When your wide awake and cant get to sleep, whats the best way to make yourself

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   lou2212posted 12 years ago

   When your wide awake and cant get to sleep, whats the best way to make yourself fall alseep?

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   ThompsonPenposted 12 years ago

   Mediation is a good way to ease the mind and bring it back to a relaxed state. Also, getting up and finding another activity to do, even if it is for ten minutes. BUt being up and out of your room will take the pressure off you to HAVE TO go to sleep, and just allows you to get there when you go back to bed. Chamomile and lavender are also very good for relaxing the mind.
   Not to self promote, but I actually just published a hub on sleep a couple days ago: http://thompsonpen.hubpages.com/hub/Imp … -Restfully
   Nutrition and daily habits can lend a heavy hand in one's sleep patterns as well, and I'm not just talking about exercise during the day. How close your last alcoholic beverage was to the time you go to sleep can effect the quality of sleep you get, as can your regular sleep schedule too.

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   nanderson500posted 12 years ago

   The best way that I know is just to try to stay awake. Sometimes I can't sleep so I grab a book and start reading. Ironically, now that I'm trying to stay awake to read, I fall asleep. I usually wake up the next morning with the book still open next to me.

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      ThompsonPenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with that! As soon as I tell myself that I'm going to say, stay up and work on editing something, or read a book, or plan my next day my eyelids just drop.

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   Richard Perazzoposted 12 years ago

   I have three things that I'll do. First one is I'll get into the most comfortable position that I can, close my eyes, and begin counting. Just regular counting from 1 till whenever you fall asleep. Most of the time I'll wake up the next morning and never even remember how far into the counting I got. Not sure if this will work for everyone but it can't hurt to try.
   Second thing that I'll do, if the counting doesn't seem to work or if I just feel that I'm too wide awake is that I'll starting reading whatever book I've been reading. This normally relaxes me and I'll start dozing off while reading.
   Lastly, which I mostly use when I have class the next day so I can go to bed early, is I'll drink a cup of sleepy time tea with honey. After about a half hour I'm ready to sleep.

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      Ruby H Roseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Oh yes, sleepy tea works wonders for me too.

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   Phelckyposted 12 years ago

   Sometimes I have a very hard time falling asleep, it's usually because I tend to think too much. What I do is to listen to some soft music or focus on the wind or rain. The thing that helps me most is to focus on a sound, to block out the thoughts.

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   duffsmomposted 12 years ago

   I listen to audiobooks and it seems as soon as I get to a riveting point in the story, I am sound asleep.

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      Ruby H Roseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Audiobooks are meditation to me, I love them, but I can't listen to them in the car anymore because yes, they are wonderful to help me sleep!

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   bridalletterposted 12 years ago

   Get back up and do a few more things. That is what I do when I didn't really wear myself out enough before bedtime.
   
   Drink a cup of bedtime tea and start relaxing my mind at the same time. When your mind is in overdrive, it is hard to stop it sometimes. If something is bothering me, I start working through some solutions and that seems to ease those thoughts.
   
   If I really can't sleep and really need to. I have taken a sleep aide. But that is truly a last resort and only occasionally.
   
   Maybe your room needs a little redesigning for comfort and relaxation? More Zen, no tv. Surround yourself with things you love that still fall in the relaxing catagory. Fresh clean sheets and fluffed bed are easy to do and maybe a little relaxing sounds playing if you don't like it completely quiet.

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   kristyleannposted 12 years ago

   I don't have very many ideas for how to make yourself fall asleep when you can't, but there are things I try to do BEFORE it gets to that point lol, but then again, I am prone to have trouble sleeping anyway (but I have bipolar disorder so that is probably why).
   
   I've read that you should try to turn off tv, computer, etc. (basically anything that emits light) as early as possible because the light can prevent your body from releasing melatonin (one of the chemicals that makes you fall asleep). That actually seems to work fairly well for me when I can actually force myself to stop using the computer and/or TV a few hours before I go to bed lol...and other than that I try to do all the "typical" stuff they say to do or not do... Avoid caffeine, don't exercise too close to your bed time, etc.
   
   But on the nights I just absolutely can't seem to sleep sometimes I try to lay perfectly still with my arms down by my side and concentrate on nothing but breathing and I'll try to imagine all the stress of the day flowing out of my body through my arms and legs with each breath. Sounds super cheesy lol, I know, but a psychologist told me to try that once and it works pretty well.
   
   And I don't know why, but sometimes I can put the TV on one of the home shopping channels and if they are talking about jewelry they usually do it in such a soft, monotone way and just listening to them puts me into a super relaxed state of mind and then I fall asleep...but I usually only do that on days when I need to go to sleep but I know I don't have to get up early. I think sometimes my mind gets hyper and I feel like I should be "doing something" even though I need to relax and/or sleep. I think for some reason listening to the those people talk makes my mind feel like I'm doing something but it's just boring enough that I can fall asleep. lol

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   petenaliposted 12 years ago

   Start praying - the devil will soon put you to sleep if he knows you are doing serious damage in the spiritual realm!

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    Hawkesdreamposted 10 years ago

    I have always found that the best way to guarantee sleep is to try and stay awake.  I know that you are wide awake but your body and mind are tired and need to sleep. Just lie warm and relaxed in your bed and consciously try to stay awake. You will be asleep in no time at all.

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    Penny Gposted 10 years ago

    I think reading is very helpful, as well as praying. I have prayed myself to sleep many nights. I don't mean praying about sleep but about those I love the worlds problems act.

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    Maximum Aposted 10 years ago

    It's so difficult to fall asleep when your mind is still active and wide awake. What I just do is daydream (sort of, only at night? lol) and imagine a story going on in my head. Usually, I just fall asleep before I know it, and sometimes the daydream gets continued in my actual (night) dreams

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    Rhea Wardhaughposted 10 years ago

    What I do when I can't sleep is read a book. It doesn't have to have action or anything like that. It can be slow but the point is it will give your stressed and over worked mind something else to work on so you can calm down enough for sleep. Or even watch a movie that has no action in it. My favorite movie to watch before bed is Pride and Prejudice. With Judy Dench in it. It's slow and comforting. Then again I love any movie that is set in that era. That or think of sleep and keep thinking of it. I wind up waking the next day and wondering when I'd fallen asleep but happy that I finally had.

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    Maggie Bonhamposted 10 years ago

    Counting backwards from 1000 does it for me.

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    bettersleepproposted 7 years ago

    I agree with Nicola on meditation. Just focusing on your breathing can make a huge difference in how quickly you fall asleep. Another one I like a lot is listening to podcasts. Something about trying to pay attention to a story while I'm in bed puts me to sleep. This even works (for me) when it's something really interesting like the Serial podcast series. It really works well if you can find something that's a little boring. Some of the history podcasts out there have put me well under (no offense to any historians out there...).

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