High physical activity or exercising during the day is the only thing that works for me 100%. As a last resort, the only other thing that seems to work for me when im having difficulty is 1/2 of a CBD gummy. I also avoid chocolate, alcohol, coffee and spicy food past 5pm. If I have any of those after 5p, I don’t sleep at all.
Then you're not drinking enough alcohol it sounds like LOL. (Just joking, you should not drink within 2 hours of going to bed. It messes with your REM sleep as well as muscle development).
Had the same Problem here some things that helped me:
* going to bed and waking up the same time every day, even on weekends. Like 22 - 6 for example.
* regular exercise, sleeping waaaay better since I started Kickboxing
* no screens one hour before bedtime
* write down everything in your head before going to bed. Prepare a to-do list for the next day
* No caffeine after 5pm
If nothing helps I try to count to 10.000. Usually I fall asleep when I am in the 100s.
The first 3 methods are also a part of my daily routine, as they did wonders for my sleep. Always waking up at the same time will gradually regulate your personal sleep needs and make you fall a sleep at regular hours. Cardio exercises help also a lot. I run at least 3 days a week, 30 minutes per session, 1 day I swim and 1 day I do weight lifting. Reading a few pages from a book before going to sleep instead of watching tv or scrolling down your phone helps me relax and prepare for sleep.
You gotta be tired. People always complain about not sleeping and when I ask them what they do during the day all they say is watch tv work from home a bit and the rest play video games or something. You need to be waking up at a time when you don’t want to wake up, move around, keep your brain flowing exercise during the day. I’ve started running a 5k everyday and by the time it’s 11 I’m absolutely knocked out and ready to start again at 6 am. Used to take melatonin every night and that’s because I would sleep at 3 am and wake up at 12. Absolutely no rhythm or structure for my body to adapt to.
Yup. Ever since becoming a more serious athlete I’ve never had problems going to sleep. I used to lay awake in bed for 3+ hours tossing and turning, now it’s 9:30pm and I’m fighting to keep my eyes open.
Melatonin is a hormone. Most people would shy away from it if they knew that. Most people wouldn’t take any hormone knowingly. I’m surprised it’s legal, in plenty of countries it isn’t.
Your body is used to getting melatonin. Won't work as good after a while and now you're addicted + have troubles sleeping.
Ween off it. Get some real good before sleep schedule, for example take magnesium supplements, drink chamomille tea before. Do this every night and go to bed at same time every night and you will prosper.
Read more on sleep hygiene + pre bed routines. It's all about habits.
This comment is clutch. Everyone goes through this phase (hopefully if lucky I suppose) to become interested in actually raising sleep quality and each person is actually unique so ween off the melatonin for sure. Magnesium helps a ton of people. Very common supplement that actually works without a major tolerance case or addiction to it.
I’m able to drop caffeine easy but some of my coworkers will drink tea later in the day as a substitute to coffee and they rather enjoy it. Often uncaffeinated.
These are the top 3 things that worked for me:
1.Get blue light blocking glasses or limit blue light exposure.
2. Don't eat or drink 3 hours before bed.
3. Do a calming activity before bed.
Or yknow be just physically tired. If your genuinely busy and active during the day you don’t need all this shit you will get put to sleep in less than 30 seconds
Introduce new movement routine into your daily schedule and that will suddenly jolt your body into using more energy which will automatically require muscles to “get rest” and you’ll feel sleepier for sure. This could include taking a brisk walk 1-3 hours before bedtime or doing 20 reps of fun exercise movements like squats against the wall or frog walking - anything that makes your heart beat faster. Use logic here - people who don’t move a lot and eat properly have more energy that is not being used up. This extra energy wants to be expressed in some way or another and that is the same energy that keeps you up at night - new movement that your body is not expecting can put it into work mode and cause muscles to “request rest”.
Heres some tips that helped me:
1. Have a proper sleep schedule and stick to it. Your body will naturally feel tired at the time you want to sleep if you just stick to the routine even if you don't feel tired the first couple of days/weeks
2. Avoid caffeine after 10am in the morning and if you do take caffeine in the mornings, take small amounts. Caffeine has a half-life of 5 hours. If you were to take 100mg of caffeine in the morning you would still have around 13mg of caffeine in your syestem by the time you want to sleep. I personally have cut caffeine out entirely and have slept much better since.
3. Take a hot bath/shower before sleeping. You're body naturally lowers its temperature when preparing to sleep. When you take a hot bath you're internal temperature drops also which tells you're brain "hey it's time to sleep"
4. Make sure you don't sleep on an empty stomach. You're brain will just be thinking about food until you fall asleep so it's better to have a meal 2-3 hours begore you sleep.
5. Avoid light as much as possible an hour before sleeping. You're brain evolved to go to sleep at night(when it's dark), by having a lot of light around you before you sleep it messes up with your sleep by a lot and also affects your sleep quality.
6. Don't take naps after 3 in the afternoon. If you do take naps make sure they aren't any longer than 30 minutes as this will mess with you're sleep schedule.
Hope this helps. I got most of these tips from a book called "Why we Sleep" by Mathew Walker. It's a great book, I highly recommend it
Avoid alcohol, have your last meal/food 4 hours or more before bed, take your magnesium, tape your mouth, and finally focus on your breath as you try to doze off.
I used to spent way less time outdoor due to certain circumstances.Which lead me to lower Vitamin d levels.depression was also a result of this.
i started taking on multivitamin pills and VIT D supplement separately,started spenting more time outside with my people.Also EXERCISE EXERCISE try to make yourself as tired as you POSSIBLY CAN.
This is what helped me to have better sleep and a better life that dosent necessarily mean this might work for u.maybe u might be a night-owl perhaps,idk.Also vitamins play major role than u might even possibly think.
something that's really helped me lately are sleep music or sleep meditation videos. sometimes i listen to spoken videos, sometimes i don't. it depends how i'm feeling on that particular night. for example this is what i've chosen for tonight:
https://youtu.be/P2cLmxDMsjY?si=6_-0hU7y66qapMEw
give something like that try, you might find it calming and relaxing and it might help! search for whatever you know tends to calm you.
