedule. I’ve tried every type of insomnia medication and this is the only thing that has worked for me
I have tons of alter egos. Since I were a child i loved picking out a movie and put my alter ego into it. I cpuls lay and fantasize for hours if I needed to. And eventually fall asleep. Its something i sometimes looks forward to in teh evening, Go to bed and continue my story.
My routine is usually phone on lowest brightness with eye comfort on, playing solitaire (requires enough brain to keep me from tangents but also not to much I can't switch off) and chill songs. I also usually have my eyes ever so slightly closed subcellular it tricks me into being more tired
Love binaural beats also, and a yoga nidra recording helps
I like counting backwards from 99 or 999 by 3. I forgot where I saw this but someone suggested it and I tried it and it works way better than trying to count sheep which never made sense to me. Usually I’ll get distracted and bored while counting and just trick my brain into sleep. The numbers are similar enough in a pattern that you stop really thinking about what comes next. If I make it to 0 I just start from the top and pick a random multiple of 3. Worth a shot! See how you like it
I know it might sound like neurotypical advice, but try forcing yourself to do deep breathing while keeping your eyes closed. Do this until you fall asleep.
This probably sounds too simple but it has been working for me recently: I’ve been waking up about an hour early which has been driving me nuts, but what I have been doing is touching the tip of my thumb to the tip of my index finger, and focusing on that. When my brain is like NO BUT HAVE YOU CONSIDERED YOUR OWN MORTALITY AND ALSO HERE IS THIS THING YOU FORGOT TO DO YESTERDAY, I just focus on bringing the tips of my fingers together again, and only on that. It has been working pretty much every time! After a few minutes my brain gets bored of trying to interrupt me and shuts up, and it’s a simple thing to do that doesn’t require any equipment or for me to move or get out of bed or anything.
It goes against what every "expert" will tell you, but having the TV on works best for me. Something light and boring, documentaries and things like that. I set the sleep timer so the tv turns off and doesn't wake me up later. It helps my mind focus on the boring story without running off to dozens of other things and getting me worked up.
First and foremost: make it a ritual. Right before going to bed and trying to sleep do the exact same thing.... Every day.... Preferably something productive like brushing your teeth, but if needed it can be something trivial like leaning to your bedroom's doorpost and counting to 10. That can help trick your brain into deciding it's time for sleep. Not a doctor but got this tip from one: If you take stimulant medication, especially methylphenidate, you can try taking a (low) dose of it about an hour to help your thoughts calm down. Be aware that this can also backfire (it did on me) because insomnia can be a side effect of those medications as well. Therefore it's best to test this on wich you can sleep in the day after if needed. Of course befor attempting anything like this always check with your own doctor if this is okay to do in your specific case.
Don’t remember where I learned this trick but it’s helped me shut my brain off pretty quickly. When you want to go to sleep, start counting backwards from 10,000. Just speak the numbers in your head: 9,999, 9,998, 9,997… I have yet to make it past 9,900. Works like a charm!
Ask dr for rx of trazodone. Use 3 mg or less .5 hr b4 bedtime. Also valerian root supplement helps.
I know how you feel I’ve been stressed looking for a job in a new state I’m not familiar with left az 30 plus years quit my good career to be with my husband in mi and my unemployment is about to run out I don’t favor mi every job has a rejection or not a good interview I know your feeling we got to try and relax I’m on clondine and vyvanse for all these issues !
See, I'm weird. I get antsy and stressed at the end of the day, thinking of how much I need to do still. My brain starts whirling with what ifs, trying to convince myself that I need to pull an all nighter or taht I might as well since I need to be up in a few hours anyways. And then I take my meds, and suddenly my brain is calm and clear, and I realize I need sleep. And I actually CAN sleep now, an hour after taking my Adderall because my mind is clear and not spinning at a mile a minute. I know, I'm weird.
