Can't sleep, what are some of your tricks?

[ScottRNelson]

I don't have issues falling asleep most nights, but most of the time I use 5mg of melatonin 30 minutes before I want to be asleep to help out. I can still get to sleep without it, but it usually takes a little longer. I'll read for 5-10 minutes before falling asleep. When I read the same sentence three times and still don't get it, I put the book down and fall asleep.

My problem is that normally I sleep three to five hours then wake up. Like wide awake. It's been this way for years and I just live with it. Overall I get enough sleep every night, just not all at once.

The entire series of those Bob Ross painting shows is on YouTube. I rarely can make it to the end of the painting.

This is good. I should collect a bunch of Bob Ross videos. I like documentaries most of the time because they keep a consistent pace with no exciting parts. Most of the time I like Modern Marvels. I have a collection of a few hundred episodes. If I'm not ready to fall asleep right away at least I learn something interesting. And it's rare that I'll still be awake after one full 45 minute episode. I'll wake up off and on through the night but with a documentary in the background I usually go right back to sleep. I keep a set of episodes on a thumb drive, which holds maybe 80 of them and my flat screen TV can play them directly. Once I've been through all of them twice I put a new set on there.

Melatonin to stay asleep.

Melatonin does not help me stay asleep. Get to sleep, yes, stay asleep beyond 3-5 hours, no.

One other thing that helps me stay asleep a little longer, as an older male, is 600 mg of ibuprofen at the same time I take the melatonin. It normally gets me one or two hours longer before waking up and needing to take a whiz.

 

[Pushrod]

Oh . . . . oh. . . . .oh. . . .I know!

College level philosophy lecture dealing with the French Renaissance.

 

[berth]

I like documentaries most of the time because they keep a consistent pace with no exciting parts.

That new Fireball documentary on Apple TV I found sleep inducing.

 

[Climber]

Melatonin leaves me feeling drowsy for the next 3-5 days. It's a non-starter for me.

Ambien works, at first, but after awhile I am awake after 5 hours with no way to get back to sleep. Also, if you've taken it for awhile it took me about 2 months to retrain my body to go to sleep, it's a dead end road. If taken once in awhile, about once a month, it works very well.

 

[ScottRNelson]

Melatonin leaves me feeling drowsy for the next 3-5 days. It's a non-starter for me.

I find that surprising. If I take something like Excedrin PM (contains Diphenhydramine citrate 38 mg) I'll feel it all morning the next day. I can't feel a thing different with melatonin at 5mg. I guess it affects us all differently.

 

[WoodsChick]

I find that surprising. If I take something like Excedrin PM (contains Diphenhydramine citrate 38 mg) I'll feel it all morning the next day. I can't feel a thing different with melatonin at 5mg. I guess it affects us all differently.

For about a 5 year period I worked a crazy schedule. I'd work 2 5am-1pm shifts, then an 11am-7pm, and then 2 5pm-1am shifts. I never knew if it was time to get up or go to bed. I wasn't sleeping at all and my doctor suggested melatonin. The only thing it did was help me go to sleep...that's it. I had no lingering effects at all. I definitely feel groggy and out of it with Tylenol PM and all those other "PM" drugs.

 

[Climber]

I find that surprising. If I take something like Excedrin PM (contains Diphenhydramine citrate 38 mg) I'll feel it all morning the next day. I can't feel a thing different with melatonin at 5mg. I guess it affects us all differently.

I think it effects a variety of people differently.

I've tried it 3 times over the last 3 decades with the same out-of-sorts drowsy feelings for days afterwards. I even tried the substance that triggers it, thinking that if it was produced by my body it would make a difference, but same thing.

 

[sprorchid]

When I can’t fall back asleep I visualize either laguna seca or thill east , and do a lap, corner by corner. I think only once I made it thru a whole lap.

 

[bojangle]

I think it effects a variety of people differently.

I've tried it 3 times over the last 3 decades with the same out-of-sorts drowsy feelings for days afterwards. I even tried the substance that triggers it, thinking that if it was produced by my body it would make a difference, but same thing.

I use melatonin 3 mg. It works pretty well for me. Never had a groggy feeling in the morning.

 

[HappyHighwayman]

youtu.be/EiYm20F9WXU

 

[DesiDucati]

I recommend playing an audiobook of any favorite author yof. If you go to sleep, great! If you are still awake, you get to experience listening a good story by your favorite author.

I also leave Netflix on a comedy show and fall asleep laughing. I recommend Dave Chapelle, Russel Peters, Nimesh Patel, Akash Singh, Jim Jefferies, and Ricky Gervais. My current favorite is Andrew Schulz. Try listening to his Two Birds Joke.

 

[Caddywumpus]

Cold room + heavy blanket

 

[m0t0_ryder]

Wow... so many drugs mentioned in here.
Maybe I'm old school (wait, no maybe bout it) but the natural occurrence of sleep shouldn't require medication.

That said...
I too was having problems falling to sleep during this 2020 routine inversion. And I'm retired.
My mind would get so busy laying there thinking thru events/life that it would keep me awake.

Spent a bunch of time researching (non-drug) methods of sleep induction.
Most are based on re-directing your busy minds thoughts. Counting Sheep. Counting backwards. Doing the alphabet. A single focus distraction to teh busy mind.
What I found that finally worked for me was a mental chant. (is that meditation?)
What I finally/successfully settled on was the simple repeating chant...
don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think, don't think.
I do this in my mind, not thru my lips. I think it slowly, not rushing it.
It has the two fold tendency to supraliminal distract me from my busy thoughts as well as to subliminally tell me what to do.
Doesn't usually take more than a couple dozen repeats.

 

[berth]

I recommend playing an audiobook of any favorite author yof.

I can assert how good audio books are and putting you to sleep. It's why I don't listen to them in the car.