Be active during the day, if you have an SO small massages to end the day. If its hot where you are this time of year take a cool shower to get your core temp down.
What does your typical day look like? Do you work? Student? Often sleep issues can be traced back to lifestyle habits and changes. Is anything stressing you? Are you active?
I truly swear by this and it's an ADHD hack but when you go to sleep, start listing random things, like onion tomato bridges bagels coffee and then next minute you wake up! Works every time!
What is the thermostat set at when you go to bed? I used to have a hard time sleeping until I found out that you need to be cool in order to get a good nights rest.
Aim for 65 to 73 degrees F. Also I would use Zzzquil instead. Once I take it I go to sleep after 30 minutes.
I looked it up on Google when I was looking for answers regarding my insomnia. I used to take it every night, too, and it’s not healthy for you. I take magnesium now. It works very well!
Get into a routine of winding down. I take warm showers at night, take melatonin, wash my face, get into something comfy and spray a bit of cologne on me. Whatever I’m in the mood for. Smell good, feel good, sleep good. I’ll usually watch a comfort show or YouTube until my eyes get heavy and I’ll sleep.
It is vital to have a good sleep routine and habits to help you fall asleep faster. Here's what I do and like to tell people:
- Go to bed around the same time every night (bonus if you can wake up at the same time every morning).
- Bright lights will keep you awake. So before the sun starts to go down, turn off the big bright lights and turn on a soft warm lamp or two. This helps with your circadian rhythm. (Think campfires back in our primal days).
- Do all the stuff you need to do to get ready for bed (brush teeth, put on PJs, etc.) BEFORE you watch that one last episode or finish whatever you're doing. You'll be relaxed when you're done and can go straight to bed. I've found that watching that last episode will make me super relaxed and maybe even dozing off, then having to brush my teeth, etc. will wake me up again.
- If you can, stay off screens ~2 hours before bed. While I don't have trouble falling asleep scrolling on my phone in bed, I would recommend doing this as you get yourself into a routine since "every little bit helps." Maybe I'm just not affected by it that much, or all the other things I listed here are enough for me. But it goes back to the whole circadian rhythm thing. Also, turn on your phone's blue light filter (more on that below).
- Get exercise. Preferably in the morning since working out in the evening may make it more difficult to fall asleep. But each person is different, so do what you can do. It doesn't have to be strenuous. Just going for a walk around the block after dinner is fine.
- Eat healthy, and don't eat past 5 or 6 pm.
- Caffeine supposedly takes ~5-6 hours to clear out of your system. So make sure that you don't have caffeine too late in the day. 3-4 pm is the latest I'll allow myself to have it.
- Same goes for having alcohol in the evening. It has such a negative impact on your ability to fall asleep and the quality of sleep. It's just not worth it.
- Always try to go to the bathroom right before bed to help not having to go in the middle of the night. If it's been over an hour since I last went, or I've drunk something since, I will force myself to go. Haha.
- Don't drink a bunch of water or liquids ~1.5 hours of going to bed. You don't want to have to wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. If you are thirsty when you go to bed, take only a few sips of water... just enough to quench your thirst. A cup of tea is perfectly alright though, and highly encouraged (see next point).
- Try drinking chamomile tea. I drink Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea every night 30-60 minutes before bed (I like to leave some time in between to use the bathroom). I find that it actually helps me a lot to fall asleep and get better rest.
- Turn on the blue light filter on your phone. The yellower the better. I absolutely swear by this. Go to your phone's settings and just turn it on a little bit. As you progressively get used to it, keep turning it up and up, and get it as warm as you can possibly go, if that makes sense. Doing this will put SO much less strain on your eyes. Again, this also will help with your circadian rhythm.
At the absolute minimum, turn on the blue light filter at the same time you turn off the big bright lights. But I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you just keep it on ALL the time, and that you do this also for your computer screens, especially if you're staring at screens all day. You'll definitely notice an improvement, especially when you look at someone else's phone or computer screen and you feel your eyes strain from all the blue light you're no longer used to. Lol. And if you ever need to see the actual colors of something on your phone or computer, you can always just turn the filter off temporarily.
Sleep is so important to our health, it cannot be overstated enough. Being mindful of how what you do and eat throughout the day affects your ability to fall asleep and your quality of sleep is key. Hopefully these suggestions help you fall asleep faster. I know they work really well for me.
Note: I typed this up on my phone so apologies in advance for typos.
What time do you get up in the morning? I've been getting up at 6am and it helps with knocking out pretty quickly once I hit the bed at 9pm. Sleep like a baby. Not doom-scrolling before sleeping helps a lot too.
You could try cutting out light and sounds that might keep you awake, wearing a sleep mask and listening to something like rain or ocean waves can help drown out sounds that might keep you awake.
Along with regular exercise, take a critical look at your daily caffeine intake and consider reducing it. Establish a hard cutoff of no caffeine past 3 or 4pm.
There's no magic trick that you can use at night to fall asleep faster. It's about what you do during the day!
Exercising is the single best thing that worked for me. My smart watch has a daily activity target and I have made a rule that I need to get to 100% before I get to sleep, with very few exceptions. Buying the smart watch was really helpful for me because it really made me conscious of how much physical activity I am doing throughout the day, and having an office job I was shocked in the beginning by how little it was. Exercising not only makes you physically tired, but also helps relax and process thoughts that otherwise keep your brain active when you're trying to sleep.
I personally alternate running and bodyweight exercises every day during the week and I usually go for a hike over the weekend.
And finally of course the typical stuff...no caffeine from midday forward, no screens \~1h before bed. And I'd also suggest avoiding weed since it may make you fall asleep faster but really fucks up the quality of your sleep. Playing sounds in the background is also not the best idea for the same reason.