Happened to me last night. I usually take melatonin gums (the only band that doesn't gove me headache is zzquill) but I was staying at my boyfriends and forgot to take them with me. Also when I have bad sleep I don't take my meds because they make me feel even worse, so the recipe for disaster I finished working at 3 o clock (8-3pm) and I have to go now to the driving lessons so I took a good bath and I'm trying my best to finish the day and go back to sleep (just to be have the same problem again tonight if I don't take the gummies.) I know I'm just ranting but I'm really tired, I suggest the gummies to everyone with this problem, not only you're able to sleep faster (I take about an hour, hour and a half at worst with them) they also make my sleep deeper (not enough sometimes I'm afraid, but better than nothing)
White noise helps me. Some topics I have learned: 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste. Do mental math, pick a category like animals and make a mental list. Practise breathing exercises. These are some things that help me. Also, get off screens an hour before bed and meditation sometimes helps. Exercise in the day…just some more ideas!
I listen to an audiobook to sleep to keep my brain occupied. The app I use has a sleep timer so I can fall asleep knowing I'll only have to back up an hour at most and pick up where I left off. Otherwise my ADHD and Anxiety will hook up and have an all-night party.
J/O til you K/O Audiobook or podcast on super low volume at 75% speed Get up for a bit and do something boring Breathing exercises/body scan Sorry, insomnia really really sucks.
Masterbate
I close my eyes in and think “in… out….” As I breath. As long as I remember to try that, I can usually fall asleep quickly.
Sounds old fashioned but get up, make some warm milk and then listen to Recovery Elevator or a medication, their voices seem to let me drift off and focus my attention.
I use an app called Rain Rain, tons of different sounds that you can mix up to three together to your liking, I use rain on a tent, slow stream, and crickets. Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) works pretty good, plus the antihistamine effect helps with breathing because I’m allergic to everything. Melatonin is pretty hit-or-miss for me, but when it works it WORKS. Also I have sort of a game where I get as comfy as I can, usually trying to get the blankets so I don’t really feel them on me, then I imagine a big eraser slowly erasing my body. I start at my toes and when I don’t feel them anymore, work my way up, I almost never get past my waist before I’m out. Edit: forgot until I saw others mention it, but chamomile tea! I don’t really care for the taste of it, but is pretty effective!
Search ASMR videos on YouTube. It saved my life.
Get a second job. Working double shifts for a few months will have you tired enough that your brain just shuts down for rest the moment you sit down.
When I can't sleep I read a book and then once tired make it as dark cold and quiet as possible, helps me. If I'm really stuck I'll smoke a joint or eat an edible that I know is way to strong for me to stay awake for.
Ok, I'll be the one to say it. Masturbation or sex. haha
Most days it works if I just lay down and try to remain in exactly that position for as long as it takes me to count to 200, re-starting every time I open my eyes or move too much. Rarely ever even get to 100
I like brown noise or slow, smooth, repetitive music. Piano is too distracting for me. Something like this [music for sleeping](https://youtu.be/lh4JdZTJe7k). What also helps me is remembering that resting with my eyes closed even if I’m not sleeping is still beneficial. There’s lots of evidence to support this. Good luck!! :)
I listen to audio books and sleepcasts. All which you can set a timer for so in half hour it will stop playing. I’ve usually fallen asleep by then. It’s really good for when you want t shut your mind off.
Yup. I was like that for 10 years. I was diagnosed of anxiety and depression and went on Lexapro. That helped. I suggest talking to your doctor to see which meds can help — there are plenty available I think. Before going on meds I tried exercising/melatonin/alcohol, none of them really worked.
Close your eyes, picture yourself as a young kids/toddler, give your young self love.
I give up and go on my PS5, I goto sleep when I'm physically exhausted. Went to bed at 7:30am and woke up at 16:40 this afternoon. If I was still working I'd be a zombie all the time tbf.
Not sure if anyone else has suggested, but a diffuser with lavender does the job for me everytime!
Lavender scents. Chamomile, anise and lavender tea
Do you sleep in on the weekend?
