it takes me at least an hour or two to fall asleep, even when I’m tired. what do?
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things that seem to help my sleep are
- physical activity during the day
- sun exposure (>30 minutes)
- keeping my room dark when i’m going to sleep (blackout curtains are good for this)
- taking a shower before bed
- avoiding screens or at least using a blue light filter
physical activity during the day
In the morning, if you have a choice, for optimal night-tiredage
I used to type these kinds of questions into google, but it’s becoming completely unusable due to all the LLM content farming. At leasat I know most of you are real
The AI destruction of google results will be leaving smug “let me google that for you” guys in shambles worldwide
“go ahead motherfucker, google it for me. I’m even going to pay you if you find anything useful”
A few things help me
- physical exercise
- phone screens banned
- a caffiene free herbal tea
- calming noises either real or from phone
- reading a physical book or kindle using a tablelamp with no backlight.
- reading a single page of theory (puts me to sleep honestly)
- consistent bed time and wake time
- some basic meditation or breathing exercises can go a long way if you’re feeling stressed
I used to have a lot of trouble sleeping but since I’ve done some of the above i can generally fall asleep consistently at 11pm
- Lights: Switching to light sources/bulbs with lower brightness/warmer light temperature (lower Kelvin/K-value) 3 hours before bed. (Light affects our sleep-wake cycle, aka the circadian rhythm. Our brain processes bright light as “the sun is still up so it’s not time to sleep yet”)
- Screens: Gradually dimming electronic screens until bedtime (Computer: using F.lux and lowering the brightness gradually in the graphics card’s control panel. Phone: with a built-in Night/Dark Mode option that you can schedule or by using an app like Twilight). // Don’t take your devices to the bedroom, or keep them far away from the bed and set them on silent/shut them off.
- Try not to sleep for more than 8 hours so you’ll need the sleep the next night.
- Sleeping in a closed and completely dark room (including covering LED lights on electronics, or using a face mask) with something that makes a white noise (fan/air purifier/etc.)
- Food: Having a light meal 3-3.5 hours before bed and light snacks 1.5-2 hours before bed, to not put the body into overdrive digesting a heavy meal or cause heartburn/indigestion, and also to not go to sleep hungry and get distracted by that.
- If you sleep on your stomach with your head to the side, you can use a thin and narrow side pillow (but firm) along your torso to support your shoulder on the side that your head is pointing to. (you can also use a thin pillow for your head to not strain your neck/spine - there are ones made for kids if needed)
When I started program lifting about a decade ago, one benefit I never really was told about that definitely happened is I fell asleep so much easier. Even though I usually lift mid day, days where I lift or get in some cardio I fall asleep and stay asleep so much better. It can be worth getting in some more physical activity for a lot of reasons, but sleep is one of them too.
that’s something I noticed too. I stopped exercising a few months ago and I feel like my sleep has gotten worse. Really gotta get back to it
Opening the window for fresh air is probably the best thing for me. Sometimes I can’t fall asleep at all until I open the window.
Putting on some audiobook/podcast that isn’t too funny/interesting helps with not thought/worry spiraling. The easiest is to listen to something I already read before.cool/fresh air really helps me too actually
I think its mostly temperature, since its too cold to have my windows open in the winter and I don’t have much trouble then
One of the things that triggers sleep is falling body temperature. Not specifically “being cold,” it’s the decrease that does it, which is why a hot shower to push your core temp up makes you sleepy afterward as you cool down.
yeah fresh air helps me sometimes
Don’t get in bed until you’re committed to going to sleep.
Don’t fuck around on the internet in bed.
Read a book if that helps you fall asleep. I know some people will just end up reading for hours but it occupies my ADHD brain enough that I can relax.
I also take magnesium glycinate which has a noticeable effect on sleep quality.
Melatonin
To add on the comment here, a minimum dosage is fine, even preferable. 0.5mg works.
Pharmacies are going to carry 5, 10 mg so try buying it online.
dang it, I already ordered 5 mg pills. Just gonna break them in quarters I guess
https://www.reddit.com/r/sleep/comments/p12czj/turns_out_the_best_dosage_for_melatonin_is_03mg/
Above is a random link I found online regarding it. The ideal dosage is going to vary from individual to individual. Good news is that there is practically no side effect for taking a higher dosage.
The mechanism, if I remember correctly, is that melatonin naturally releases from the body when you’re falling asleep so you’re tricking the body into thinking that it’s falling asleep already. In my personal case, you feel a bit more drowsy than usual 20-30 minutes after taking it. You should time it to fall asleep then because the drowsiness goes away rather quickly if you fight it. I buy a 1mg tablet and bite into it to last 2-3 days but feel free to experiment.
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Anything higher than like .5mg makes my legs ache, idk how this shit works
so I should drink more milk, take vitamins or what? how do I get my fix?
My sister developed a tolerance to melatonin but she was taking it every day. Now eats a couple CBD gummies before bed.
Screen time has a big effect, if you cut yourself off from screens at least an hour before bed you’ll probably notice a big improvement!
ooohh that would make sense. Imma try getting off the computer earlier today
in addition to just getting off earlier, you can also try to filter some of the blue light / glare from your screens towards the evening. The most popular sunset simulation redshift thingy is probably flux and I recommend giving it a shot. Might help you get tired more easily
It’s not a magic bullet or anything, but I find it relaxing for my eyes at least and it might help your sleep too
interesting. Windows has that night light mode thingy that I always turn off. I wonder if it could actually help with sleep…
edit: I just turned on night light mode on my work PC and now I feel kinda sleepy
You can also turn Windows, Mac, and Android devices black-and-white (maybe true for iphones too but idk). This eliminates all color input and, in my opinion, is easier on your eyes and makes redshifted stuff look less weird. It’s also less visually appealing, so you want to look at it less. I do this all the time and when I do color-sensitive stuff it’s crazy to me how oversaturated digital colors are, and how much digital developers use bright colors to grab and hold your attention.
I think for Windows it’s WIN + SHIFT + C to go grayscale, and on Android it’s “Bedtime mode” which you can schedule or add as a toggle to your pulldown bar thing
I just try to think creatively then I’m out like a candle in a hurricane, I only make up like 3 things before I drift off. On the flipside of that, if I think about something real, then I can stay up for half the night letting my mind race in circles.
Same for me. Reading a book and creating images in my head = work, makes me sleepy. Passively consuming = staying up way too late because I just keep filling my head with useless shit.
Have you ever talked to a doctor about it? One to two hours is quite extreme, and would probably be classified as a sleep disorder.
I’ve had problems getting to sleep most of my life, but it generally took me around 30 minutes most nights. I eventually developed really bad insomnia in my mid-30s and got diagnosed with sleep apnea a few years ago. My poor sleep was possibly causing spikes of cortisol during the day that made it difficult for me to get to sleep.
Slow your breathing and count breaths backwards from 100. I usually don’t make it to 70
YMMV, I tried this and it just stressed me out and made it harder to sleep.
It really depends on you. It could be one of these two:
- You need to remove all sources of stimulation a while before bed, or
- Go to bed with headphones on listening to a podcast or rain forest sounds or ASMR knuckle cracking or some bullshit so you can pipe constant stimulation into your brain up until the point you pass out
Lots of good tips here, but one simple thing helped me. When you are trying to sleep imagine you just woke up early in the morning but long before you have to be up. Like pretending it’s 4 in the morning, idk why but putting my mind in that place helps me.
I take a walk with my dog ~2 hours before bed, helps me wind down. Also helps to stick to some kind of routine, like drinking a nice beverage, and reading for a short amount of time.