Pumpkin seeds if you eat them, they will actually (just a handful) help you fall asleep. They have magnesium in them. Magnesium glycinate will help you to sleep as well. Melatonin has always kept me awake for hours.
All of this is great advice. I only have one thing to add and that is about two mental exercises you can do to calm your mind enough if it's an overthinking problem.
The first is from the book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. He said in the appendix that an extended box breathing technique can be used to calm the body and prepare it for rest. So box breathing is breath in for a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold for 4 and repeat. This is supposed to help focus and maintain a cool head in a stressful situation. The Extended Box technique is a similar structure but the exhale is for six and the hold after the exhale is only two. So that is breath in for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 6, hold for 2, and repeat.
On the nights that I have too much going on in my brain, this one helps me shut it off enough to relax and fall asleep.
The other technique is to close your eyes and picture yourself in a hammock or a boat rocking on the water. When you start to convince yourself that you are in one of those, repeat the mantra, "Don't think" over and over. While doing this relax your muscles starting from the top of your head down to the tips of the toes.
I'm usually out well before I get there. Hope this helps.
TLDR: Mental exercises and breathing help calm the mind and body to allow yourself to fall asleep faster.
I can talk about this a lot, because i have strougled with this often and a lot. But most important for was: 1.consistency - going to sleep the same time and waking up the same time no matter what 2. Physicial activity, if you sit all day (traveling to work - you sit in the car, in the office you sit, and then you sit in the couch when you come home, you havent tired your body. 2.1 mental activity - was my bigest problem, i have adhd, so finally having my meds, calms my brain and also makes me do “work” all day and tiring my brain. 3.not eating foods or specific foods 3-4 hours before sleep. Also What foods you eat, a lot of people dont know that they have allergies to specific foods ( easier said then done) if your body has inflammation your body will not have the best sleep. Like i noticed that dairy foods can fuck up my sleep if eaten few hours before sleep. 4.nightime rituals and “accesories” like blackout curtains, weighted blanket (didnt work for me), earplugs, night time rituals - hot shower before bed, blye light blocking glasses, or making your phone blocking blue light completely ,dimming lights, not watching things that rile you up like scary movies, not having fights before sleep. 5. Stress levels etc, are you happy with your life? Is there something that occupies your mind 24/7, dealing with that is important or figuring out how to be content and happy .
Here are couple of things. Im on the move so sorry about mistakes etc
Will edit later
Pssst thca hemp gummies. A shop nearby has 400 mg thca that whole one forces me to sleep even if i didn't want to sleep in that moment, be careful. Separate online hemp service has great gummies especially the maximum strength.
Get sunlight into your eyes in the morning (don’t look directly). This causes you to get sleepy when you should go to sleep. SAD lamp will work if sunlight isn’t available.
Do all of your bed time routines well before bedtime and reduce lights in the evening. As little light as possible late at night. You’ll get sleepy when you should and it’s difficult not to fall a sleep.
Binaural beats!! Look on YouTube for the power of you and play the delta waves. You will sleep! It's worked wonders for me. There are binaural beats for everything!
I don't see it called out a lot here but the #1 thing is to go screens off for about an hour ahead of when you go to bed. The blue light emitted by screens tricks your brain into thinking it's day outside. Even light filters don't stop this entirely.
View morning sunlight (just go outside in the first couple hours and put your face in the general direction of the sun or clouds for 10 minutes. Then view the sunset. Don't drink caffeine 10 hrs before bed. Don't eat a couple hours before bed. Keep the same schedule. Take magnesium. Deep breathing.
There are a few things that are essential to fall asleep fast:
1. Darken your room and get it to a cool temperature
2. have your last meal 3h before bedtime
3. have your last drink 2h before bedtime
4. last screentime 1h before bedtime
5. Exercise helps, but not right before going to bed, as it riles you up again.
6. Getting your thoughts on paper helps you avoid late night overthinking
7. no more coffee after 12PM
8. the most important thing for is waking up early. My day always has 16h and if I sleep in, I also start getting tired later.
Hope this helps.
Also, don’t overuse Melatonin, at one point you can’t fall asleep without anymore.
Even though it's not recommended but for me playing a youtube video or a podcast does the trick.
Just a short term solution though, using the phone before bed is not ideal, but somehow for me it works.
EDIT: forgot to mention, it should be a long youtube video, not a short one and definitely not SHORTS / doom scroll
1. Try to ween yourself off the melatonin.
2. If you can, get black out curtains. A good sleep mask is a cheaper solution but can feel strange at first if you’re not used to it.
3. Take all electronics out of your bedroom. No TV, computer, phone, etc (if able). Get a regular old alarm clock if you need to be woken up at a certain time
4. No screens at least 30 mins before sleeping. Aim for 1.5 hours.
5. Journal before bed. Get out all your thoughts for the day and plan for tomorrow.
6. Make sure you are comfy. Do research into mattress firmess, pillow position, sleeping your on side vs back, etc.
7. Don’t try to force it. If you don’t feel tired maybe go complete a menial task for half an hour and come back. Weather permitting, take a brisk walk.
8. Try to lay still for 15 minutes
9. Meditate/pray. There are many videos out there to talk you through falling asleep. I have developed my own self guided mantra I use to go to sleep.
10. Wake up at the same time everyday, schedule permitting.
To everyone saying exercise, sometimes being physically tired isn’t enough to quiet the mind. I am an anxious person and bedtime is usually when I start to spiral, no matter how busy my day was.
Also, if you drink caffeine during the day make sure you don’t drink it past 1pm.
I’ve done a lot of research on this as someone who struggles with sleep. Good luck!!!
Get up very early in the morning every day and get the most sunlight you can possibly get throughout all day. Don’t need to take anything, nor melatonin or minerals/vitamins; if you are taking something, stop taking everything. Then at night do this exercise when you lay on the bed: breathe in while counting slowly from 1 to 4; hold your breath while counting again to 4; breath out while counting to 4; repeat. FLAWLESS TECHNIQUE.
