In general staying away from caffeine, and use Redshift software on the computer screen. Then when I can’t sleep, listening to relaxing piano music or Binaural Beats (F-Droid app) and taking a little bit of CBD oil sometimes works wonders for me.
If I can’t sleep, I’ll read for 1-2 hours (or sometimes 3) until I get tired. Happens every 3-4 nights. I’ll try not to worry about it too much. If the body needs sleep, then it will take it.
Observe if caffeine plays a role, you can eg. avoid it after lunch or after dinner - whatever works for you & your body.
Late Evening
Avoid cold (bluer) colour lighting & use warm (redder) colour lighting from late evening until bed. This is important and melatonin effectiveness is directly controlled by this 1. To put it very very simply, we’ve evolved for redder light = sunset->sleep, bluer = day->awake. Angle of the light can also play a role if you want to go deeper into it.
Schedule blue light filters on your phone & computers. Should be standard on modern phones & use something like f.lux for computer 2.
Before Bed
Avoid alcohol, lots of sugar or sugary drinks for at least an hour or so before bed.
Some other otc/“natural” sleep aids to consider: l-tryptophan, valarian, hops, passion flower, chammomile. There’s some ‘complex’ products which are basically derived from these kinds of things eg. 3. [Always check anything you take for possible interactions with eachother or medication you’re on].
Supplements like magnesium can help reduce effects of muscle tension.
Ensure any herbal teas or other foods, drinks etc don’t contain more caffeine than you’d planned for. eg. some chocolates contain caffeine.
Showering or bathing just before bed can help you relax.
In Bed
Once in bed, don’t keep looking at the clock or keep trying to calculate how many hours of sleep you can get.
No work/study/planning thoughts. As @sproid said, identify and then free your mind of any thought patterns which keep your mind going. Resolve to address them at another time.
Is temperature or air flow effecting you? Some people find an oscillating fan can help regulate the airflow & temperature, and the repetition can be soothing.
Are sounds keeping you alert or waking you up? Consider fan, white noise machine or rain sounds 4. You can adjust the EQ to mask specific problem sounds, eg. bass for thumps, mids/high for clatter or voices etc.
Is light making problems? eg. light from electronics in standby mode, light coming through or around edges of windows, other lights in the house? Identify and cover them or your eyes as needed. Remember blue light is not your friend at this time, blue LEDs might look nice but can mess with the brain chemistry of sleep 1
Avoid looking at phone screen once you’re in bed, if you need to adjust volume use buttons with your eyes still closed.
Sound
Falling asleep to sounds can sometimes help. Different people like different things on different occasions: music, YT, movies, TV, audio books, ambient soundtracks (rainforest, crackling fire), even boring monotone talking can be good. Avoid any ads if streaming or TV as they’re designed to grab your attention.
There are music genres almost designed for sleep, various ambient genres can be great especially if they employ low frequency variations and alpha, theta and delta wave type transitions 5. There’s a bit of bs around this, but also some legit bio-entrainment science too. In general find what works for you.
If listening, consider using your phone & use a sleep timer app on your phone to automatically gradually lower the volume and switch off after a scheduled time, this can help avoid being woken up by it later in the night. Find the timer periods which work for you. Also ensure your alarm will still wake you.
If the sun is up or there’s light outside, close your curtains
Sleep time:
Make sure to shower before bed
Make sure to wash your hair at least every 3 days
Make sure to brush your teeth before bed
Do not use your phone in bed. At all. Zero.
From the moment you’ve reached consciousness until the time you get out of bed in the morning should be <15 seconds
Once you get these nailed down, start training yourself with white noise. Any time you feel like you can fall asleep quickly, turn the whitenoise on. It trains your body like magic. Build up whitenoise habits over 2-3 months into more and more uncomfortable nights until you fall asleep with whitenoise every day. Keep this up for 6+ months. At this point, you will be able to turn whitenoise on and fall asleep in 30-60 seconds guaranteed, regardless of how sick/uncomfortable you are, and you can throw out half the things mentioned above (although you’ll probably want to keep them)
I like to put YouTube on my phone, but not watch the video. I’ll pick a longer video and set my phone on my end table with the screen off/down. I keep it just quiet enough that I can hear it over my fan and my own rustling noises. Sometimes though I just can’t get to sleep on time and that’s whatever. Note: I don’t take melatonin or any sleeping supplements.
I like to watch random videos in bed. Steve1989’s channel on YouTube is great because its interesting and gets my mind off of things, he reviews vintage MRE rations.
don’t use any screen an hour prior to going to bed.
make sure you’re comfortable (temperature, light, sounds, mattress)
every night make a list on paper of all the things that worries you both consciously and subconsciously. Don’t know what are your subconscious worries? Speak with a therapist. Deal with whatever thing you need to do before bed, if nothing urgent, then declare to your mind that you will work on them the next day or in the future since your only job right then is to sleep.
In general staying away from caffeine, and use Redshift software on the computer screen. Then when I can’t sleep, listening to relaxing piano music or Binaural Beats (F-Droid app) and taking a little bit of CBD oil sometimes works wonders for me.
deleted by creator
If I can’t sleep, I’ll read for 1-2 hours (or sometimes 3) until I get tired. Happens every 3-4 nights. I’ll try not to worry about it too much. If the body needs sleep, then it will take it.
General
Late Evening
Before Bed
In Bed
Sound
Falling asleep to sounds can sometimes help. Different people like different things on different occasions: music, YT, movies, TV, audio books, ambient soundtracks (rainforest, crackling fire), even boring monotone talking can be good. Avoid any ads if streaming or TV as they’re designed to grab your attention.
There are music genres almost designed for sleep, various ambient genres can be great especially if they employ low frequency variations and alpha, theta and delta wave type transitions 5. There’s a bit of bs around this, but also some legit bio-entrainment science too. In general find what works for you.
If listening, consider using your phone & use a sleep timer app on your phone to automatically gradually lower the volume and switch off after a scheduled time, this can help avoid being woken up by it later in the night. Find the timer periods which work for you. Also ensure your alarm will still wake you.
References
1 https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article-abstract/88/9/4502/2845835
2 https://justgetflux.com/
3 https://www.flordis.com.au/products/redormin-forte/
4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JyE47-Ykjo [Download rather than stream to avoid interrupts/ads during the night.]
5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroencephalography#Wave_patterns
Man… You wrote this here, for lemmy comment? That’s a lot of work…
Love these tips. To add on:
Environment:
Sleep time:
Once you get these nailed down, start training yourself with white noise. Any time you feel like you can fall asleep quickly, turn the whitenoise on. It trains your body like magic. Build up whitenoise habits over 2-3 months into more and more uncomfortable nights until you fall asleep with whitenoise every day. Keep this up for 6+ months. At this point, you will be able to turn whitenoise on and fall asleep in 30-60 seconds guaranteed, regardless of how sick/uncomfortable you are, and you can throw out half the things mentioned above (although you’ll probably want to keep them)
I go on YouTube, Discord, Lemmy (and sometimes Reddit) and it DOES NOT HELP! Hope that helps!
I like to put YouTube on my phone, but not watch the video. I’ll pick a longer video and set my phone on my end table with the screen off/down. I keep it just quiet enough that I can hear it over my fan and my own rustling noises. Sometimes though I just can’t get to sleep on time and that’s whatever. Note: I don’t take melatonin or any sleeping supplements.
I like to watch random videos in bed. Steve1989’s channel on YouTube is great because its interesting and gets my mind off of things, he reviews vintage MRE rations.