No pharmaceutical aids preferably
I try to practice the Bengston Healing Method. I still can’t even come up with 20 things to visualize in the cycle and fall asleep before I think of them.
Just eat a loaf of banana bread and a pint of ice cream. It works, but it’ll cost you a toe each time because of the sugar-blood. But that’s still 10 free nights of sleep paralysis and diarrhea.
Easy. I keep a copy of “Medicare & You” to read before going to sleep on my nightstand. Not even 5 pages in so far this year.
I do some slow breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth, which helps lower my heart rate a little.
Then I have some go to scenes to imagine. Usually it’s imagining myself on a beach, lying comfortably on the sand (maybe with a book and a cocktail), focusing on the sounds of the waves lapping on the shore. That tends to relax me
I get up, make coffee and have breakfast. Sounds strange maybe, but it works.
Progressive muscle relaxation. I’m not sure if it’s the actions I take or that it’s enough to keep my mind on but kind of boring.
Eating something potato related. It has to be real potato though. Mashed potatoes or baked potatoes seem to make me pretty sleepy.
Relax each muscle one by one, slow breathing.
Melatonin is kind of a gray area between pharmaceutical and not, so I’m going to mention it. Feel free to ignore me if it’s still a bridge too far. That said, it sounds like your body may just not be producing enough melatonin. It’s the sleep hormone that you produce naturally. I try to be pretty conservative with it, because taking a hormone supplement too frequently can cause your body to stop producing enough, but if your body already isn’t producing enough, you may not have much to lose.
Either sex or masterbait. I fall asleep fairly quick after.
Shitty answer: Benedryl. The next morning doesn’t go well.
Real answer: What you don’t do is lay in bed and try to sleep, your mind will just keep going. Do something low impact. Read a magazine or book, nothing that evokes a fear, anger, or excited response. I read social media feeds I have constructed to weed out the ragebait and doomer crap. Mostly tech stuff. I use a red light filter so the screen doesn’t keep me going.
weed
Too right. I’ve only gotten high a few times, but when I do, I barely experience it because I fall asleep so quickly.
start day dreaming/meditation
if im restless i will go for a walk around the block.
glass of water/small snack
open the window
socks on/off
masturbate/get laid.
I also do most of these. Day dreaming is a hard no as its often why i can’t sleep. Wiill walk around inside of my house instead of the block. And never wear socks to bed. Could see random things like that helping for other people though.
I start by meditating, clearing all thought, and concentrating on how it feels to breathe. I definitely wouldn’t stay in bed if its been more than 15-20 mins. Clear sign to me something needs to change for some amount of time. The frustration would start to grow where it would become its own issue I’d have to overcome.
Having something to listen to is key for me. It gives a racing ADHD mind something to focus on so that I kinda fall asleep without noticing.
I have a cheap random brand of sleep mask that has built in bluetooth headphones, and it is great.
I’ve been able to fall asleep anywhere, anytime for most of my life. Last year or so something flipped. I’ve taken to listening to audiobooks or history podcasts or lowkey videos of, like, watchmaking or book binding. Have a Bluetooth thing under my pillow and if I focus on visualizing the story or activity I will fall asleep instead of replaying some shitty thing that happened to me this week. Or 20 years ago. Or might happen tomorrow. Or what someone thinks about something I thought about. Or that thing I need to remember to do but know I won’t.
Oh man, I use the hell out of those things. They’re wonderful
Learning to chill/meditate is quite helpful, but can take a long time.
I’ve found the ‘military sleep method’ to be very helpful as well. The version I found years ago, had you tense up each body area before relaxing it, but the links I found now mentioned none of that.
