Falling Asleep

[lumberjim]

i'm always beat, so i usually fall asleep within 3 or 4 minutes of lying down in bed. I remember lying there for a while as a kid though. I have a technique that always works for me now....I just......


meh....I'm too sleepy to write a whole big long post. wanna talk about how you fall asleep?

[monster]

b.... zzz....

[Beest]

I remember being awake for hours as a kid staring out of the window or listening to crappy radio, but now I am sleepy most of the time, when I actually put my head on the pillow it's usually only a couple of minutes.

[Cloud]

I concentrate on a pleasant fantasy, of which I have many. I don't mean a sexual fantasy, either, usually. Something like, picking your stable of dream cars. Right now I'm picturing an imaginary country where they have a service program for teens. Yeah, I know--sounds pretty boring, but it works for me.

I DON'T think about my problems, my day, the next day, or anything like that. That's the surest way to keep yourself up.

[xoxoxoBruce]

If I'm awake long enough to be conscious of the fact I haven't fallen asleep, I get up.

[Bullitt]

I used to stay up for hours as a kid playing with my matchbox cars in the closet. Now I fall dead asleep within minutes.. though no part of my body can be touching any other part or else I won't fall asleep. Like feet touching each other, etc. No skin to skin with myself ha. Weird I know.

[freshnesschronic]

on average about 5 - 10 minutes after hititn the mattress
or i just rub one out and im out too, lets be honest...

[DucksNuts]

Sleeping pills mostly, trying to wean myself off them though.

I have to read or watch tv/dvd until I am sleepy, otherwise my mind goes into warp speed and I cant turn off.

[glatt]

As a teenager, I had trouble falling asleep. I'd lie awake worrying about stupid stuff, staring at the ceiling.

Now, I'm asleep in 10 minutes or less. I think the main reason is that I have a routine now that doesn't vary much, even on the weekends. As a teenager and even 20 something, I'd sometimes sleep past noon on the weekend. That would mess everything else up.

[Trilby]

Ambien CR

[Undertoad]

Brain chemistry. Before I altered, I mean corrected mine, I could have insomnia all night dwelling on shit. Now I hit a wall and I'm out in 5.

[Sundae]

I've had trouble sleeping since I was a child.
I have years of experience!

I have specific sleep fantasies. I use my mind to fool my body and brain into a state of exhaustion. This comes most easily in periods following extreme physical/ mental/ emotional exertion, or when the mind is so overloaded it shuts down in order to cope with what is to come. So that's what I mentally recreate. I didn't make my sleep fantasies up because I believe this - I believe this because I know which ones work!

In the winter, I usually picture myself in one of my favourite books - The Worst Journey in the World i.e. on Scott's fatal race to the South Pole. I am riding out a blizzard in a two man tent with hardly any supplies and it might blow for another two days. All I can do is revel in the warmth and sleep until it blows itself out. Sometimes I imagine I am homeless and have crawled into a basement only to find a furnace and a blanket - an ideal night away from cold and danger.

In the summer I have to add the physical discomfort of the heat to my usual sleeping problems. Often I will imagine I am at a loud and raucous party, I am exhausted and I have found a small room at the top of the house which has a lockable door. That way I feel comfortable with any noise that filters through my earplugs and I luxuriate in being able to sleep naked (HM has to step inside my door to see my bed and he knows better, so I can easily pretend I am in a locked room).

There are many variations - one being that I am a secret agaent on the verge of a dangerous mission and all I can do until I get confirmation is sleep. Another that I am a stowaway on a spaceship that has managed to find a mattress & duvet and may as well while away the hours by sleeping.

Meh. They sound lame when I write them, but other than tablets or getting drunk they are the best means I've had since I started developing them (albeit with different stories) as a child. I tricked myself into it then and I do now.

[classicman]

Sleep? Whats that - been havin issues for a long time - years. Now I'm takin trazdone, and it helps a lot, but I have to take it by 9:00 or i'll be groggy all morning too.

[SteveDallas]

Listening to music or reading a book does it.

[Cicero]

I'm usually asleep before I'm ready. I'll read, and then realize at some point that I am not actually reading like I thought I was, I am sleeping, and need to turn my light off.

Either that, or I hit the pillow and I am out in a couple of seconds flat.

I know people that stay up and worry all night like I used to. I came to the conclusion that nothing is worth getting in between me and my sleep......nothing. I know people battle with their conscience right before they go to bed. That's the good part about time management. You should learn to deal with that stuff during the day and let it go by nightfall. It's just not the time to be thinking (obssessing) about what Mary or whoever meant by that unorthodox statement about your looks or something. By then I do not care and am over it.

Since I've become a day person I'm not usually that amped at night anymore anyway. Just being up at night used to be thrilling and I didn't know why. Now it's no big deal.