For myself, I find making sure not having anything to eat ~2 hours before bed, being in a totally dark room (dark, thick curtains) and having some kind of background noise (I downloaded a 2 hour sample of 'rain' to my phone and let that play till I fall asleep) is great =)
Edit: also, I had really, really bad insomnia for years (like not sleeping until about 5 in the morning, having to get up at 6 or 7) but it's gotten a lot better after controlling some of that stuff.
@Bassman2112: 2 whole hours!? my metabolism would never allow for that. i eat 30 minutes before bed and sometimes im still hungry lol. idk how im so thin, i guess it runs in the family. yknow i always wanted to try the sound effect thing (rain, ocean, beach) wherr do you find those? are their artists for that?
Haha, well that's what worked for me =P Definitely not a be-all-end-all guide =) Personally, I used this for years and found a .mp3 of it (not sure where, sorry!) but you can find apps on iphones/blackberry/etc for free usually too =)
I have some other advice, but it's better for PMs - mind if I fire it off?
Get your circadian rhythms on track by going to bed at the same time every night. Also, things like tv and computer screens have "phase-delaying effects", so try to limit yourself to reading a book or listening to music an hour or so before you sleep.
I can only fall asleep if somethings on in the background, usually it's a DVD but sometimes I'll stick in my headphones and listen to an old bombast. I also find a cup of tea helps sleep, green tea if you want to get technical.
Don't sleep on your pillow, put your head next to the pillow so the back of your head is touching it. Whenever I can't sleep I always do that and for some reason it works.
I'm an unmedicated isomniac. FTW? I usually don't sleep and when I do it's not usually until 4/5am. I've never really been big on sleeping since I was a kid, usually just lie in boredom all night. I don't do anything, I usually just fall asleep out of exhaustion. Here's a few things I've tried that have worked once or twice though or maybe some reasons why you might have trouble sleeping :)
Smoking can work if you're a smoker. It wakes me up more though, just throwing the killer one in first.
Try listening to relaxing music playlists if that kind of stuff can chill you out, if not it will eventually bore you to sleep. You don't exactly need to answer this bit but are you going through an stressful stuff at the minute or having troubles with stuff? If you are try and talk to people about it, stress stops you getting a goods night sleep as your brain stay active when you're worrying, this happens alot when you're just lying in bed trying to sleep.
Not meaning to put down people's advice but watching TV or using electronics stimulates the brain and can usually keep you awake longer (unless you're seriously tired or depends on whether you're watching properly) but I guess it differs in everyone.
Oh god it's a wall of text. Sorry for anyone having to read any of that but hopefully it helps with your/anyone's insomnia :) Had more to say but this is too long winded as it is.
Do some cardio in the evening and before bed take a nice hot bath, you'll hit the sack like a rock.
That was the one thing I forgot to mention... a quick workout will seriously do wonders for you.
@WoodenPlatypus said:
Not meaning to put down people's advice but watching TV or using electronics stimulates the brain and can usually keep you awake longer (unless you're seriously tired or depends on whether you're watching properly) but I guess it differs in everyone.
Yeah, I thought this was fairly common knowledge but apparently not... I don't think it's wrong to explain that bad advice is, in fact, bad. If someone is genuinely having trouble with insomnia, watching tv or playing vidja games is the opposite of what they should be doing.
@skinnyman: It's something I thought most people would know. I play le vidya and watch tv because I know there is no chance of me getting to sleep. Those who have not yet wrecked their sleeping pattern should be avoiding tv or vidya etc about an hour before sleeping so your brain has time to settle.
just try to think about fun things you did in the day, or if it was a shit day then think about fun times... either that or something which calms you down. I saw a photo on this site which was about lucid dreaming, I used to do what that photo said if you can find it and used to drift off, took me 'till about 6 in the morning though.
I pretty much can't lay down in bed for 10 minutes without falling asleep, so I don't know what to say except; try being sexually active, and smoke weed from the time you get home 'til you crash...that's my life anyway.
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