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I think we all have nights where sleep won’t come — despite flipping the pillow and persistent rolling over, it just doesn’t happen. What do you do when this happens?
Personally, I’ve developed only one good way to get to sleep: audiobooks. Now, I love audiobooks during the daytime, but sometimes I’ll buy a book that’s super-boring. For example, take the audiobook of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — immensely difficult to focus on during the day…but PERFECT for snooze inducement in the middle of the night! (If you don’t believe me, check out the free preview of the 41-hour Volume 1, available on iTunes.)
The best part of the audiobook cure is that, even if you don’t fall asleep, you might get some decent “reading” in. But aside from my own method, there are lots of great sleep aids suggested on the web. In fact, the Mental_Floss Blog has covered sleep medications, sleeping with pets, sleep disorders, why snooze buttons work for nine minutes, famous narcoleptics, and much more.
Blogger Mary Wheeler has suggested a series of cures for insomnia, including:
Sexing the alphabet: this involves going through the alphabet and assigning a gender to each letter. This was really interesting, yet sleep-inducing, to me the first 20 times I did it. [Note from Higgins: I think A is male and B is female. You?]
Sexing the numbers: Assigning a gender to each number. This is hard — each number, for me, anyway, can easily be male or female.
Categorizing things by color: thinking of all the things I can that are one color or another. This is a lot like a kid’s book, but is still harder than it sounds. I end up cheating and it will go like this: “trees, peas, pistacio ice cream, green tea, green book, green socks, green car …”
Saying a fruit or vegetable for every letter of the alphabet. This has been my latest game and honestly, I don’t think I’ve made it past “G” — this is how well I’ve been sleeping lately!
So let’s have it: what do you do to get to sleep?
I never have a problem going to sleep. When I am in bed, I make a habit of breathing slower, reducing the amount of oxygen I intake and I fall right to sleep in 3-4 minutes.
posted by Terry on 2-28-2008 at 4:40 pm
Ok, so maybe it is broken for me, but the why the snooze button works for 9 minutes link is broked. It takes me to the sleep disorder page. now I will never know why 9 minutes… my life will never be fulfilled :(
posted by Jeff on 2-28-2008 at 4:41 pm
Jeff — oops, I mis-linked. Fixed!
posted by Higgins on 2-28-2008 at 4:44 pm
Ahhh Higgins… thank you! Fulfillment is still possible (though unlikely and unplausible) (implausable? Applausable?) certainly NOT deplausible.
Thanks again!
Love the article.
posted by Jeff on 2-28-2008 at 4:48 pm
Mary Wheeler is describing a neurological phenomenon called “synesthesia”, where sense messages get “crossed” in the brain and manifest themselves as “joint experiences”. For example, someone might hear The Lord’s Prayer and taste peanut butter. Some people hear the letter /a/ and think, “Blue, male”.
posted by Jules on 2-28-2008 at 5:25 pm
I agree with audiobooks for sleeping. Also, reciting the multiplying sheep (six sheep, twelve sheep, eighteen sheep,…) is better for me than counting them.
posted by Kathy on 2-28-2008 at 5:49 pm
I just make sure I run upwards of 5 miles each day…otherwise, I won’t sleep at all. It also makes for less stressful dreams.
posted by Caitlin on 2-28-2008 at 5:50 pm
I use the method of only sleeping and, well, you know, in my bed. There are no electronic devices in my room and it’s a very relaxing space. On really stressful nights, I’ll also write down and prepare as much as I can for the next day so I don’t have anything to dwell on when I sleep.
posted by Tricia on 2-28-2008 at 6:02 pm
Ever since I was a little kid, when I need to get to sleep, I go to the white room.
The white room is an imaginary room, entirely devoid of sounds, objects, and ideally thoughts. When I can picture the white room that way, quiet and empty, then I think of a single object.
It really doesn’t matter what the object is; often enough it’s a car or a piece of furniture, but it can be anything. I try to picture the object as clear as I can. Does it have imperfections? What color is it? How heavy is it? And so on.
By the time I can picture an object in the white room with perfect clarity, I’m usually hovering on sleep. Close the white room, and away you go.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
posted by David on 2-28-2008 at 6:08 pm
I use Terry’s breathing method. Just think about breathing. If another thought pops into your head, just think about breathing. It always works.
posted by gus on 2-28-2008 at 6:17 pm
When I was little and couldn’t go to sleep my dad would come in and tell me to think of each little body part, starting with my toes, and think to myself how relaxed they are. “My pinky toe is getting relaxed, the next toe is getting sleepy,….my foot is relaxed, my ankle is sleepy”…etc. Today I pretty much fall asleep reading every night.