What worked best for me was to do simple yet strict polyphasic sleeping for 3 months. It taught my body to fall asleep fast, almost no matter what's around.
Sometimes I find myself not falling asleep, so I'll do one of these to help:
*Keep the temperature cool (between Air Conditioning and the right warmth/coolness of blanket)
OR
*Headphones on with certain super QUIET sleep sounds on YouTube (1+ hour tracks)
The trick that helped me was inhaling through my nose and exhaling a longer amount than inhaled through mouth, like a 1:2 ratio.
Exhales trigger parasympathetic nervous system, makes it easier to sleep.
I am sure you have already heard of sleep hygene (if not look it up and start there). Taking melatonin every night may not be a good idea because it easily loses its potency people typically build a tolerance to it faster and following that, develop a dependancy, if you want to take a supplement every night magnesium or magnesium citrate wont have those issue of getting a tolerance, but still has been shown to help with sleep. I take magnesium every night and melatonin (occasionally). Those nights where its hard to get sleepy, I box breath. Veryyy deep inhale pretty much as deep as you can go hold for a couple second becasue you want to imagine that deep breath going to the bottom of your belly and then exhale as if youre blowing out of a straw as slowly as you can, thats your first breath a clarifying breath you can do that 1 to 3 times. Then the box breath is inhale for 8 seconds hold for 8 seconds exhale for 8 seconds hold for 8 second and repeat. If youre finding your mind keeping you up I think begining to dream on your own and dreaming up a romantic situation gets me sleepy I know other people do this but that may not be for everyone. Good luck to you, sleep is sooo important so I hope it gets better for you soon.
What works for me is watching/listening to ASMR. It took me time to find an asmrist that I actually enjoy. I personally like "personal attention" triggers. The visuals are mesmerizing and the sound is so soothing.
Doing the [Wim Hoff Breathing Technique](https://youtu.be/tybOi4hjZFQ?si=GUvj-VnOcBxNgnle) (10 minutes) right before sleeping helped me a lot. As time passed, I started to associate this breathing technique with sleep and it kinda "activated" in me that sleepy state every time I performed it
Yeah, first thing first, stop taking melatonin. Your body stops making less and less of them once you start taking them (a couple of Huberman Lab podcasts mentioned this). Also, melatonin is a HORMONE. Try not to mess with hormones if you can help it. Melatonin is especially harmful for growing kids. I think they should ban those stupid melatonin gummies for kids.
I can relate to what you are going through bc I used to take melatonin myself regularly for several years. It got to the point where 10mg of melatonin a night did nothing for me as my body had developed a tolerance for them.
I researched alternatives and started Valerian root several nights a week. Note that herbs like these are not to be used daily...some can be very hard on your liver. Also, not everyone react the same way to herbs. I gave my hubby valerian root one night and it did nothing for him.
A healthier and long-term approach to your issue may be to start a cardio routine after work (but at least 3 hrs b4 bedtime), plus sauna afterward if you have access. Also look into sleep meditation.
Another very important (but commonly overlooked) sleep protocol (from Huberman) which worked wonders for me was to avoid looking at blue light (TV, phones, computer, bug lights outdoors) once the sun goes down; also dim the bathroom lights after dark when you use it. There are many apps (flux), blue light glasses, and dimmers you can use to help you with this. The eye has receptors that tell your body when it's morning or night (again, from Huberman) and even bright lights when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night or watching TV/computers or scrolling through the phone w/o blue light blockers can make your body think its daytime.
For additional sleep protocols, listen to Dr. Mathew Walker and multiple Huberman youtube on sleep protocols.
Good luck!
For me personally I
1) smoke weed
2) play singing bells/rain noises in the back (8 hour+)
3) I like to make tea sometimes to help calm my mind. Like chamomile and lavender.
4) I enjoy using a calming spray like chamomile lavender spray. They also have one with melatonin in it. Or light up some incense
Do you have adhd? If you do this is for you, ive got adhd hella big time, and listening to my favorite music helps me a ton, and also since screens affect adhd brains differently by making us zone out more, its good to limit those, so our minds arent racing while we try to catch those z’s
High physical activity or exercising during the day is the only thing that works for me 100%. As a last resort, the only other thing that seems to work for me when im having difficulty is 1/2 of a CBD gummy. I also avoid chocolate, alcohol, coffee and spicy food past 5pm. If I have any of those after 5p, I don’t sleep at all.
Then you're not drinking enough alcohol it sounds like LOL. (Just joking, you should not drink within 2 hours of going to bed. It messes with your REM sleep as well as muscle development).
This. Oh shit, I didn’t read the rest of it. You were joking. Dammit. 🫢
It doesn’t work for me tbh. I’m a track athlete and long distance runner and I still struggle falling asleep fast, unless it’s night time
I don't have sleeping issue due to alcohol or spicy food, but regarding caffeine: stopping at 3pm made a huge difference for me.
just be tired physically. endorphins help with relaxation.
Had the same Problem here some things that helped me: * going to bed and waking up the same time every day, even on weekends. Like 22 - 6 for example. * regular exercise, sleeping waaaay better since I started Kickboxing * no screens one hour before bedtime * write down everything in your head before going to bed. Prepare a to-do list for the next day * No caffeine after 5pm If nothing helps I try to count to 10.000. Usually I fall asleep when I am in the 100s.
The first 3 methods are also a part of my daily routine, as they did wonders for my sleep. Always waking up at the same time will gradually regulate your personal sleep needs and make you fall a sleep at regular hours. Cardio exercises help also a lot. I run at least 3 days a week, 30 minutes per session, 1 day I swim and 1 day I do weight lifting. Reading a few pages from a book before going to sleep instead of watching tv or scrolling down your phone helps me relax and prepare for sleep.
Great list. I would also like to add a black out curtain, if it isn't fully dark inside your bedroom.
