What do you do before bed to induce sleep?

[Murph]

My wife has had trouble falling asleep lately and I was wondering what tips you could give to help her overcome this. I don't mean what type of pills or supplements do you take, I mean what actions do you take (or refrain from) to help you fall asleep. I know some people meditate, read, pray, etc. Any advice would be appreciated. Good night!

I listen to podcasts from talk show hosts, preferably one that doesn’t have a panel of guests. The “drone” puts me to sleep in minutes.

 

[ERD50]

Nobody has mentioned the obvious pre-sleep activity. I'll refrain from directly mentioning it too, for fear of getting banned. But it makes a substantial difference, both physiologically and psychologically.

You discuss politics to fall asleep? OK, whatever works for you!

I don't think a discussion of the other topic would get anyone banned!

 

[old medic]

Comment on how wide DWs back side has gotten... go to sleep immediately but wake up with ringing ears and a headache.....

 

[WhenIsItTime]

Best trick for me is to replay a round of golf. Means it was a fun day and reimagining the round for better and usually worse get's me to sleep before I get to 18!

 

[ERD50]

Here's a really counterintuitive one that has worked for me when I needed it. Try to stay awake.

Makes no sense, right? But fighting to stay awake would make me very sleepy. Here's my method:

1) Find a dim light that you can focus on when you are lying in bed - there's usually something in a dark room that glows just a bit, something that picks up a little reflection.

2) Close your eyes half-way, while still being able to see that dim light.

Don't let your eyes fully close or fully open. I find that 'struggle' of keeping my eyes half open is like feeling on the edge of being asleep. It gets hard to keep the eyes half-open, so pretty soon, they are closed, and I'm out.

 

[jgrdarrash]

I used to have no problem sleeping. I once fell asleep standing up against the door in the New York City subway. But I was very young.
Now I’m old and have much more trouble sleeping. I usually fall asleep fairly easily, then wake up two hours later. Sometimes I get back to sleep, often I can’t. Plus, There’s always at least one or two trips to the bathroom to break it up and make it more troublesome.
Finally, I have worried for years about cognitive impairment so I work hard to keep my brain as active as I can. Unfortunately, at 3 o’clock in the morning, my monkey mind can start working overtime and I come up with 16 projects I wanna work on. if I had any brains, I get out of bed and write it all down, but I’m too lazy and tired and so I don’t and so I just lay there and go over it and over it and hope I fall asleep.

The only thing that works for me frankly is a meditative kind of thing. Repeating one word endlessly like “om ” or “one” or whatever else, in addition to focusing intently on my breathing. The combination of the two—if I force myself just to do that and block out any extraneous thoughts—usually puts me to sleep in 10 or 15 minutes. It was never this hard before, but I was never this age before. Lol

I keep post it's and a lighted pen by my bed to get any "to-dos" out of my head.

 

[Act2]

I listen to rain videos/audio.

 

[pb4uski]

Ha, ha, but sadly there is some evidence that this may be more reliable for men than for women.

IME definitely more reliable for men.

 

[street]

Comment on how wide DWs back side has gotten... go to sleep immediately but wake up with ringing ears and a headache.....

Lol! Or might never wake up. Lol

 

[pb4uski]

How about listening to presidential speeches? If that doesn't work then I don't know what would.

 

[LadyIJ]

My wife has had trouble falling asleep lately and I was wondering what tips you could give to help her overcome this. I don't mean what type of pills or supplements do you take, I mean what actions do you take (or refrain from) to help you fall asleep. I know some people meditate, read, pray, etc. Any advice would be appreciated. Good night!

We recorded old series from TVland. Shows we’ve seen before. Like King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc. we’re both usually asleep before one episode and I just click the remote off as starting to doze. It just can’t be something new or compelling!

 

[lem1955]

I exercise every day and that usually does it for me. If I overdo the activity, sometimes I need an ibuprofen PM for pain. DW uses sleep-stories. She can fall asleep wearing air pods.

 

[simple girl]

If I'm having trouble falling asleep I will go through the alphabet sequentially, thinking of something in one topic that starts with each letter. For example, types of fruit: apples, berries, cantaloupe, etc. Obviously I often have to skip Q and X!

It's harder for me to have success with this when I have early awakening, which usually is the more difficult problem for me. However, in general, if I stick to my sleep schedule I do great: TV off by 9:30, write in my journal, read something uplifting, then mask, earplugs, sound machine; hopefully lights out by around 10. Alarm set for 6 or 6:30 every day to keep myself tired enough to fall asleep well the following night.

If I sleep in or stay up late it really throws my sleep patterns off. I can't bounce back like I used to, so I'm definitely a party pooper and don't stay out late anymore if I can avoid it!