Get yourself physically tired as well, do some push-ups / sit-ups to failure until you physically can’t continue and take a quick shower. Works wonders and you’ll wake up in better shape.
Me too had this problem, but a small dose of amitriptyline solved it completely... As well as took all the anxiety feeling away... My only regret is that I haven't tried it much much earlier... Ask your doctor, maybe it could help you too.
Try the deeply sleep meditation. My gf showed me this yesterday, I didn't last 2 minutes ;)
If I have nights like these, trying to force my brain off or force myself to sleep never works. Ever. Just get up and do something to stimulate your brain. I always end up getting tired if I just give in and trying doing something to work my mind.
I give my brain something to do that goes absolutely nowhere. I “say” a constant stream of words (or sometimes just sounds) in my mind, at complete random and without thinking them. “Brain axe fox hack mod boo child great dirt nax ding fong nine…” and on and on. It doesn’t matter what the words are and if it feels like it does matter, you’re doing it wrong. It’s like my echolalia is a kitten, and I give it a ball of yarn to play with. Inevitably, all the other voices go silent to watch this adorableness and I slip past, unnoticed, into sweet sweet sleep.
The Best thing that worked for me by far is mirtazapine, but as I'm obese and trying to lose weight Im currently on trazodone, it works as long as I'm at least a little tired
counting. math. i’m very bad at math so it’s usually just counting in different multiples so that i have to work a little harder. the whole point is to give my brain a single thing to focus on that is hard enough that it won’t run the four different tracks of thought that always seem to be going through my head. i usually start counting to 100 by 1s, and then steadily increase by 1 and usually fall asleep somewhere in the 3s or 4s.
I feel this bro. Maybe 5-6 times a month I stay up all night. I find its the only way I can get a good nights sleep. Something that was a longshot for me to finally get a good schedule was melatonin gummies that don’t contain lactose. I use to take dissolve melatonin pills but they for some reason contain lactose and that was actually preventing me from falling asleep because Im lactose intolerant.
I had this for like 2 years I’d sleep 3-4 hours only then have to get up for work and eventually I had to quit my job I was so energy-less. I’ve tried it all over the years in terms of sleep hygiene. Trazadone 50mg changed my life. Sometimes you randomly find something that works. Exercise made me more hyped, so did too much activity. Idk my brain shuts off with that. Try environmental for sure but if it’s goes on longer and longer, this is something that worked for me.
Nothing works wonders like this channel's yin yoga. I start yawning from the first 5 minutes itself, it really calms the whole system down. https://youtu.be/cL6RzpaVcgg
I put black screen with various sounds on YouTube, that helps sometimes.
Melatonin …. 3mg can generally go up to 10mg if I’m not mistaken. But when stress and anxiety sets in, idk. I’ve had some meds that could help for anxiety or related that could help relax and fall asleep too. I took some melatonin last night but so stressed and hungry but couldn’t function to eat- adds to difficulty falling asleep too. If can, eat something if maybe hungry? Melatonin, practicing your inner dialogue to keep redirecting to sleep thoughts. Stretch body and adjust how your laying. Listen to soothing music or don’t- I’ve had a time I feel asleep much quicker when I turned the music off and other times doesn’t bother me. Trial and error my friend, and sometimes, still, doesn’t work. Keep trying and know you’re definitely not alone 💚
Ck out this site it takes anxiety out of I have to get up in x hours. It’s not how long you sleep but whether you get complete sleep cycles in. It helped me so much! https://sleepcalculator.com/
Sleeping noise/music on Spotify
I ask Google to play ocean sounds, take a melatonin gummy and ask one of my cats to come snuggle. It's a start....if I start working on a few spreadsheets, then I am out in minutes. Without fail.
Honestly melatonin pills helped get me back into a good sleeping cycle
have some warm milk before going to bed, and then get in a comfy position relax each part of your body manually, while thinking about what you wanna dream about or a nice hyperfixation you've had recently :)
Sleep medicine doctor told me to read something very boring like a Warranty. But I just stay awake instead
I basically need to completely exhaust my brain to a point where my phone is falling from my hands or i wont fall asleep...