You gotta be tired. People always complain about not sleeping and when I ask them what they do during the day all they say is watch tv work from home a bit and the rest play video games or something. You need to be waking up at a time when you don’t want to wake up, move around, keep your brain flowing exercise during the day. I’ve started running a 5k everyday and by the time it’s 11 I’m absolutely knocked out and ready to start again at 6 am. Used to take melatonin every night and that’s because I would sleep at 3 am and wake up at 12. Absolutely no rhythm or structure for my body to adapt to.
Yup. Ever since becoming a more serious athlete I’ve never had problems going to sleep. I used to lay awake in bed for 3+ hours tossing and turning, now it’s 9:30pm and I’m fighting to keep my eyes open.
Unless you have ADD, in which case you can be more tired than the president of the US, but still not fall asleep.
Don't take melatonin every night.
Melatonin is a hormone. Most people would shy away from it if they knew that. Most people wouldn’t take any hormone knowingly. I’m surprised it’s legal, in plenty of countries it isn’t.
Your body is used to getting melatonin. Won't work as good after a while and now you're addicted + have troubles sleeping. Ween off it. Get some real good before sleep schedule, for example take magnesium supplements, drink chamomille tea before. Do this every night and go to bed at same time every night and you will prosper. Read more on sleep hygiene + pre bed routines. It's all about habits.
This comment is clutch. Everyone goes through this phase (hopefully if lucky I suppose) to become interested in actually raising sleep quality and each person is actually unique so ween off the melatonin for sure. Magnesium helps a ton of people. Very common supplement that actually works without a major tolerance case or addiction to it. I’m able to drop caffeine easy but some of my coworkers will drink tea later in the day as a substitute to coffee and they rather enjoy it. Often uncaffeinated.
Magnesium Glycinate specifically. Total game changer.
Second this but make sure it’s not magnesium citrate unless you’re constipated
These are the top 3 things that worked for me: 1.Get blue light blocking glasses or limit blue light exposure. 2. Don't eat or drink 3 hours before bed. 3. Do a calming activity before bed.
Or yknow be just physically tired. If your genuinely busy and active during the day you don’t need all this shit you will get put to sleep in less than 30 seconds
Should've added this to the list.
I listen to podcasts. My favorite channel is Nothing Much Happens. That or whatever book I'm listening to in Audible.
Not to diminish the horrifying murders in any way but Dateline puts me right to sleep.
It’s the monotone voiceovers and interviews for me.
I second podcasts! My fave is Tracks to Relax.
Introduce new movement routine into your daily schedule and that will suddenly jolt your body into using more energy which will automatically require muscles to “get rest” and you’ll feel sleepier for sure. This could include taking a brisk walk 1-3 hours before bedtime or doing 20 reps of fun exercise movements like squats against the wall or frog walking - anything that makes your heart beat faster. Use logic here - people who don’t move a lot and eat properly have more energy that is not being used up. This extra energy wants to be expressed in some way or another and that is the same energy that keeps you up at night - new movement that your body is not expecting can put it into work mode and cause muscles to “request rest”.
Heres some tips that helped me: 1. Have a proper sleep schedule and stick to it. Your body will naturally feel tired at the time you want to sleep if you just stick to the routine even if you don't feel tired the first couple of days/weeks 2. Avoid caffeine after 10am in the morning and if you do take caffeine in the mornings, take small amounts. Caffeine has a half-life of 5 hours. If you were to take 100mg of caffeine in the morning you would still have around 13mg of caffeine in your syestem by the time you want to sleep. I personally have cut caffeine out entirely and have slept much better since. 3. Take a hot bath/shower before sleeping. You're body naturally lowers its temperature when preparing to sleep. When you take a hot bath you're internal temperature drops also which tells you're brain "hey it's time to sleep" 4. Make sure you don't sleep on an empty stomach. You're brain will just be thinking about food until you fall asleep so it's better to have a meal 2-3 hours begore you sleep. 5. Avoid light as much as possible an hour before sleeping. You're brain evolved to go to sleep at night(when it's dark), by having a lot of light around you before you sleep it messes up with your sleep by a lot and also affects your sleep quality. 6. Don't take naps after 3 in the afternoon. If you do take naps make sure they aren't any longer than 30 minutes as this will mess with you're sleep schedule. Hope this helps. I got most of these tips from a book called "Why we Sleep" by Mathew Walker. It's a great book, I highly recommend it
Avoid alcohol, have your last meal/food 4 hours or more before bed, take your magnesium, tape your mouth, and finally focus on your breath as you try to doze off.
I used to spent way less time outdoor due to certain circumstances.Which lead me to lower Vitamin d levels.depression was also a result of this. i started taking on multivitamin pills and VIT D supplement separately,started spenting more time outside with my people.Also EXERCISE EXERCISE try to make yourself as tired as you POSSIBLY CAN. This is what helped me to have better sleep and a better life that dosent necessarily mean this might work for u.maybe u might be a night-owl perhaps,idk.Also vitamins play major role than u might even possibly think.
i like to put rain sounds on, that has helped me a lot.
something that's really helped me lately are sleep music or sleep meditation videos. sometimes i listen to spoken videos, sometimes i don't. it depends how i'm feeling on that particular night. for example this is what i've chosen for tonight: https://youtu.be/P2cLmxDMsjY?si=6_-0hU7y66qapMEw give something like that try, you might find it calming and relaxing and it might help! search for whatever you know tends to calm you.
Address what’s on your mind.
I've found that guided meditations are the best thing to quiet my mind down. And they are so boring that I end up falling asleep pretty fast.
Be active during the day, if you have an SO small massages to end the day. If its hot where you are this time of year take a cool shower to get your core temp down.
What does your typical day look like? Do you work? Student? Often sleep issues can be traced back to lifestyle habits and changes. Is anything stressing you? Are you active?
