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What do you do when you wake up in the middle of the night, go answer the call of nature, go to fall asleep and find yourself still trying to return to sleep, an hour later?

I tend to notice that my (and I only speak for myself here) vision becomes more adjusted to the darkness. As such, I can see everything in my apartment - every light, led and window gape letting in light which then keeps me up. I've gone to lengths such as putting masking tape over my Tivo face and coloring on the tape in black Sharpie so that it dulls the lights. That helps keep the room dark for me..

Also I have a bed without a headboard.. I dunno if this is an option for all, but when I find myself rolling around for an hour or more trying to return to sleep, I find it a last ditch (maybe I should do it sooner) effort to invert my sleeping style.. that is, I turn myself around so that my feet are where my head was, and my head is where my feet were. (and I'm not talking about just moving UNDER the blankets, I turn the blankets around with me too, course they are not tied / tucked in to the sides of the bed either) Confuses my brain enough to tire it out more figuring out where I am positioned, I guess, and then I can sleep again.

I know others try warm milk.. I've tried that when I was a teenager, until I found that the sugar I would put in it to sweeten it up would actually make me wide awake.

What are other ways you use to get back to sleep?

Once I am asleep I usually stay asleep (or at least am able to roll over and dose back off relatively quickly) but my real problem is making myself go to bed in the first place. Usually I am tired but I just can't get myself to go to bed and it has always been like that. My mind would rather be doing nothing awake than to be asleep. I just feel like sleep is a waste even when I know it isn't. I personally think my problem stems from many different areas some that I could fix if I wanted to such as keeping my laptop right next to my bed. But others I feel will be with me for awhile. One of the things is growing up my parents slept all the time and it annoyed me cause I felt they were wasting there lives away in bed unconscious.


So I think part of me fears somehow falling into the same pattern as my parents so I end up staying up late. Now I have gotten decent at getting around 7 hours of sleep but at times where my mind is really over loaded I end up dropping to around 4-5 hours of sleep at night. Now I have always had my mind constantly running (my family and friends have often compared my mind to a hamster on a wheel constantly running) but I usually can shut my mind down enough to get some decent sleep but as I said if I start to get a brain overload and can't stop pondering about certain aspect of my life I end up having a hard time sleeping.


Now as far as things that I do to help me is I take a hot shower and than try to go on the computer for a half hour or so ( I must admit though this sometimes leads me to being up very late since I can't get myself to turn off the laptop ) I also try putting some white noise on in the background such as ambiance music or maybe an audio book that I have already listened to but still enjoy. Sometimes if it gets really late i will try to throw a documentary on and that sometimes helps but like the computer it can keep me up to late as well.


I hope something in all that helped but in case it didn't which it most likely did not I hope you the best of luck in your search for some sleep.

If tonight is any indication, I sit at my computer and watch a good chunk of season two of Castle.

If I want to go to sleep, then I'll play a game on my phone that requires a tiny bit of thinking (so I stop myself from thinking about anything else) but not so much thinking that it keeps me awake. I usually get very sleepy this way.

If i'm really having trouble falling asleep I will start reading until get to point where I feel tired enough that I can get back to sleep

Reading. No question. Something novel form, not comic/manga. I know I'm ready to re-fall asleep after the words begin to blend together and lose meaning.

I've finished most of my Warcraft novels that way so far.

1. read
2. get out of bed for 30 minutes to an hour.
3. count sheep. but go for full immersion imagining of a lush, green Scottish hillside with a low stone fence..........................................wha?

I might readjust my pillows. Or I'll play some soft music sometimes. Reading a bit can help, unless I get too into it and can't put it down.

I've never been able to do the music thing. If there is ANY noise what so ever, I cannot sleep.

The rustling of leaves, a fan "clicking", my cat running around, music, ANYTHING.

Ex: Cat was running all over the room/master bath at 2:30am. So I grabbed him by his collar, walked across the APT and locked him in the secondary bathroom.

I can't believe no one mentioned fapping and/or liquor.

Fapping = energy/blood pumping feeling. You would probably not be able to sleep for another good half hour afterward.

Liquor? It'd take a good 30+minutes of drinking/letting it hit your system.

Both don't seem very quick.

Shegokigo said:

Fapping = energy/blood pumping feeling. You would probably not be able to sleep for another good half hour afterward.

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I find masturbation before sleeping to be pretty relaxing actually.

I think that could be the reason that guys tend to roll over and fall asleep after sex.

It's true what they say... Women are from Omicron Persei 7, men are from Omicron Persei 9.

Gravol.

Yeah there's no way I could fall asleep afterward. I'm so pumped and full of energy, takes at least 30minutes to get down from the high.

sixpackshaker said:

I think that could be the reason that guys tend to roll over and fall asleep after sex.

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That tidbit really sucks, if you are driving.

Shegokigo said:

Yeah there's no way I could fall asleep afterward. I'm so pumped and full of energy, takes at least 30minutes to get down from the high.

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While there is no standard between genders due to everyone being different, some males (meaning all the ones I know well enough to discuss such things with) tend to have a massive drop in blood pressure after orgasm, and generally leads to a feeling of sleepy times now.

A guy fapping to go to sleep is pretty common.

The more you know...

Alternate answer: Benadryl and whisky.

Handfuls of melatonin pills.

I go play video games on my PC or phone until I feel bored/tired and go back to sleep

-White noise (we have a HEPA filter. I'll run to blot out the traffic)
-When necessary, Benadryl (or other source of Diphenhydramine HCL, sometimes I'll go with Doxylamine Succinate (NyQuil)), either with alcohol help or not. Takes about half an hour before the drowsiness kicks in, and I usually feel extra dry in the morning, hence the infrequent use.
-Mind games (I will often free-associate myself to sleep, forcing myself to jump from semi-related thought to semi-related thought* without pausing. This keeps me from dwelling on anything in particular and tying up my brain)
-Start listing out my chores. Nothing makes me go, "So, being awake means I have extra free time to clean the litterbox? Wash the dishes? Vacuum the living room? Ugh. I'm going back to bed." Sometimes it works.

--Patrick
*I try to make sure I don't stay on any subject for too long, either. "Chandeliers (we have one over the bed). Right. That reminds me of Phantom of the Opera. Right. That reminds me of that episode of Night Court. Right. That reminds me of Harry Anderson doing magic on The Tonight Show. Right. That reminds me of Jay Leno. Right. That reminds me of maglev wind generators. Right ......." And on, and on. Eventually I will realize that I've been keeping track on my fingers and am all the way up to the 14th finger on my third arm or something else similarly unreal that lets me know I'm working my way into dreamland, and then I'll finally relax the rest of the way to sleep because I've realized it's working.

I have a doctor's recommendation for medical marijuana FOR insonmia.
Works for me.

I start out by drinking either warm milk and honey or tea and then lying down and relaxing (or reading). If that doesn't work after 15-20 minutes or so, I try to get some work done. Sometimes I just accept that I'm not going to sleep and work through the night. Then I sleep REALLY well the next night.

I force myself to keep my eyes wide and staring at one spot in the ceiling.

At some point my brain shuts down, I guess, and i fall asleep.

The major downside is that this apparently causes me to get the 'old hag' really bad.

M-m-m-m-m-masturbation!

Reading usually works for me. Or I'll play my DS for a little bit... sometimes that just keeps me up even later though, depending on the game!