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GAF, how do you sleep at night?

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If I started a game of League of Legends, I can't sleep until I at least win once, which can take a looooooong time. ;[
 
Something that's worked for me sometimes is focusing on "black"...as in you're laying there in the dark with your eyes closed and you force yourself to only think about the darkness in front of your eyes. It's kind of hard to explain. Just focus on the empty void of darkness "in front of" you and don't let your mind wander off to any other topics.

That's the key, you're forcing yourself to think of one simple thing and not other topics like work or life.

Focus on the color (or lack thereof) of pure blackness. Since your eyes are closed, there's an infinite amount of black space in front of you.

You're not really "thinking" about the darkness, but rather just keeping your focus on it. If this is difficult you can repeat the word "black" over and over in your head until it becomes natural. The point of the exercise is to think about one topic (black) and nothing else. Since thinking only about blackness is kind of boring and doesn't require any brainpower, eventually you'll just fall asleep.
 
I'm like you, OP. But I've fixed it, to a large degree. It'll never be perfect, and I'll never fall asleep before midnight, but I'm much better at getting a good night's sleep, almost every night.

One of the keys is not only to do the right things once you get in bed, but to do the right things beforehand. These nightly routines have changed everything for me, and did so pretty quickly...

Shut off your TV, computer, or mobile device about an hour before sleeping. That extra stimuli can get your brain ratcheted up. If I'm playing a tense videogame, I stop it a couple hours before bed, otherwise I'll be reliving the game as I try to fall asleep.

Do some simple stretching for about 10-20 minutes at some point in that hour before going to bed. Not only will the stretching help you sleep, but this gives your mind some time to go over all the things that would otherwise keep you awake in bed.

When stretching, I sort through all the things from the current day and the next day to come. I don't do anything else. No talking, no checking email/Facebook/Twitter, nothing. Just stretch and think -- or don't think. By the time I'm done, I won't be worried about what happened or what's to come.

It's not for everyone, but I often have a tiny snack (e.g., half a mini-bagel with some peanut butter) in the hour before bed. If I'm hungry, I can't sleep. And I have pretty light dinners, so I would be hungry without a snack.

And, if nothing else helps, you can always take some advice from Ernest Borgnine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I_PeLNzxNQ

Good luck!
 
Korey said:
Something that's worked for me sometimes is focusing on "black"...as in you're laying there in the dark with your eyes closed and you force yourself to only think about the darkness in front of your eyes. It's kind of hard to explain. Just focus on the empty void of darkness "in front of" you and don't let your mind wander off to any other topics.

That's the key, you're forcing yourself to think of one simple thing and not other topics like work or life.

Focus on the color (or lack thereof) of pure blackness. Since your eyes are closed, there's an infinite amount of black space in front of you.

You're not really "thinking" about the darkness, but rather just keeping your focus on it. If this is difficult you can repeat the word "black" over and over in your head until it becomes natural. The point of the exercise is to think about one topic (black) and nothing else. Since thinking only about blackness is kind of boring and doesn't require any brainpower, eventually you'll just fall asleep.
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Interesting. I am going to give this a try.

Also, Flyover thanks for your suggestions also.
 
On my side, with the radio on very low. I like to read if I can, but I find I'm too tired and too worried about getting up in the morning on weeknights.
 
Wish that I could give some suggestions, but I struggle with the same thing. Luckily for me it seems to be some odd intermittent thing. Basically one week out of every 5 or so I'll struggle really badly with sleeping. Lie in bed, eyes keep popping open, brain won't shut off, rain on the roof drives me crazy. And as of now I pretty much just suffer through that week on low sleep. Kinda wonder about a genetic component of some type since my mom has the same intermittent sleep problems issue.

On the plus side as a dad I do enjoy having the quiet house to myself for a couple of hours a night when these bouts hit. Nice to actually have time to read a book or play a game for a little bit (actually pretty much my only gaming time aside from the bus these days).
 