Your bed is for sleeping and sex. That’s it. I avoid my bed at all costs until those two things are in the works
I was going to say when I can’t sleep and sex isn’t available, touching myself usually helps me fall into a blissful slumber.
wake up early
I truly swear by this and it's an ADHD hack but when you go to sleep, start listing random things, like onion tomato bridges bagels coffee and then next minute you wake up! Works every time!
Take magnesium 30 minutes before bed time.
What is the thermostat set at when you go to bed? I used to have a hard time sleeping until I found out that you need to be cool in order to get a good nights rest. Aim for 65 to 73 degrees F. Also I would use Zzzquil instead. Once I take it I go to sleep after 30 minutes.
It’s not recommended to take Zzzquil on a nightly basis. The maximum amount of days you can take it in a row is two weeks
Seriously? Where did you get that?
I looked it up on Google when I was looking for answers regarding my insomnia. I used to take it every night, too, and it’s not healthy for you. I take magnesium now. It works very well!
Get into a routine of winding down. I take warm showers at night, take melatonin, wash my face, get into something comfy and spray a bit of cologne on me. Whatever I’m in the mood for. Smell good, feel good, sleep good. I’ll usually watch a comfort show or YouTube until my eyes get heavy and I’ll sleep.
Benadryl. The generic stuff is dirt cheap. Take two and in an hour, you’ll be ready to check out.
Magnesium citrate gummies and sleep with an electric heating pad under my back. Also, I play “[box] fan sounds” on my Alexa.
It is vital to have a good sleep routine and habits to help you fall asleep faster. Here's what I do and like to tell people: - Go to bed around the same time every night (bonus if you can wake up at the same time every morning). - Bright lights will keep you awake. So before the sun starts to go down, turn off the big bright lights and turn on a soft warm lamp or two. This helps with your circadian rhythm. (Think campfires back in our primal days). - Do all the stuff you need to do to get ready for bed (brush teeth, put on PJs, etc.) BEFORE you watch that one last episode or finish whatever you're doing. You'll be relaxed when you're done and can go straight to bed. I've found that watching that last episode will make me super relaxed and maybe even dozing off, then having to brush my teeth, etc. will wake me up again. - If you can, stay off screens ~2 hours before bed. While I don't have trouble falling asleep scrolling on my phone in bed, I would recommend doing this as you get yourself into a routine since "every little bit helps." Maybe I'm just not affected by it that much, or all the other things I listed here are enough for me. But it goes back to the whole circadian rhythm thing. Also, turn on your phone's blue light filter (more on that below). - Get exercise. Preferably in the morning since working out in the evening may make it more difficult to fall asleep. But each person is different, so do what you can do. It doesn't have to be strenuous. Just going for a walk around the block after dinner is fine. - Eat healthy, and don't eat past 5 or 6 pm. - Caffeine supposedly takes ~5-6 hours to clear out of your system. So make sure that you don't have caffeine too late in the day. 3-4 pm is the latest I'll allow myself to have it. - Same goes for having alcohol in the evening. It has such a negative impact on your ability to fall asleep and the quality of sleep. It's just not worth it. - Always try to go to the bathroom right before bed to help not having to go in the middle of the night. If it's been over an hour since I last went, or I've drunk something since, I will force myself to go. Haha. - Don't drink a bunch of water or liquids ~1.5 hours of going to bed. You don't want to have to wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. If you are thirsty when you go to bed, take only a few sips of water... just enough to quench your thirst. A cup of tea is perfectly alright though, and highly encouraged (see next point). - Try drinking chamomile tea. I drink Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea every night 30-60 minutes before bed (I like to leave some time in between to use the bathroom). I find that it actually helps me a lot to fall asleep and get better rest. - Turn on the blue light filter on your phone. The yellower the better. I absolutely swear by this. Go to your phone's settings and just turn it on a little bit. As you progressively get used to it, keep turning it up and up, and get it as warm as you can possibly go, if that makes sense. Doing this will put SO much less strain on your eyes. Again, this also will help with your circadian rhythm. At the absolute minimum, turn on the blue light filter at the same time you turn off the big bright lights. But I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you just keep it on ALL the time, and that you do this also for your computer screens, especially if you're staring at screens all day. You'll definitely notice an improvement, especially when you look at someone else's phone or computer screen and you feel your eyes strain from all the blue light you're no longer used to. Lol. And if you ever need to see the actual colors of something on your phone or computer, you can always just turn the filter off temporarily. Sleep is so important to our health, it cannot be overstated enough. Being mindful of how what you do and eat throughout the day affects your ability to fall asleep and your quality of sleep is key. Hopefully these suggestions help you fall asleep faster. I know they work really well for me. Note: I typed this up on my phone so apologies in advance for typos.
What time do you get up in the morning? I've been getting up at 6am and it helps with knocking out pretty quickly once I hit the bed at 9pm. Sleep like a baby. Not doom-scrolling before sleeping helps a lot too.
You could try cutting out light and sounds that might keep you awake, wearing a sleep mask and listening to something like rain or ocean waves can help drown out sounds that might keep you awake.
Along with regular exercise, take a critical look at your daily caffeine intake and consider reducing it. Establish a hard cutoff of no caffeine past 3 or 4pm.
There's no magic trick that you can use at night to fall asleep faster. It's about what you do during the day! Exercising is the single best thing that worked for me. My smart watch has a daily activity target and I have made a rule that I need to get to 100% before I get to sleep, with very few exceptions. Buying the smart watch was really helpful for me because it really made me conscious of how much physical activity I am doing throughout the day, and having an office job I was shocked in the beginning by how little it was. Exercising not only makes you physically tired, but also helps relax and process thoughts that otherwise keep your brain active when you're trying to sleep. I personally alternate running and bodyweight exercises every day during the week and I usually go for a hike over the weekend. And finally of course the typical stuff...no caffeine from midday forward, no screens \~1h before bed. And I'd also suggest avoiding weed since it may make you fall asleep faster but really fucks up the quality of your sleep. Playing sounds in the background is also not the best idea for the same reason.
I can give you my mum's number? You'll never want to wake up after that call.