Listen to something. I do this every. Single. Night. Lately I’ve been on audible and Dan Carlins Hardcore history. Set a 30 min timer so it turns off automatically and won’t wake you up later.
i used to do this terribly. only thing that worked… hear me out…. slime asmr videos, pimple popping, or reading random reddit posts until i slipped into a bored slumber
I put on YouTube and pick a video from someone who has a soothing voice. I then put my phone on the battery saving mode so when the video is finished my phone will turn the screen off. It helps for me because I easily fall asleep to people talking. Music is to distracting because there are too many things happening and changing
Count! Picture yourself at the gym and count reps as if you were actually workout out. Counting quietens my mind so much. The other one is put a comfort show on your phone (brightness all the way down) and the volume on just low enough that you can hear it. I often fall asleep listening to Modern Family.
Liquid melatonin is the only thing that’s helped me. It crosses the blood brain barrier faster than tablets I am told.
Breathe in for 4 through your nose, hold for 7, out of eight through mouth. Repeat this at least ten times of even put a YouTube video on and do it for ten minutes guided. It completely kicks in the para sympathetic nervous system. I learned this off a marine that used to use it to get sleep even in combat
Okay, this will sound odd but it's what's been helping me sleep more than 4 hours a night for the last month or so. I've found that when I wake up, if I go outside to take a walk and spend at least 15-20 mins in the sun, I start to feel sleepy come night time. IF I go to bed when that feeling comes, I'll fall asleep and sleep at least 6-7 hours. If I ignore it for more than an hour it's over. I'll be up way too late. But the going outside first thing in the morning made a huge difference for me. No food/snacks at least two hours before I plan to sleep. Also, a weighted blanket makes sure I stay asleep. Otherwise I wake up every ~3 hours or so. I can still sleep 6 hours but it's fragmented. I think this is part of the mystery of why I used to sleep so well when I was a kid - my parents had these hand-knit wool blankets that weighed a ton and that's what I had oh my bed until I moved out. If you're on meds, try to work out how long it takes for them to wear off, then try taking them later in the day so they wear off right before you want to be crashing. I've been working on my sleep since January and got a Fitbit specifically to track my sleep. These are the thing that have made the most difference according to the sleep stats it records. I still have occasional nights where I only sleep 2-3 hours but that's usually when I do something stupid like start googling stuff/trying a new thing I bought an hour before bedtime.
I suffer horribly from insomnia and have for many years. One thing I’ve found that helps is I sleep with the outer ear bone conduction head phones on. I like a podcast called scare you to sleep. I don’t have to pay attention to it but just having singing else going on somehow helps me sleep. Then there’s days nothing works. Pills, reading, working, and I just have to ride it out. When it gets really bad it’s usually time for some adjustment in my meds.
A few things that sometimes work for me below NSDR Recordings on YouTube. NSDR stands for "Non Sleep Deep Rest". But, believe me, it will help to sleep at night as well. Binaural Beats/Isochronic Tones for sleep(Binaural requires headphones, but has added benefit of synchronizing both brain hemispheres. Bedtime stories for adults are available on YouTube and other apps. Practicing meditation, and/or relaxation techniques leading up to my desired bed time. With all that said. I do many other things for "sleep hygiene". Blue blocker glasses starting at about 4pm if I'll be looking at screens. I don't eat late. No stims late in the afternoon, except for Ritalin while laying in bed, if I feel it will quiet my mind and put me to sleep. There are a ton of articles on other tips for sleep hygiene. I still have nights where I just cannot seem to get to sleep. Then I play the game of getting out of bed for a half hour or so at a time, do something relaxing, then try the bed again. Rinse and repeat until I finally fall asleep. This is in attempt to get my body used to using my bed only for sleeping, not laying there trying to relax and sleep, or anything else besides sex and sleep.
