How to get to sleep? Give me tips

Thanks a lot to everyone. I didn't think about having so much to read! Now i read books, shut down phone and PC earlier and go to bed at the same time every day (took me 10 years to be disciplined). I will report but i'm pretty sure there are enough tips here to really improve things!
 
I am dealing with anxiety and for a few years took ambien until i made the decision to stop using it or any similar medication at all. I don't drink alcohol often, i run every day, i like to eat as healthy as i can and it helps. But once in bed, i have to focus really hard on something (like engines, music or motor oil lol) until i fall asleep before the negative thoughts arrive. For the last months, i'd say i'm awake or barely sleeping a night out of two, no matter how physically tired i am. I am aware that the best way to fix this would be to fix everything that's wrong in my life at the moment and learn how to cope with stupidity and negativity. Since sleep might be a problem at some point in one's life, i guess everyone has little tips that can help!
I take Melatonin as needed, its safe cheap, non addictive, over the counter. I know quite a few people who use it too.
 
I am dealing with anxiety and for a few years took ambien until i made the decision to stop using it or any similar medication at all. I don't drink alcohol often, i run every day, i like to eat as healthy as i can and it helps. But once in bed, i have to focus really hard on something (like engines, music or motor oil lol) until i fall asleep before the negative thoughts arrive. For the last months, i'd say i'm awake or barely sleeping a night out of two, no matter how physically tired i am. I am aware that the best way to fix this would be to fix everything that's wrong in my life at the moment and learn how to cope with stupidity and negativity. Since sleep might be a problem at some point in one's life, i guess everyone has little tips that can help!
I've not read the entirety of this thread, and maybe this has been suggested. I have difficulty falling asleep at times. Background music such as these helps me drift off to dreamland:







There are plenty of such videos to choose from. I just listen and fall asleep.
 
I'll also take a Benadryl when I go to bed and it'll totally make me pass out and sleep all night.
Both my wife and I have had problems sleeping for several years, it comes with advancing age from what I've been told. Here is what we discovered...
We both took diphenhydramine (Benadryl, an antihistamine) for a couple of years. It works. During my reading I came across something that startled me... medical studies are now showing that the long term use of diphenhydramine can cause alzheimer's disease. Further reading uncovered a safer and even more effective alternative... doxylamine succinate (Unisom and an ingredient in Nyquil, also an antihistamine). We started at the standard 25mg dose but discovered that this is too much for us and we now take just half a pill (12.5mg). Works a charm.
We also started using melatonin a few years ago. From personal experience I can tell you that the warnings from other members about higher dosages are valid. From our experience, anything above 5mg is way too much and causes majorly vivid dreaming and left both of us feeling a little foggy in the morning. After experimenting with 1mg increments and time release doses we concluded that a 3mg time release dose works best for us.
Lastly, we also take 300mg of magnesium. Not having enough magnesium in your system can cause troubled sleep and even insomnia. In addition to being an important mineral for the body and mind, magnesium regulates how the brain uses/processes melatonin. You won't realize how much this helps until you miss a dose.
 
Last edited:
Natural calm (Natural calm is basically magnesium citrate. Magnesium glycinate pills are good too)

Taurine (Most people associate this with energy since it is in some energy drinks, but it does not give you energy. I think it's in energy drinks to balance out the jitters from caffieine)

Zinc supplements also help, but make sure you take them with food, they'll give you a bad stomach ache on an empty stomach. I read l-theanine as I was skimming through some replies. Oddly enough, l-theanine gives me insomnia.
 
My snoring bothered my wife so badly that I had a sleep study in 99. I did wake up gasping several times in the past. When I got to the study they hooked about 1000 wires to me and told me to go to sleep which I didn't think was possible. I got the results in a couple days and they said that quick action was needed.
They said I could have the surgery or the CPAP. The first thing that came to mind about the CPAP was the movie alien. The second was how could I ever sleep with that thing on my face. I decided to have the surgery which is UPPP. The actual name cannot be pronounced by man.(look it up).
They carved out all my soft tissues in my throat including my uvula and broke my nose then put in splints the size of the serrated plastic knives minus the handles.
I drank codeine syrup for the pain every several hours and the healing took quite a while.
I had another sleep study done in February and turns out then I still have the apnea now but it is not near as severe. I have a CPAP now and it seems to be working well except during the night sometimes I push it up over my mouth. I've really gotten comfortable with it.
It turns out the surgery is not a very reliable procedure.
 