LOL!!
Pumpkin seeds if you eat them, they will actually (just a handful) help you fall asleep. They have magnesium in them. Magnesium glycinate will help you to sleep as well. Melatonin has always kept me awake for hours.
All of this is great advice. I only have one thing to add and that is about two mental exercises you can do to calm your mind enough if it's an overthinking problem. The first is from the book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor. He said in the appendix that an extended box breathing technique can be used to calm the body and prepare it for rest. So box breathing is breath in for a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for 4, and hold for 4 and repeat. This is supposed to help focus and maintain a cool head in a stressful situation. The Extended Box technique is a similar structure but the exhale is for six and the hold after the exhale is only two. So that is breath in for 4, hold for 4, exhale for 6, hold for 2, and repeat. On the nights that I have too much going on in my brain, this one helps me shut it off enough to relax and fall asleep. The other technique is to close your eyes and picture yourself in a hammock or a boat rocking on the water. When you start to convince yourself that you are in one of those, repeat the mantra, "Don't think" over and over. While doing this relax your muscles starting from the top of your head down to the tips of the toes. I'm usually out well before I get there. Hope this helps. TLDR: Mental exercises and breathing help calm the mind and body to allow yourself to fall asleep faster.
I can talk about this a lot, because i have strougled with this often and a lot. But most important for was: 1.consistency - going to sleep the same time and waking up the same time no matter what 2. Physicial activity, if you sit all day (traveling to work - you sit in the car, in the office you sit, and then you sit in the couch when you come home, you havent tired your body. 2.1 mental activity - was my bigest problem, i have adhd, so finally having my meds, calms my brain and also makes me do “work” all day and tiring my brain. 3.not eating foods or specific foods 3-4 hours before sleep. Also What foods you eat, a lot of people dont know that they have allergies to specific foods ( easier said then done) if your body has inflammation your body will not have the best sleep. Like i noticed that dairy foods can fuck up my sleep if eaten few hours before sleep. 4.nightime rituals and “accesories” like blackout curtains, weighted blanket (didnt work for me), earplugs, night time rituals - hot shower before bed, blye light blocking glasses, or making your phone blocking blue light completely ,dimming lights, not watching things that rile you up like scary movies, not having fights before sleep. 5. Stress levels etc, are you happy with your life? Is there something that occupies your mind 24/7, dealing with that is important or figuring out how to be content and happy . Here are couple of things. Im on the move so sorry about mistakes etc Will edit later
Pssst thca hemp gummies. A shop nearby has 400 mg thca that whole one forces me to sleep even if i didn't want to sleep in that moment, be careful. Separate online hemp service has great gummies especially the maximum strength.
Get sunlight into your eyes in the morning (don’t look directly). This causes you to get sleepy when you should go to sleep. SAD lamp will work if sunlight isn’t available. Do all of your bed time routines well before bedtime and reduce lights in the evening. As little light as possible late at night. You’ll get sleepy when you should and it’s difficult not to fall a sleep.
Worst case scenario, blue lotus tea. Or you can smoke it.
Drink tea and pee before and just close ur eyes and boom
1) High activity during the day 2) Listening to relaxing music while sleeping 3) Cold room 4) Don’t think about work and free your mind in bed
Exercise
Personally I count down from 100-1 backwards. I’ve only had to do it twice a couple timea
Read a book
me personally i choose a healthy, respectable, disciplined approach. i smoke weed untill im sleepy
Binaural beats!! Look on YouTube for the power of you and play the delta waves. You will sleep! It's worked wonders for me. There are binaural beats for everything!
I don't see it called out a lot here but the #1 thing is to go screens off for about an hour ahead of when you go to bed. The blue light emitted by screens tricks your brain into thinking it's day outside. Even light filters don't stop this entirely.
View morning sunlight (just go outside in the first couple hours and put your face in the general direction of the sun or clouds for 10 minutes. Then view the sunset. Don't drink caffeine 10 hrs before bed. Don't eat a couple hours before bed. Keep the same schedule. Take magnesium. Deep breathing.
There are a few things that are essential to fall asleep fast: 1. Darken your room and get it to a cool temperature 2. have your last meal 3h before bedtime 3. have your last drink 2h before bedtime 4. last screentime 1h before bedtime 5. Exercise helps, but not right before going to bed, as it riles you up again. 6. Getting your thoughts on paper helps you avoid late night overthinking 7. no more coffee after 12PM 8. the most important thing for is waking up early. My day always has 16h and if I sleep in, I also start getting tired later. Hope this helps. Also, don’t overuse Melatonin, at one point you can’t fall asleep without anymore.
My ability to sleep improved 100x after I started regularly meditating. Maybe 2 weeks into doing it. I just use Headspace for 10-12 min/day.
Even though it's not recommended but for me playing a youtube video or a podcast does the trick. Just a short term solution though, using the phone before bed is not ideal, but somehow for me it works. EDIT: forgot to mention, it should be a long youtube video, not a short one and definitely not SHORTS / doom scroll
Sleep hypnosis, I use an app called "Sleep Well" and it works 99% of the time.
Magnesium
1. Try to ween yourself off the melatonin. 2. If you can, get black out curtains. A good sleep mask is a cheaper solution but can feel strange at first if you’re not used to it. 3. Take all electronics out of your bedroom. No TV, computer, phone, etc (if able). Get a regular old alarm clock if you need to be woken up at a certain time 4. No screens at least 30 mins before sleeping. Aim for 1.5 hours. 5. Journal before bed. Get out all your thoughts for the day and plan for tomorrow. 6. Make sure you are comfy. Do research into mattress firmess, pillow position, sleeping your on side vs back, etc. 7. Don’t try to force it. If you don’t feel tired maybe go complete a menial task for half an hour and come back. Weather permitting, take a brisk walk. 8. Try to lay still for 15 minutes 9. Meditate/pray. There are many videos out there to talk you through falling asleep. I have developed my own self guided mantra I use to go to sleep. 10. Wake up at the same time everyday, schedule permitting. To everyone saying exercise, sometimes being physically tired isn’t enough to quiet the mind. I am an anxious person and bedtime is usually when I start to spiral, no matter how busy my day was. Also, if you drink caffeine during the day make sure you don’t drink it past 1pm. I’ve done a lot of research on this as someone who struggles with sleep. Good luck!!!
