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Train yourself. Pavlov’s sleep. Every time you go to bed, watch/listen to the same thing. Eventually, your brain associate the thing with “time to sleep”. That’s how it works for me, anyway. I turn on the same movie and pass out in minutes. Don’t do it with one of your favorites, though.
And also, don’t do thing like lay in bed watching TV all the time. You want the bed to be mostly mentally associated with sleep
Fun story, i used to do a lot of fly-in/out for a mine close to the artic circle which involved getting stuck on loud propeller planes for hours.
At some point, I realised that I could fall asleep before take-off but rarely during. Unintentionnally, I trained myself to fall asleep before takeoff.
Now, I just fall asleep before takeoff in any plane which makes my wife mad when she is excited to travel somewhere and I just doze off ...
I usually fall asleep to random youtube iceberg videos. Never thought about doing the same piece of media every night. My initial thought is that I'll get bored of it after x amount of sleeps and then my mind starts wandering into my anxious thoughts. I'll give it a shot though
Maybe finds a few you like and make a playlist, then just watch those specific ones? Something that you can mentally focus on when in bed with your eyes closed, but also something that’s not competing to hold your visual attention as well as no giant volume swings for your audio attention. Don’t want to fall asleep to quiet dialog only to be woken by the shootout in the next scene, or fall asleep to a mellow ballad and awoken by a rock track, for example.
Edited to add: around getting bored with it— I have changed what I listen or watch every few years, but it’s a very slow ramp up of new and ramp down of old. Something your brain recognizes and likes, but isn’t trying to stay awake to read the next page or see the next episode or upcoming challenge or whatever.
I got old.
Did you have trouble falling asleep before this chronic and terminal illness hit?
I doubt you’re actually old, because that’s not how it usually works.
Addressing Sleep Problems in Older Adults
As many as 57% of older adults complain of major disruption of sleep, 29% struggle to fall asleep and 19% complain of early-morning awakening.
The secret ingredient is exhaustion
I have what I self proclaim a "float switch". Once my head tilts a 45 degree angle, I fall asleep. I've been like this all my 39 years of existence. I cannot go to these new movie theaters labeled "Dream Lounger Ultra XL" with those reclining king size sofas because I can't justify paying $30 to take a nap.
My wife gets mad at me how fast I fall asleep. I can't fucking help it!
Would you fall asleep if someone physically placed you horizontal or tilted your head back lol
I fall asleep when my exhaustion overwhelms my anxiety; I get up when my anxiety overwhelms my exhaustion.
I hate sleep, so I get it over with as quickly as possible. I fall asleep quickly and I wake up quickly and spend as little time as possible in between
I wish I could hate sleep as much as I hate starting a new day.
I envy you. Waking up is bar none the worst part of everyday. I don't necessarily mean that in depressive sort of way, but coming out of sleep is the worst feeling. If I could have a normal and healthy life sleeping 12+ hours at a time, I would.
No secret, I'm hammered before bed.
Masturbation
fap cum crash
Within minutes?
I think I'm asleep in the split second before my head even touches the pillow.
No secret, just born with it.
Be tired enough. I jave ADHD and my strategy is to stay up until I am literally falling asleep. The next day can be tough sometimes though if I need to get up early. On those nights I just take Melatonin
I used to take at least an hour to fall asleep. Then I had two kids. I can now fall asleep within a minute or two.
Worth it.
I read fiction that requires almost no brain power. Either print or e-ink (no bright screen). Sherlock Holmes type stuff is like a sleeping pill.
Hey, I can do it in minutes. Just, like, 90-120 of them.
As someone who used to be like that but now has a real fucked up sleep schedule due to unemployment, I can tell you the deciding factor is a consistent sleep period. The vast majority of my career has been waking up at 4am and going to sleep at 8 or 9pm. Thats easy to fall into and even when you're off your body just knows when its time to sleep and when its time to get up. Ive gotten up on time a few times despite the alarms failing to go off for whatever reason. You want good sleep? Set wake up and bedtime. Your body will adjust.