posted by janet on 2-28-2008 at 6:19 pm
The trick I always use is to imagine myself walking down a staircase - like a long dark spiral staircase, where I can’t see the bottom. Drops me right off after a few moments. I think I read it was a trick to use before hypnosis.
posted by Stacey on 2-28-2008 at 6:54 pm
i imagine that i’m in nature somewhere and have to build a shelter to sleep in from whatever’s available (leaves, branches,rocks). i imagine all the variables i can like the ideal spot, rainfall, snow, animals etc. i rarely get very far before i’m asleep.
posted by jeff (the other jeff) on 2-28-2008 at 6:57 pm
The Crowne Plaza Hotel’s Sleep Advantage CD. It begins with the (verrrrry relaxing) voice of Michael Breus (a sleep expert from SoundSleep Solutions) describing a series of relaxation moves you follow, there’s music…and I’m not sure how it ends because…wow, it really works: I’m OUT. I’ve recommended it to many friends. It’s magical.
posted by AMR on 2-28-2008 at 7:20 pm
Chalk me up for the audio book with the volumn turned way down to force me to focus. My worst record - 5 minutes to drift off once I turn the book on.
posted by Kathleen on 2-28-2008 at 7:27 pm
Either work, Benadryl, Marijuana, or Last Call with Carson Daly. The last works the best, but sometimes it’s so awful I have to keep watching.
posted by PG on 2-28-2008 at 7:31 pm
a bottle of wine usually does it for me
posted by Heather A on 2-28-2008 at 7:36 pm
When I can’t sleep I start a Sodoku puzzle. Something about having to concentrate on the numbers and the patterns helps my mind clear of what is keeping me up or what has woken me up.
posted by Beth on 2-28-2008 at 7:51 pm
I have been insomniac since I was a child. I’m not a fan of regular sleeping pills because I’m overly sensitive to seditives so they come on so hard and fast it actually kind of freaks me out and I start to fight them. This does not make for a relaxing nights sleep.
I recently found these 3mg Meletonin strips that desolve on you tounge and they are the greatest thing ever for insomniacs. They don’t force you into sleep you just take 1 or 2 and you feel like sleeping. I don’t know if the little dose triggers your body to start pumping out its own Meletonin or what but its worked wonders for me.
Those who fall asleep easily, I think don’t get at all what chronic insomniacs go through. Especially as a kid. I HATED going to bed as a kid. To have to lie silent and still in the dark for HOURS sucks bad enough as an adult but for a kid it is TORTURE! Tip to parents, if your kid really hates going to bed and is always telling you they haven’t slept enough in the morning they may have insomnia and not be just whining.
posted by Lisa H on 2-28-2008 at 7:53 pm
Prime Numbers. I absolutely, completely suck at math, failed algebra no less than 4 times, and can barely add, subtract, multiply and divide now. Counting out primes puts me to sleep usually by 161… and if that doesn’t work, I get my husband to tell me work stories. He works in a railyard, and getting my head around the geometry of a place I’ve never been puts me out in 15 seconds flat.
posted by Marion on 2-28-2008 at 8:08 pm
What a relief! Numbers and letters have colors for me. When I’ve talked to other people about it, most people think I’m completely weird. Sorry, I know it has nothing to do with sleep disorders…I’m just so excited to hear that there are “others” like me! One is white, two is orange, three is pink, four is green, five is yellow…
posted by ingrid on 2-28-2008 at 8:19 pm
I have no problem sleeping and was the baby that the other mothers were jealous of because I loved my sleep even then. When I can’t sleep I either imagine that I am on a carousel (the repetitive round and round, up and down motion) or sleeping in a hammock on a wooden frigate (again, repetitive movement). I have no idea why it works; my husband has tried it and it doesn’t work for him.
posted by Kate on 2-28-2008 at 8:29 pm
I curl up with my latest issue of Mental Floss magazine….that usually puts me right out. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding. I take a Benadryl every night. Does the trick and is not addictive. I do curl up with a book or magazine every night, though.
posted by Mary on 2-28-2008 at 8:36 pm
I don’t use it that often (I ususally take Simply Sleep, otherwise I think too much and am up and down all night, hopefully after law school I can give it up), but if I need to, I try naming every Beatles song I can think of.
posted by Allyson on 2-28-2008 at 9:21 pm
I absolutely need music in the background to fall asleep.