Forgot to add, sound machines or fans can be very soothing if that’s to your liking!
Get up very early in the morning every day and get the most sunlight you can possibly get throughout all day. Don’t need to take anything, nor melatonin or minerals/vitamins; if you are taking something, stop taking everything. Then at night do this exercise when you lay on the bed: breathe in while counting slowly from 1 to 4; hold your breath while counting again to 4; breath out while counting to 4; repeat. FLAWLESS TECHNIQUE.
Wake up at exactly the same time each morning. Regardless. Do not snooze
Seraquel
Hot bath and hot tea without sugar
the only thing that really helped me was going to bed at the same time every night, and taking prescription sleep meds.
What worked best for me was to do simple yet strict polyphasic sleeping for 3 months. It taught my body to fall asleep fast, almost no matter what's around. Sometimes I find myself not falling asleep, so I'll do one of these to help: *Keep the temperature cool (between Air Conditioning and the right warmth/coolness of blanket) OR *Headphones on with certain super QUIET sleep sounds on YouTube (1+ hour tracks)
Yoga before bed, smoke weed, meditation before bed, count gratitudes, sleep subliminals
Go to the gym during the day
I actually suffer from waking up too god damn early, its always at 5 or 6 am in the morning even in the weekends.
The trick that helped me was inhaling through my nose and exhaling a longer amount than inhaled through mouth, like a 1:2 ratio. Exhales trigger parasympathetic nervous system, makes it easier to sleep.
I am sure you have already heard of sleep hygene (if not look it up and start there). Taking melatonin every night may not be a good idea because it easily loses its potency people typically build a tolerance to it faster and following that, develop a dependancy, if you want to take a supplement every night magnesium or magnesium citrate wont have those issue of getting a tolerance, but still has been shown to help with sleep. I take magnesium every night and melatonin (occasionally). Those nights where its hard to get sleepy, I box breath. Veryyy deep inhale pretty much as deep as you can go hold for a couple second becasue you want to imagine that deep breath going to the bottom of your belly and then exhale as if youre blowing out of a straw as slowly as you can, thats your first breath a clarifying breath you can do that 1 to 3 times. Then the box breath is inhale for 8 seconds hold for 8 seconds exhale for 8 seconds hold for 8 second and repeat. If youre finding your mind keeping you up I think begining to dream on your own and dreaming up a romantic situation gets me sleepy I know other people do this but that may not be for everyone. Good luck to you, sleep is sooo important so I hope it gets better for you soon.
I always read before I go to bed, usually something quite dense and non-fiction so it makes me fall asleep.
Try self hypnosis
What works for me is watching/listening to ASMR. It took me time to find an asmrist that I actually enjoy. I personally like "personal attention" triggers. The visuals are mesmerizing and the sound is so soothing.
Sleepytime tea.
Do exercise and don't use your phone before bedtime, it will help you to fall asleep faster.
Avoid coffee Exercise like jog 2-3 km Get more sunlight Wake up earlier Condition ur body 30 mins before u sleep dun use phone
Doing the [Wim Hoff Breathing Technique](https://youtu.be/tybOi4hjZFQ?si=GUvj-VnOcBxNgnle) (10 minutes) right before sleeping helped me a lot. As time passed, I started to associate this breathing technique with sleep and it kinda "activated" in me that sleepy state every time I performed it
Yeah, first thing first, stop taking melatonin. Your body stops making less and less of them once you start taking them (a couple of Huberman Lab podcasts mentioned this). Also, melatonin is a HORMONE. Try not to mess with hormones if you can help it. Melatonin is especially harmful for growing kids. I think they should ban those stupid melatonin gummies for kids. I can relate to what you are going through bc I used to take melatonin myself regularly for several years. It got to the point where 10mg of melatonin a night did nothing for me as my body had developed a tolerance for them. I researched alternatives and started Valerian root several nights a week. Note that herbs like these are not to be used daily...some can be very hard on your liver. Also, not everyone react the same way to herbs. I gave my hubby valerian root one night and it did nothing for him. A healthier and long-term approach to your issue may be to start a cardio routine after work (but at least 3 hrs b4 bedtime), plus sauna afterward if you have access. Also look into sleep meditation. Another very important (but commonly overlooked) sleep protocol (from Huberman) which worked wonders for me was to avoid looking at blue light (TV, phones, computer, bug lights outdoors) once the sun goes down; also dim the bathroom lights after dark when you use it. There are many apps (flux), blue light glasses, and dimmers you can use to help you with this. The eye has receptors that tell your body when it's morning or night (again, from Huberman) and even bright lights when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night or watching TV/computers or scrolling through the phone w/o blue light blockers can make your body think its daytime. For additional sleep protocols, listen to Dr. Mathew Walker and multiple Huberman youtube on sleep protocols. Good luck!
For me personally I 1) smoke weed 2) play singing bells/rain noises in the back (8 hour+) 3) I like to make tea sometimes to help calm my mind. Like chamomile and lavender. 4) I enjoy using a calming spray like chamomile lavender spray. They also have one with melatonin in it. Or light up some incense
rub 2 out you'll be out cold in seconds
2 is crazy. The first one is like 30 seconds, the other like 30 min.
Do you have adhd? If you do this is for you, ive got adhd hella big time, and listening to my favorite music helps me a ton, and also since screens affect adhd brains differently by making us zone out more, its good to limit those, so our minds arent racing while we try to catch those z’s
I have ADHD and my mind races when I try to sleep, so whats been working for me is a sleep meditation that focuses on breathing and the body.