I dread the day that the three hours of sleep I get a night will no longer be enough for me to function properly. Especially since I can't see myself managing to get more.
 
Usually spooning with wife then eventually stomach/side during some point in the night. I have woken up upside down quite a few times before. Always wondered what happened.
 
Shower early, turn off PC, browse GAF and reddit hours before bed to get it out of my system, put phone away, zzzzzzzzz.
 
On a bed made of money
smugdon.png
 
Well I'm getting ready to put my phone on the dock and lay down to try and sleep. Tonight I'm going to imagine 'black'. And allow myself to fade off into it. Besides this post I've stayed away from screens and have read a book for the past hour instead. To reduce the visual stimulus of TV as also suggested earlier. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Goodnight GAF, hopefully.
 
I sleep on my side. If I sleep on my back I've noticed myself waking up because I can't breathe. I know that's called something, sleep apnia maybe? But I don't know why I have it because I'm the opposite of overweight and I don't have any lung/breathing issues. Meh.

I'm starting to get costochondritis (where the joints in your sternum get swollen/inflamed) though. It was bad one morning, went to the doctor to take anti-inflammatories...but now it's come back occasionally. It hurts really bad.
 
5mg of Melatonin and staying away from artifical light a few minutes before I sleep.

Best decision I ever made. Completely reversed my horrid sleeping.
 
I only go to bed when I am exhausted. Doing that has solved a lot of sleep issues I had and stops the random mind fucks.
 
Usually from 9 at night to 5 in the morning and I sleep incredibly. But since I've been staying up really late the past few weeks, I've only been getting around 5 hours of sleep a night. I'm fine with that, but I take a long time to fall asleep when I stay up this late, and I toss and turn.
 
I get in the bed. Then I get my favorite pillow. Then I rub up on it like, all sexual. Then I talk to it "Hey, baby, you like that rod? You like that hardness?" Then I watch some T-V. Sometimes its the black channel, other times its the various white channels. Then I jizz on my favorite pillow, without a condom. The crust is a must!
 
I just remember to relax, i mean really let go of your body, like let your shoulders go, your head. We're always tense to some degree, think about relaxing, lose your muscles, i do that and i fall sleep almost instantly after that, if i forget to do it it can take more than an hour in bed before i can manage to sleep.
 
Fritz said:
Another little trick that helps me: Shower my feet and legs up to the knees with cold water, do not dry them and then just get the fuck under the blanket. I dont know why but it often helps. probably just another routine that tells your brain to switch the fuck off cause its sleeping time now.
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I have to do that during summers. If my feet get too hot, I can't stop moving them when I try sleeping. If my feet are cold, then I can sleep easily.

Pretty weird.
 
I fall asleep very easily. I can fall asleep with any amount of light and most levels of noise, no problem. Sitting up, laying down (stomach, side, or back), leaning against something, basically any position besides standing up without something to support me, and I pass out within 3-5 minutes. I don't fall asleep in classes or at work though, but any time I'm on a bus, car, plane, couch, bed, comfy chair, etc.

It's a glorious power, being able to fall asleep instantly. It saves lots of time.
 
I fall asleep pretty easy most nights. Curl up with the laptop and call it quits when the internet gets boring.

I'd say it takes less than 10 minutes 95% of the time to fall asleep. Depending on what's going on in the old noggin.
 
Presently I am discovering it is very hard to fall asleep if one has a sinus infection and a sore throat. I have no idea if something like melatonin would help? This is getting pretty ridiculous.
 
I really need to stop drinking caffeine, I just started taking advantage of all the free coffee in our media center (apartment complex) and it's screwing with me big time; I used to be able to fall asleep in a 1-2 hour window, so 1am-2am, but these days I'm staying up until 5am, and 6am last night. Tonight is a bit different because we close 1am on Friday's, but it's 3am now and I'm still awake enough to enjoy music.

At this point, I'm just messing around on the computer until I feel dead tired. Fiancee has the ability to go to sleep within minutes so I'm often alone with myself for hours on end, nothing is open and all my friends are asleep.
 