It gives my mind something to do while my body sleeps.
posted by Gabe on 2-28-2008 at 9:22 pm
I create alliterations with each letter of the alphabet, by the time I get to g, they are usually pretty interesting.
posted by Laura on 2-28-2008 at 9:56 pm
I say the alphabet backwards. Or I have something like the white room…I see a window that I mentally pull a roller shade down and watch the images out the window have smaller and smaller veiwing space. Pulling down the shade does it. When something springs to mind it’s like it pops back up, so I really focus. Do this once or twice and I’m out.
posted by Julianna on 2-28-2008 at 9:59 pm
I have started counting to a hundred (or as close as possible) by every intergral increment….
so i start with ones, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc
twos, 2,4,6,8…100
threes, 3,6,9…99
and keep going up until 50
1, 50, 100
i also count as high as i can by primes… gets you to sleep and helps you stay sharp on sometimes used math
posted by k on 2-28-2008 at 10:13 pm
Sleep has always been a problem for me since grade school. Early bedtimes never worked, but later on I read about a meditation technique that helps me focus my mind and calm it down. What you do is assign a color of the light spectrum to the numbers 1 through 7 (1 is red, 2 is orange, 3 is yellow, and so on) and visualize a solid figure of that number in its designated color for as long as you can.You make it as tangible and solid as you can and hold it in your mind until it fades then you go to the next color. It’s hard at first, but it forces your brain to focus solely on one thing, and helps to relax it. It’s great for deep relaxation.
posted by heather on 2-28-2008 at 10:23 pm
I take a benadryl and put on a comedy album. Not a new comedy album, but one I’ve heard a hundred times. It gives my mind something to focus on, but doesn’t make me laugh enough to keep me awake. Also, I find that I tend to have good dreams if I go to sleep with a smile on my face.
posted by Alice on 2-28-2008 at 10:28 pm
Reading will make me fall asleep, even when I don’t realize I’m sleepy…but if I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get to sleep, I get out of bed and turn on bad television…infomercials, online shopping, etc…it litterally bores me back to bed…
I’ve always read that if you have insomnia, experts recommend getting out of bed and doing something to tire yourself, like reading, writing, etc…(don’t do any midnight eBaying that you’ll regret later)…
Don’t have any distractions in your bedroom, like a tv, computer, kids jumping around, books, food, etc…it sends mixed signals and you don’t have a proper ’sleep’ area…
posted by donner on 2-28-2008 at 10:52 pm
This was something weird I did as a kid. If I couldn’t sleep, I put on these cheezy cardboard goggles that came with the LifeSavers I passed out for Valentine’s Day. The holes that served as lenses were cut very small, only a few centimeters across, so I could only see a small portion of my room at once. I think it kept me from getting distracted by the stuff I could be looking at in my room instead of sleeping. Now, of course, I embrace my inability to get to sleep before one a.m. I got older, the homework is still dull, just takes longer now.
posted by Becca on 2-28-2008 at 11:29 pm
janet: my gramma used to tell me the same thing to make me go to sleep! mostly just because she insisted we sleep at like 8:00. but it never worked! to this day i still try it but to no avail.
posted by Leah Y. on 2-28-2008 at 11:30 pm
I work nights and have such a hard time sleeping during the day! On good days when sleep comes quickly, inevitably a neighbor will mow his lawn, a solicitor will come to the door, or (my favorite) they will be replacing a roof across the street.
This makes days when there is a lot of time to sleep very frustrating, because those are the days that falling asleep seems impossible.
The audio books suggestion has real promise. I usually take a long walk on the treadmill, because, if it doesn’t wear me out, at least I’m working on my health another way.
posted by cd on 2-29-2008 at 3:06 am
There’s no way I could ever fall asleep in a quiet room. For years I’ve had to have the television on to be able to go to sleep. The weird thing is that I have to be watching something good in order to fall asleep. If it’s something I wouldn’t normally watch, it just annoys me and I guess that keeps me awake. What’s even weirder is that if I’m asleep when the show goes off and something else comes on that I wouldn’t normally watch, like a boring infomercial, it wakes me up and I have to find another show that I like. Then I can go back to sleep. For this reason I usually can’t sleep unless the remote control is on my bedside table instead of my boyfriend’s. These habits drive him crazy, but luckily he accepts it as one of my “quirks”.
posted by bas on 2-29-2008 at 7:17 am
My boyfriend just has to picture himself sleeping and he falls asleep. It usually takes him less than 2 minutes (of which I am extremely jealous).
When I was younger, I would tell myself a story, which usually put me to sleep in 15-20 minutes (quite quick for me).
These days nothing can really put me to sleep except the sound of my boyfriend’s breathing. I guess the consistency of it relaxes me and helps me to slow my own breathing.
posted by nutmeag on 2-29-2008 at 7:44 am
If I absolutly have to fall asleep (ie. I have work the next day) I will fill up a humidifier, and add some vicks scent or lavender scent to the water… this will put you to sleep immedietly. If I can get away with not sleeping, I will just get up out of bed and watch tv, read, or play with my cats until I am sleepy again.
posted by Sarah on 2-29-2008 at 7:54 am
Ingrid- I know exactly how you feel. Letters and numbers have always had a gender to me, I thought I was nuts until I read this post.