Genetics
Don't even need to hit a pillow
The steering wheel however...
"I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming and in agony like all of his passengers."
No secret technique. I go to bed when I’m tired, I’m asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. Literally-sometimes I fall asleep on the way down to the pillow. Just how I’ve always been. /shrug
I usually fall asleep very quickly. Yes, having some kind of anxiety about the next day or such can keep me up and sometimes there's a night where I just don't seem to fall asleep instantly by myself.
Rule number one: Keep your bed the place you sleep in. Don't do anything else in it. You can't fall asleep because of anxiety? Get up, go somewhere else, try to deal with it/calm down and then get back to sleep.
If you don't know why you can't fall asleep, get up, try to wind down a bit. Maybe drink a little bit of water, go to the toilet, whatever then come back and try again. Try to keep the lights off or as dimmed as possible in that time.
Sometimes if that doesn't help, you can use some relaxation techniques to help. My go to: Lay down, find a comfy spot. The easiest: Focus on you I this moment. How does it feel in your bed? Focus on the warm fluffy place you're in. "Feel" how you sink in more and more into your pillow and mattress with every breath. Usually that's enough to get me to sleep. If you can't fall asleep doing this, go a bit further. Imagine you're in a meadow/on a beach/wherever in nature. Feel the imaginary sun on your skin. The sand/gras/moss/... Under your bare feet. Breathe the fresh air. Focus on your imaginary sensations and observe them.
Those imaginations can be hard if you're not used to them. It's OK if you're not focused on them in the beginning and that some random ideas and thoughts cross your mind and keep breaking the illusion. Find a way to deal with them. Accept that it has happened and move on. My preferred way to "block them": imagine a red heavy curtain falling like in a theater completely blocking your view of those thoughts/images. Acknowledge that you identified and consciously ignored them, "turn around" and return your focus to your imagination.
Parenthood. You reach the point of pure exhaustion somewhere around 6 months. Depending on your child, it can last for years.
I avoid screens (with one exception mentioned in a bit)—especially social media (including fediverse)—for like an hour ahead of time, read a book, make sure I'm well fed and hydrated without eating too close to bedtime, wear a sleep mask, and put on some soothing music, podcast or (mostly audio-based) video—with the screen off as soon as I hit play. Sometimes I even resort to my noise-cancelling headphones—or earplugs, if the sounds of my own breathing, swallowing, and bloodflow don't bother me too much that night. It helps to meditate and/or make sure to exercise/work hard enough to wear myself out each day.
Comfort helps. Finding the right position, having the right sheets, mattress, pillow, getting the ac/fan/heater so the room feels perfect, maybe cracking a window for fresh air. Feeling secure and safe where I'm sleeping, confident that I'll make it through the night without rude awakenings. Each isn't very powerful on its own, bit all together make a big difference in how readily I drift off.
Finally, I just try not to worry too much whether I fall asleep or not; if it's not looking like it's happening, I'll try to write a story for myself or draw a masterpiece in my minds eye. If that doesn't work, I'll focus on invoking some Wake-Induced Lucid Dreaming instead: forcing myself to lie perfectly still with my eyes closed, not even shifting for comfort nor to scratch itches nor swat flies, letting my mind wander wherever it wants to and just going with the hypnagogic hallucinations (they can get a little uncomfortable at times). This rarely has the intended effect, but I usually do end up waking up later, realizing I fell asleep without knowing it.
Disclaimer: my routine won't solve insomnia, it won't fix neurological disorders that affect circadian rhythm, it probably won't work on the first night even if you don't have the aforementioned issues. But adding any part of it to your routine (if you can) will make it just that much easier to fall sleep, when you can get around to it, even if you do have underlying conditions.
