I’m looking for the pharmaceutical aids honestly. I regular have a problem where I’ll go to bed and simply lie awake the entire night. It’s caused by stress at work (I’m an architect). I will go to bed at the usual time, miss my sleep window or something, and then if I haven’t fallen asleep within the first 45-60 minutes then I just know that’s it, I’m not sleeping that night. It happens once or twice a month when I’m really stressed and just can’t stop replaying things I need to do or emails I need to send or big meetings that I have the next day.

So yes, it’s time for pharmaceutical aids

What I find really, really, helps is jumping on the bed until you hit your head on the ceiling and just pass the fuck out wherever you land.

I see all the usual advice was already given so I’ll skip right to the weird things that work for me: I lie on my belly with my face resting on my palm so that the base of the thumb gently presses on one of the eyes (right hand on the left side of the face or vice versa). The pressure makes me sleepy almost immediately.

At the same time I think about some detailed but impractical project, anything I’d like to make but cannot immediately start. I think about the tiniest details until I fell tired. The goal is not to try to fall asleep and not to think of anything that would require action/attention, and also not to dwell on anything unpleasant. I usually fall asleep under 5 minutes.

Warm drinks, cool room, heavy blankets and no screens or bright light for ~1h before

Sometimes if my thoughts are getting loud it takes longer

The best thing you can do is five hours before going to bed, making sure you get enough exercise and avoid caffeine.

Other than that, I have a routine of stretching and reading before bed, so usually just doing that puts me out.

Failing that, I used to have really bad insomnia, and one thing I would remind myself is that even just laying awake in bed is a kind of rest, and even if you don’t sleep you can kind of drift off into a reverie here and there.

Related, I find having something enjoyable to think about as I close my eyes is fun and distracting. For me that’s creative stuff like writing stories, designing games, or making game levels in my head.

1. Lifestyle change: exercise often so your body actually gets tired.
2. If it’s already late: go for a night walk.

The sleep with me podcast.

The way the host talks makes actually following along at low volume very difficult but it’s still engaging enough to keep my mind from wandering to racing sorts of places. It puts me out nearly every time I try it.

Shove my husband and tell him to stop snoring.

I pay attention to my feet and feel that they are asleep, then my calves, and so on until I feel like my whole body is asleep.

Count backwards from 100 in Spanish in my head, or think about slowly descending through the color wheel from a bright loud red then orange, down through yellow, to green, blue, sleepy deep purple.

Also - don’t get in bed until you are sleepy. Exercise during the day. Yin Yoga before bed.

Alphabet game.

Start withAa, think the first word beginning with A that comes to mind.

Go to B and stay on topic this time.

Keep going till you fall asleep.

"A… Albatross (so birds) B… Bluejay. C… Coocoo…"try to be specific but going general is ok too. If you can’t think of something on topic start the next topic from there and move on. Don’t dwell, don’t think too hard.

This almost always works. If not, I get up and go do something mindless until I get eepy.

I used to struggle with this. What worked for me was waking at 5am and then being active all day.

When I can’t sleep I play the “alphabet game” in my head: I pick a random subject. Can be anything really, doesn’t have to be something I am an expert in. The other night it was “things associated with either the Commodore 64 or the Amiga”. Then I think about a fitting thing for each letter of the alphabet, from A to Z.

Sounds weird, but it works for me 99% of the time. I actually made it to Z without falling asleep only once in my whole life. In that case you can still pick a new subject and start again at A.

Keeps your head occupied in a good way.

Caffeine the next day. Not trying to be funny or facetious. It’s actually what I do.

That’s the neat thing, you don’t.