Get more exercise. If you are wore out, you will fall asleep even if you don't want to./

Get more vegetables in your diet. Certain minerals or even magnesium deficit (among others) may cause sleep anxiety.

Avoid caffeine and alcohol. I didn't say it was going to be easy. ;)

Make sure to follow a routine of regular bed time and waking hours, and those compatible with the environmental noise. You can't fight noise that you can't control.

If worrying is keeping you awake, I refer back to more exercise. If you are tired enough, you just won't give an F about anything except some sleep, then that will become synergistic to where your increased health makes you more resistant to stress.

Blue light, yeah you should avoid it near bed time but once you try to sleep you are avoiding it right? Give yourself some wind down time but I doubt that's it. Even from a computer monitor or modern phone you can dial down the blue light. Also think about this from home lighting, not excessively cold color temp LED bulbs, at least 3500K or lower color temp and dimmer at night.

Reassess your bedding. You might not have the right mattress, or pillow, or temperature too high or too much radiant heat, really too many variables to go into without the specifics of why and if you presented those I overlooked them and won't lose sleep over it. ;) In other words don't stress about the little things.
 
Funny thing, my gf snores so loud she sounds like a freight train!! You can literally hear it all over the house haha. She falls asleep the very second she hits the pillow. What even funnier is that her snoring puts me right to sleep, just like the fan effect. I think it's also that hearing her lets me know she's there next to me♥️.
 
Have you had a sleep study for a sleep disorder? I was once told , when we hear hoof beats we think Horses but the sound could be Zebras ,,or something like that.
 
I am dealing with anxiety and for a few years took ambien until i made the decision to stop using it or any similar medication at all. I don't drink alcohol often, i run every day, i like to eat as healthy as i can and it helps. But once in bed, i have to focus really hard on something (like engines, music or motor oil lol) until i fall asleep before the negative thoughts arrive. For the last months, i'd say i'm awake or barely sleeping a night out of two, no matter how physically tired i am. I am aware that the best way to fix this would be to fix everything that's wrong in my life at the moment and learn how to cope with stupidity and negativity. Since sleep might be a problem at some point in one's life, i guess everyone has little tips that can help!
My pain management Dr. prescribed some DANG good sleeping pills for me. I take one before I go to bed at night, along with a pain pill. ;)
 
Magnesium

I use unsulphured blackstrap molasses in my coffee as sweetener instead of sugar or honey.
It's loaded with Magnesium. and coffee tastes great too.
 
I used to use a smartphone to check time at wake up between 2-5am. It would make my mind spin.

Crazily a simply watch (happened to be Apple) with just time shown I peek and fall back asleep till 6-6:30 am and get my 7-8 hrs sleep.
 
Funny thing, my gf snores so loud she sounds like a freight train!! You can literally hear it all over the house haha. She falls asleep the very second she hits the pillow. What even funnier is that her snoring puts me right to sleep, just like the fan effect. I think it's also that hearing her lets me know she's there next to me♥️.
Women do not snore! Hasn't she told you that? Sometimes there are coincidental noises that sound like snoring though. ;)

When I was child, my grandfather used to say "Yes, Mother was rolling logs again last night". (Some olde Brit euphemism for snoring, I guess.) Anyway, that always earned him a dirty look from her.
 
Take a couple of Theanine (amino acid) before bed time. As I understand it will smooth certain brain waves which will allow you to relax. You could also try relaxing your body in stages from head to toe by counting from 10 to 1. There are YouTube vids which you can listen to that do the same thing.

If you're on a PC some displays have a setting for "night" or buy some eye glasses which filter out blue light.

I prefer to stay away from Melatonin.
 
Back
Top