Also, at the risk of sounding like a boomer, screens are really bad for sleep. I grew up with them: my family had a habit of watching tv until bedtime, I trained myself to fall asleep while staring at my laptop (which I often have on my bed), or I'll pick up my phone after I put the laptop down. Nowadays I can feel how awake my brain gets when I check lemmy or read news around bedtime. If I have my phone near me, I'll have this nagging feeling to do "just one more" check of all my socials.
And it always keeps me awake until I will myself to turn it off and close my eyes.
Self control mostly. I was taught to meditate by doing nothing but sitting, eyes closed, counting my breaths. It gave me a strong control over my thoughts. Now if I want to sleep, I lie down and turn my brain off. I’m out in a few minutes if it’s not too hot.
Children.
I there a powdered form I can take it in or is this like an adrenochrome situation?
I only use my bed for sleeping, when I go lie down body knows it's night night time
Some things that help me at least:
Erster Detektiv: Justus Jonas
Zweiter Detektiv: Peter Shaw
Recherche und Archiv: Bob Andrews
Narcolepsy - a blessing and a curse.
I've had problems with insomnia in the past.
I generally find the easiest way for me to sleep is to be very physically tired.
I can (mostly intentionally) zonk out pretty quickly in most sitting or laying positions. Clear calm mind helps me. I might use 1 of 2 exercises. The first I started using is for when my mind is too active from the day and thoughts just keep popping up, each time one does, I imagine putting it in a cardboard box, closing it up and tossing it away. The second one I use more when my body is physically tired, but I'm not mentally sleepy, I imagine I'm laying down at the trunk of an impossibly tall tree, looking at a single leaf near the edge that I can just barely make out, then imagine I'm rapidly floating up where I can see the trunk rapidly moving "down" behind my head, but the leaf just only so very barely seems to get any closer, and just keep that up until I fall asleep.
I tire my brain out, whenever I lay down, I dont want to move at all, I fall asleep in whatevery uncomfy position dehydrated
It's a ritual. The secret for me is basically counting sheep. Except, I don't actually count sheep, but there's lots of other things. Nowadays I can just clear my mind, but that was not always so.
When I was a kid, I had trouble sleeping. I was scared of the dark or something. So I closed my eyes and started focussing on the shapes I saw to take my mind off it. It were basic geometric shapes in different colors that floated to the edge of my vision. Than new ones would pop up. That helped and eventually I was using that methid every day to fall asleep fast.
In my teenage years I was into "lucid dreaming". Never managed to really do that, but they use special methods to fall asleep which also create some kind of ritual. Like looking at your alarm until you fall asleep. And than when it shows weird numbers, you know you're asleep, but that part is speculative lol.
Like that there are a few otger "rituals" you can try. I think tge most important part is a semi regular sleep schedule and a ritual. Also, don't watch tv or phone in bed. That's the kind of ritual to prevents you from sleeping.
A strict wake-up time that's the same every day helps. I put the alarm far away from my bed so I have no choice to drift back off.
All the usual tips apply: a cool room, no blue light at night, no distractions in the bedroom, get up for a while if it's not working...
Constantly exhausted.
That's never particularly been me, except when I'm sleep deprived. But in recent years I've been consistent about my sleep and wake times (including not changing them on weekends) and that seems to help a lot. According to my tracker it usually takes me about 10 min to fall asleep.
I have separated my living space into "zones" in my head. When I am awake, I am not allowed in the sleeping zone, aka my bed. By only being in my bed when I am going to sleep, I have trained my body that it is the "sleeping place."
Had insomia in highschool. Didn't know what it was but taught myself guided meditation to overcome it.
For me, it was usually a song being stuck in my head. I would see myself floating up and away from the earth amd into space where the void was silent.
I also learned to pay attention to the mental "feel" I had while driftong off to sleep and pictured myself sinking into sleep like a submarine beneath the waves.
I know these aren't super helpful descriptions because if I could really verbalise and teach it I would be doing that for a living.
Wake up early and exercise at least 30 min. Makes me feel actually tired at the end of the day so it's easier to fall asleep. Exercising later on the day doesn't work because it amps me up.