On another note…
I’m a lifetime insomniac and I’ve tried almost everything thats been mentioned. What works usually depends on why I’m not sleeping. If I’m stressed or upset, I use the relaxing one body part at a time thing. If my mind is running a hundred miles an hour, I try telling myself a story- but sometimes this backfires because I get so excited about the story.
I also sleep with the TV on, but always muted and I MUST have a fan on, or I’ll lose my mind. My boyfriend hates it.
posted by Hawkeyegirl on 2-29-2008 at 8:34 am
Kate,
Maybe it is our name! I was that kind of baby too–after my first night home, I slept through the night every night after that. It’s still extremely rare for me to be in bed for more than 5 minutes without crashing.
So maybe there’s more parenting advice in here…name your kid “Kate”. :)
posted by kate on 2-29-2008 at 9:06 am
I remember learning, maybe in college, that most of the techniques mentioned here work because of engaging both sides of the brain. i.e., Counting sheep engages one side with a mental activity, visualizing them engages the other side. This occupies the brain enough to keep whatever thoughts that are keeping you awake at bay. So, the more you focus, the less you think about what’s stressing you or whatever.
I had trouble sleeping as a teenager, but have no trouble at all now. It takes me about 30 seconds to fall asleep. My husband and I commute together to work, so I also sleep in the car. I get a 20-minute power nap twice a day. My husband laughs at me, but I swear it’s what’s keeping me alive since I only get about six hours of sleep each night.
posted by bre on 2-29-2008 at 9:39 am
I used to try counting, but would get pissed off the higher I got in the numbers as it meant I still wasn’t asleep. So here’s the answer:
Make sure you clearly see each number in your head and count this way: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 9, 8… rise, lather, repeat.
Works like a freakin’ charm– even if it takes a while to fall asleep, the highest you’ll have counted is 10 so you’re not constantly being made aware of just how long you’ve not been sleeping.
posted by Steve on 2-29-2008 at 9:46 am
What i do is to pick a single random word and think that word at random intervals. It sounds odd but what I think it does is to focus your mind on a single task. That disrupts whatever other thoughts you have and allows the brain and body to relax.
posted by Mike on 2-29-2008 at 10:20 am
I mentioned to a friend at work how much trouble I have falling asleep. Being the wannabe psychologist that he is, he gave me some mumbo jumbo about how the memories and thoughts in my short term memory that were supposed to move into my long time memory while at rest were on what he called a tape loop. My mind was just constantly replaying the day and it was keeping me from falling asleep. He “recommended” that I get a pen and paper, lay down, turn out the lights, and just write. Anything. Stream of consciousness. What ever thought, word, or phrase popped into my head. Just write. He said that would move all the short term stuff and place it somewhere else so that I could sleep.
Barely resisting rolling my eyes at this crap, I decide what did I have to lose? So that night I did just what he said. After about 20 minutes of writing, miraculously I fell asleep and stayed asleep. I could not believe that it worked. I continued to do this for about a month and my writing eventually dwindled to just a few sentences a night before I no longer had to rely on this to sleep. It’s also very interesting to go back and see some of the weird stuff I wrote during this time. I only occasionally need to fall back on this now. Love that guy and his weird psychobabble.
posted by Fran on 2-29-2008 at 10:24 am
I do a pilates class 3 times a week, and at the end of the class we do a 3 minute relaxation track. The instructor gets us to concentrate on our breath, and relax all our body parts. She tells us to tuck in our chins a bit, and will slowly start with the head all the way to the toes telling us what to relax, even our tongues. This works so well I have the hardest time getting up afterwards.
So, if I can’t sleep at night, I just do this in my mind!
posted by Brittany on 2-29-2008 at 11:08 am
I do the multiplication tables in my head. It gets my mind on one subject and the repitiveness lulls me to sleep.
posted by Chris on 2-29-2008 at 1:44 pm
I LOVE to sleep. I hate getting up in the morning…can I get a list of ways to haul my a$$ out of bed every morning? Sometimes I can’t go to sleep. I’m a night owl and usually have to make myself when I know I need to be up in eight hours. I use Melatonin every night, it kicks in after about half an hour, but you have to be lying still and being quiet. If I’m really having trouble I use two of the above mentioned techniques put together, with a twist. I count backwards from 100 using my breathing as a guide so I don’t race through, and if I lose track or my mind starts wondering I start over from 100. I’ve gotten to 1 two times. If that doesn’t work, it’s time for a bottle of wine because something is really bothering me.
Lots of math in these comments…hmmm.
posted by sneezy on 2-29-2008 at 2:55 pm
One word- NyQuil.
posted by Scott on 2-29-2008 at 3:23 pm