What do you guys do when you cant sleep?

What rituals/things/stuff do you guys do to fall asleep? I've had a mad crazy level of endurance lately at being awake. It's getting old....fast. What do you guys do to sleep?

Count very slowly from ten, as in counting down by each number in between each breath. having a turkey sandwich before bed time is good too. They also say making sure you bed is just a place for sleeping and "enjoying the company of others ". One other thing I do is that I make sure that I do not have any caffeinated drinks after lunch time. Hope some of this helps.

Caffeine after lunch will wreck my chances of getting to sleep for hours after my normal bedtime.

In general, get up early, have a full, active day, treat people right. Sleep comes pretty easy.

If I really can't get to sleep (happens once in a while), sometimes I'll get out of bed and read what you loonies are posting here. That usually does the trick!

Take some melatonin about an hour before going to bed

If I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep, I will get up and slowly walk to the kitchen sink. Pour myself some water. Drink it slowly then slowly walk back to bed. Works everytime. But that only works if you've already been sleeping...

Routine. Routine. Routine. Go to bed at the same time, get up at the same time, don;t sleep in on the weekends. No caffeine after lunch, no working on a problem right up till bedtime.

lol...I have caffeine with dinner almost every night...I still sleep like a rock.

If I cant sleep, I usually take things apart in my mind that Im familiar with - usually bicycle hubs or my cars calipers etc...specifically noting things like washers or the tools I use. The step by step logical mechanicality of it usually will put me to sleep in 5-10 minutes.

I find that if I can't sleep a couple ounces of a good single malt will put me over the edge.

When all else fails, 3mg of melatonin can work wonders.

while I am a light sleeper (most everything wakes me up) getting to or back to sleep has never been an issue

+3 on the melatonin. Works every time for me. And it was reccommended by my kids' doctor for them to use, so I'm not worried about side effects or anything.

No caffene after noon, run/hike/bike or something for atleast 1hr every day, more if I can get away with it. No food for at least 2hrs before I sleep. When I have trouble at all - I read to pass the time and usually wake up slobbering on the book.

In reply to miataman86:

Night time cold medicine.

If I can't fall asleep, it usually means there is an issue I have to work through in my head. Once I have a solution to whatever is "bothering" me, I am out like a light. Recently, it has been my company merger, and it's relation to my finances. No real solution yet, thus, really hard to go back to sleep. And the wife is a super light sleeper, so I really can't get up and do other things. Sucks.

For me, it's not sleeping in on the weekends. If I do it screws my internal clock up for a few days so I'm up by ~6:15 pretty much every day. I also don't hit the bed before 10 pm, it's usually closer to 11. I usually have to whiz once during the night, usually ~2:30 AM but when I get back in the bed I go right back to sleep. Occasionally if something bothers me and wakes or keeps me up, there's not a helluva lot I can do except try to empty my mind (hold the wisecracks! ) and see if I can go back to sleep.

AHA! So it's Melatonin that helps you sleep. All this time I've been taking Mescaline. It doesn't help me sleep, but I did acheive total enlightenment while starting at the reflection of myself within the reflection of my eyeball in the mirror once. So I got that goin for me.

HunterJP wrote: If I can't fall asleep, it usually means there is an issue I have to work through in my head. Once I have a solution to whatever is "bothering" me, I am out like a light. Recently, it has been my company merger, and it's relation to my finances. No real solution yet, thus, really hard to go back to sleep. And the wife is a super light sleeper, so I really can't get up and do other things. Sucks.

If you're wife is a light sleeper, do her a favor and get out of bed if you can't sleep. That's what I have to do when I can't sleep, I go lay on the couch so I don't keep both of us up.

Have another beer

poopshovel wrote: AHA! So it's Melatonin that helps you sleep. All this time I've been taking Mescaline. It doesn't help me sleep, but I did acheive total enlightenment while starting the the reflection of myself within the reflection of my eyeball in the mirror once. So I got that goin for me.

The vomiting can tire you out though... so it might have been a good experiment.

Watch reruns of Top Gear USA....

I have a political science text book. When I want to sleep but can't, I read a few pages and miraculously get sleepy.

JohnRW1621 wrote:

ftw

RossD wrote: If I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep...

I have no problem falling asleep - it's when I wake at 3:30am upset about something that happened that day. So I go downstairs, look outside, and then lay on the couch and watch crappy TV. Usually an hour later I turn it off and sleep the rest of the night on the couch.

For some reason the back of the couch provides nice support for my back.

I never have trouble falling asleep, but I often fall asleep when I don't want to by watching documentaries.