It’s actually like the title asks; What does everyone here do when you can’t sleep and are wide awake besides being on phone?
So let’s say it’s in the middle of the night and you are unable to sleep. You have to keep things soundless due to family or partner.
Trying to get the phone usage significantly lower when being in bed but it feels like nothing can replace the ‘easiness of mindlessly scrolling’.
I do visualisation techniques. Mostly, I’m on a soft picnic blanket on a hill with long grass blowing gently with a mild breeze on a warm day. I can smell nearby flowers and I can hear a nearby brook bubbling over little rocks. I focus on the sounds, smells and visuals, and overall sense of peacefulness till my brain drowns out whatever is stressing me out and keeping me awake.
I lay completely still. Properly, completely still. I focus all my energy on not moving a single muscle besides what I need to breathe.
Then, while doing that, I try to conjure up elaborate fantasy scenes in my mind.
9 times out of 10 I’m gone within five minutes.
Read or take a dose of melatonin.
Reading books or playing video games. If I have the energy then also working on projects.
If I still have 8+ hours time I’ll throw in a Zopiclon, otherwise I’ll give up eventually and watch Youtube until the alarm goes off.
Count from 1 to 10, then 10 to 1. With each number, relax your body a little more. When the mind strays, bring it back to counting. Repeat until unconscious.
If that isn’t working at all, get up, go to another room, play soft music at low volume on headphones, and depending on the circumstances read a book, jot stuff down, or just contemplate stuff. Chill until sleepy, then either go back to bed or just curl up where you are.
I can usually sleep at night, but if I didn’t use my phone I would probably draw or play the keyboard (with headphones connected) for a while, then I would stop and try to sleep again.
I take a random number around 800 and start to count backwards in increments of 7. It’s kind of tedious and drowns out my other thoughts. I don’t think I’ve ever made it to zero :)
Of course you should use bigger numbers if your math skills are better.
Coom to weird porn for an hour and feel like shit afterwards, then take melatonin.
I try to name unconnected things until I’m interrupted by a different thought, then when I realize I’ve gone off I play the unconnected naming game again. Doesn’t matter if there is a connection. Apparently this disorganized thinking is similar to sleep thoughts and can help get your brain in the mood for sleeping.
Example: sheep, glass, shelf, sock, alien, whisker, etc
Yes! This is almost exactly my technique. I try to do the naming in a steady rhythm, around one per second, picturing the thing in my mind while mentally saying the word.
My hypothesis is that it syncs up both sides of my brain at a timing that is in the delta wave frequency, same as a deep sleep state
I listen to audiobooks I’ve already listened to so that they don’t take much effort to keep up with while still being more interesting than laying there motionless with nothing to do.
I do this with low key youtube videos, downloaded to mp3.
Also, take another clonodine after a couple of hours.
Hell yeah sister love that long form content
I read a book. It’s quiet, it’s restful, it often helps me get back to sleep but even if it doesn’t it’s still relaxing and worthwhile.
Kindle with a dim backlight is perfect for this.
Happy my recent upgrade has the yellow backlight feature for just this reason
I mean, I know it’s entirely opposite to the accepted advice…but when I can’t sleep, I actually find it helpful to go on my phone.
Scrolling social media doesn’t help though. What helps is putting on long form videos on YouTube that aren’t overly engaging. It helps if you’ve seen them before too. If my thoughts are racing, having something else to focus on (but not too focused) helps a ton.
Sitting in the dark without a mild stimulus doesn’t help, despite what the common advice given seems to be.
I know you said you can’t have sound, but what about headphones?
How It’s Made, commercial bakery prep, or street food making are my go tos for long form videos to try to sleep.
I read a book. Usually have an e-book or graphic novel queued up. Worse case, grab a paper book and a booklight, set to low. That always works.
Dreaming awake. Idk how to call it otherwise.
I invent to myself the most ridiculous stories of things of my imagination and i play them in my head, like a sort of head game.
When i do a sufficiently long story, i often fall asleep on it and i continue it the next evening, and it can last months. Plus you get better at mental visualisation the more you do it. I remember dreams almost every night since i did that for a long time.
It’s usually referred to as ‘immersive daydreaming’.