Marda said:
I really need to stop drinking caffeine, I just started taking advantage of all the free coffee in our media center (apartment complex) and it's screwing with me big time; I used to be able to fall asleep in a 1-2 hour window, so 1am-2am, but these days I'm staying up until 5am, and 6am last night. Tonight is a bit different because we close 1am on Friday's, but it's 3am now and I'm still awake enough to enjoy music.

At this point, I'm just messing around on the computer until I feel dead tired. Fiancee has the ability to go to sleep within minutes so I'm often alone with myself for hours on end, nothing is open and all my friends are asleep.
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GAF is open 24/7 bro
 
perfectchaos007 said:
GAF is open 24/7 bro
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In my case, GAF's like a friend teaching me how to shoot heroin properly.


I would just turn off my laptop and try to sleep, but I know (just like the last few nights) I'll end up turning it back on in 30 minutes, so I'll just let the topics of GAF and the isolated, soft light provided by F.lux lullaby me to sleep.
 
Soka said:
I fall asleep very easily. I can fall asleep with any amount of light and most levels of noise, no problem. Sitting up, laying down (stomach, side, or back), leaning against something, basically any position besides standing up without something to support me, and I pass out within 3-5 minutes. I don't fall asleep in classes or at work though, but any time I'm on a bus, car, plane, couch, bed, comfy chair, etc.

It's a glorious power, being able to fall asleep instantly. It saves lots of time.
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I hate you.
 
I don't have a problem to get to sleep. Although I always need some kind of background noise to get to sleep (mostly some documentaries).
The problem I really have is, that I can't sleep through. I always wake up multiple times a night for no apparent reason. Although I return to sleep rather quickly, the quality of my sleeptime isn't that good so I'm kinda tired most of the days. Haven't tried medication and I'm not sure if it would be the right thing to do. But it's just so annoying. I can't even remember the last time I wasn't tired...
 
What helps for me is listening to my ipod on my headset and when I can't keep my eyes open anymore I put my ipod on paus , hold and put it away. Then I sleep like a baby. But mostly just lying in bed keeping my eyes closed works just fine enough. I takes something like a hour or maybe 2 and then I fall a sleep.
 
I was the same OP. All my life(41) I struggled to fall asleep but in the last couple of years I put my head down and I'm out in seconds. No idea why as I still have the same anxiety and stresses. I like this way much better.
 
For the most part I think I'm lucky.

I usually sleep within 30 minutes. Sometimes I end up awake for a looong time but it doesn't happen often. Sucks balls when it does though. One of the worst things.
 
When I'm tired I put on my ear plugs and go to bed, I always fall asleep in less than 3 minutes. Feels good man
 
Some people find it easier to get to sleep when there are certain kinds of noises going on in the background. You might try something like Rainymood, accompanied by some smooth Jazz. If you want to try something a little bit different, you could investigate the "ASMR" community, which essentially is a bunch of people making sounds by tapping things, scratching things, whispering into microphones etc to evoke certain feelings. Examples here and here, although sometimes you feel like you've walked in on somebody's extremely bizarre porn role play, because 90% of the videos are young women and the comments sections can get pretty risqué. Sometimes it can be pretty impressively constructed, as here where it recreates the sounds of a head massage. Try it out with headphones.
 
WhatRobEats said:
Well I'm getting ready to put my phone on the dock and lay down to try and sleep. Tonight I'm going to imagine 'black'. And allow myself to fade off into it. Besides this post I've stayed away from screens and have read a book for the past hour instead. To reduce the visual stimulus of TV as also suggested earlier. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Goodnight GAF, hopefully.
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Wow.. after following the advice in this thread I got to sleep quicker than I can imagine. I'm not positive but I'm pretty sure I was sound asleep less than 15 minutes after I laid down. No melatonin/xanax cocktail just what's above.

Thank you GAF.
 
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