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Ask HN: How do you get yourself to sleep when you want?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you get yourself to sleep when you want?

#11

Post by elenaturner »

Gadgets, TV etc are the biggest enemies of sleep for me. I used to have exactly same issue and then made few changes that helped a lot.

- Have a fixed time to go to bed. - No caffeine at least 4 hours before going to bed. - No gadgets and TV at least 1 hour before going to bed. - Eat clean, and have your last meal at least 3 hours before going to bed. (It's even longer for me due to multiple gastric issues.) - Intense physical activity of at least 30 mins in the later afternoon/evening, i.e. running, playing tennis. Morning exercise only makes me tired and I can't do anything else the whole day.

Re: Ask HN: How do you get yourself to sleep when you want?

#12

Post by Raeru »

I feel your pain. I experience the same thing, it’s constant and very disruptive. I’m still trying to figure out how to solve this because nothing has been consistently working.

Melatonin and drowsy allergy pills also doesn’t work for me on those sleepless nights.

Regarding theta state, there’s been a lot of times when I get into this dreamy state and I feel tired, then something happens in my brain where I suddenly lose it. And the sleepiness slips away from me. And then continues the cycle of sleeping around 5 or 6am.

Some things I’m trying that doesn’t look like it’s been suggested here yet:

- Gravity blanket. Along with not being able to fall asleep, I also get hyper-sensitive. The weight of the blanket seems to be helping with that.

- Breathing exercises until my heart beat gets near resting. I wear my Apple Watch for this, then take the watch off when my heart beat gets to around the targeted range. This works better for me than meditation because I can get feedback on how calm my body is getting. Not sure if this is gonna work consistently yet.

Would love to hear if something ends up working for you!

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