Ask HN: When you can't fall asleep, what do you do?

Get some exercise — I feel way better after running even just 1 mile. I did 3 earlier tonight, and can barely keep my eyes open right now.

Don't drink — Your sleep isn't as restful: http://time.com/3671777/drinking-sleep

Don't drink coffee after x PM — I always cut myself off from caffeine by 4pm, and try to do it by 2pm. Find out what's right for you.

Take some melatonin — It did me a lot of good when I used to have trouble sleeping.

Address the sources of anxiety in your life — A comparison of how well I sleep now vs. when I had a lot of anxiety in my life (stress from working at Microsoft, stress from trying to drag along my faltering startup, etc.) is stark. I don't fall asleep with much or any worry most nights.

Worst case scenario: ask a doctor to prescribe you Ambien or the like. Re-establish a decent sleeping pattern, and then figure out how to address everything else.

Edit: There's one thing I want to mention about exercising. I started running only two months ago after what essentially amounts to a lifetime of non-exercise. I wasn't overweight by any means—I was just plain skinny. Like, sort of the way you expect your average nerd to be skinny. After my first run of barely a mile (walking about half of it), I wondered if I was going to have a heart attack. I didn't, thankfully. And now, two months later, I can run a longer distance than my first run/walk with basically no trouble whatsoever. I feel great, have more energy, and sleep better.

You don't even have to start running. Just start walking. Here's a better story than I can offer you at the moment on the value of this: http://www.loopinsight.com/2015/06/16/apple-watch-my-most-pe... and http://www.loopinsight.com/2015/06/18/follow-up-to-how-i-los...

You don't need an Apple Watch. You don't need a health tracker. Just move. It feels better every day, and—I promise—within a month or two you'll start craving it. It's an awesome feeling.

this list is pretty good, considering the source:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/nataliebrown/charts-that-will-help-y...

* exercise

* wake up earlier

* stop using all electronics after 9

As far as drugs go benadryl is pretty innocuous. You could always buy that ZzzQuil stuff but it's the same thing for more money.

Lie on your bed. Relax. Instead of trying to fall asleep (and thinking about it) think about making yourself as comfortable as possible. Turn this way, move your arm that way,... Once you've done it, the sleep usually follows. In short, think comfort not sleep.

P.S.

I've used to have troubles falling asleep, but that simple method helped me to solve the problem. I would give the credit to the original author, but I can't remember where I read it.

1. Try to go to bed at the same time every day (and sleep the same amount of time). I'm a night owl and can easily move my day on, but moving it back is very difficult.

2. Sleeping ritual. Mine is pretty simple, I turn the lights off, climb in bed and lie on my right hand side. After a bit (1-10 minutes) I will turn over and then I'm pretty much immediately asleep. If you repeat something it will become ingrained (and will work most of the time).

3. Fix all sources of disturbances. Partner, pets, light, noise etc.

4. Learning to switch your brain off. Try not to watch/read something that's too emotionally charged before bed.

5. After that everything else that has already been mentioned, eating too close to going to bed, having drunk something so you need to get up to pee etc.

For most people sleep shouldn't be a problem, they just have terrible habits and/or environment.