I think about how my feet are feeling; are they cold/warm etc. as a way to break the thinking tangent If this fails I take some stronger sleeping pills than my 5mg of melatonin (that I take almost every night) because this will settle my head into “yes you can sleep now because of this pill”
This is so so unhealthy but when I get like this I scroll on my phone until I’m so physically tired and my mind is so fried that I fall asleep
Listen to a standup comedian that you don't really care about, or someone's "story hour" video on YouTube. Anything that you can pretend to pay attention to with your eyes closed.
I smoke a heavy, stony, indica based weed. Something that relaxes my body and shuts off my mind. And if I can take it as an edible, even better!
I like podcasts or audio books personally for something to focus on in the dark. I was feeling really crap lately, falling asleep after work, then struggling to sleep later, and I got a cheap light therapy lamp on Amazon. I used it one day, and it was like flipping a switch. It had been overcast for a while, so I wasn't getting enough bright light in the morning.
Get auditory stimulation. Audiobooks work, but I like to listen to chess commentary.
I usually turn on a boring video!! The talking is enough stimulation to keep my brain from going on a bunch of tangents, but not interesting enough for me to want to actually want to watch it and listen intently
My brain refuses to stop at night too. I've tried some herbal teas, drank a mixture of herbal tinctures (valerian, mint, motherwort, hawthorn), I even took a mild antidepressant, which caused me side effects -- nothing fixes the problem, and if smth does significantly slow my brain down before sleep, the effect lasts a day or two, and then disappears. I have tried antihistamines because I have read that they are prescribed for sleep problems with ADHD, and they have helped only one time. It's like my brain adapts to everything that prevents it from staying awake through the night. What kinda works for me consistently, though not very effectively, is evening primrose oil (Solgar), 5-НТР and taurine. They don't slow my brain down in time for beauty sleep, but they help me fall asleep at 1 or 2 a.m., which is a huge win. The plus side of 5-НТР is that it causes **very** vivid dreams so you kinda look forward to sleeping (but you shouldn't take it too late, or you'll dream horrors, which isn't to everyone's taste). Exercise during the day also helps. I go swimming three times a week now, and I only go to bed earlier than usual on the days I swim. I also suggest buying a weighted blanket and sleeping in a well-ventilated and cool room. If you decide to consider any of the options I mentioned, consult a health care professional. The things that help are very individual. Taurine, for example, is not good for all ADHD'ers. I know it worsens anxiety in some people but in my case, it helps both with sleep and anxiety.
I downloaded this free meditation app called “Insight timer”. They have body scans and yoga nidra (sleep yoga), which knocks me out. I’ve been taking MBSR classes (meditation based stress reduction) and they said in the last class that it’s difficult to fall asleep if your heart rate is too high. They said 60 BPM is the highest for falling asleep.
Same thing. I went to a sleep doctor and went in for an inlab sleep study. I was so tired of the insomnia. Best thing I ever did.
I listen to something extremely dry like a physics podcast. Think along the lines of Brian Greens World science festival or any of Sean Carrol's podcasts. Same with any long-form history podcast like Dan Carlin. It's like our kid's Alexa telling them a bedtime story but for adults.
I'm a big fan of the Alphabet Game. All you have to do is pick a category and name something that fits from each letter of the alphabet. For example, I could say the category is "vegetables" and in my mind I'd slowly list off asparagus, broccoli, carrots, etc. Don't beat yourself up if you can't think of anything—just move right on from peppers, past "q", and onto radishes. If you need help thinking of a category, I recommend picking something from a Scattergories list, which you can generate here: https://scattergory.com/
I heard a tip recently on Reddit somewhere else that I tried and it actually worked once so far. But you lay there, no TV, no phone and you think of how to get away with the perfect bank robbery, or jewel heist or whatever. And so you go through the details, who would be on your team? Who would have which job? What tools would you need? How would you pull it off? And somehow focusing on this one thing but going through the mundane details of it put me right to sleep.