Magnesium glycinate up to an hour before bed or melantonin (sometimes you have to up the dose) seem to work. But before that, I have found:
1. Don’t watch or read anything upsetting or too interesting before bed.
2. Don’t read or watch tv in bed.
3. Don’t stress about sleep, tell yourself, “It’s no big deal, I can take a nap eventually and catch up”. Worrying about sleep seems to prevent sleep for me.
4. Get up and read or watch something boring if you’ve laid in bed for 45 minutes and feel no closer to sleep- return when you feel sleepy. As with #1, you could get into the habit of NOT sleeping in bed.
5. Try to avoid eating or drinking much before bed - especially things that can upset your stomach.
I have struggled with insomnia all my life. I am like The Princess and the Pea story, the smallest thing can keep me awake. I often joke that the planets have to be in alignment before I can sleep. But a lot of it is mental, learning to ignore and accept background noises, and learning how to THINK in a sleep-encouraging way.
Another tip- if you have an acid stomach- take a bit of baking soda (as much as you need, usually around 1 tsp)with water.
Haha, last night I stayed in bed for over an hour and a half before getting to sleep. I wasn’t WIDE awake, however, but sort of in a sleepy state, almost but not quite asleep, if you know what I mean. I did get up after 90 minutes, but only to go to the bathroom. Wide awake is a different story.
Glycine and bromelain on empty stomach...if still not able to fall asleep within minutes then I hold hands over OPEN eyes and stare into complete darkness for a minute...usually it makes me want to close eyes and drift off in less than one minute.
When my grandfather couldn’t sleep he always drank a glass of very warm whole milk. He also drank a glass of hot water every morning when he first got up claiming that it would clean you out and reset your body for the day.
I do the hot water in the morning now! Love a warm glass of milk, I just saw a recipe from India that adds some other ingredients that to it that are supposed to amp it up, but milk does help if you don’t have a problem digesting it.
For me, I've learned what keeps me up is conventional mind chatter. While I'd hit the pillow tired, mind chatter prevents my mind+body from going to sleep. Until eventually (45mins - 1.5hrs later) when fatigue has deepened enough that my mind is forced to slow down, then I konk out. But I've learned that I can force my mind to mostly quiet-down, and within a few minutes I'm out. I only realize my success in the morning, when reflecting back. Note that I'm not referring to 100% cessation of thoughts (only the best meditators can do that!), but mostly a "gentle forcing" of 80%+ reduction in mind-chatter/talk. It takes some work, but I have to be careful to not work too hard at it. Instead I have to find a sweet spot between actively suppressing this mind noise and just "letting it go".
The Physics of Why STRETCHING Before Bed Changes Your Entire Body
The Feynman Method
This video breaks down the real physics and physiology of why stretching before bed isn't about "loosening up" — it's a mechanical reset that forces your nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into deep, restorative sleep.
A combination of Blue vervain, passion flower and Meadowsweet sometimes helps. Sometimes I use a similar combination but with catnip, Lemon balm and Linden (this is available as Peaceful Center). When waking up at night and having trouble to fall asleep again, 2 capsules of White willow bark and one Valerian sometimes help. If I am worried about something very little helps. Eye exercises, concentration on breath, on third eye, on feet, prayer, mantra, countring... tried them all. Nothing works 100% but I am glad sometimes something does.
Progesterone in Vitamin E oil causes some sedation and has anti-cortisol effects. This is for males and females taken just before or 30-60 min before bedtime. As a male, I take ~50mg of the oil and rub it on my upper and lower oral gums. Women may require larger doses. Seems to work well for me. This is the product I use: HealthNatura
When insomnia rules the evening, I've always done this (supposedly, the military uses it, but I have no proof of that, only others asserting it is true):
Start at the toes: relax them, counting to (or down from) 10.
Then the arches, same procedure
Heal, ankle, calf, knee, thigh, buttocks, waist, abdomen, chest, shoulders, upper arms, elbow, lower arms, fingers, neck, jaw, ears, and head, top of head... then go into maintenance, feeling tight areas and repeating the procedure for each tight area.
You are looking for complete relaxation in every part of your body. Add hair follicles if you want. Sometimes I'm out before I complete, but not always. The maintenance of relaxation is where I most often drop, and it doesn't take long. Needs to be quiet (no distractions).
My brain is often a talky mess when I go to bed. This shuts it up.
That's interesting that it works for you, whenever I try progressive relaxation I can get very relaxed but do not go to sleep, rather enter into a meditative state perhaps, and eventually just give up. Trying too hard to sleep in any way always seems to interfere with letting go and going to sleep.
There is this... I used to be a guy who was asleep by the time my head hit the pillow. In my 70s, now, not so much. I don't "try" to go to sleep, though. I just close my eyes, do the routine, and sooner or later, I'm gone. Now, if I wake up in the middle of the night (the old age thing), yeah, then it's stay up for an hour, then go back to bed.
While I can’t claim it helps me get to sleep, chaga mushroom powder has helped me to stay asleep and for my sleep to be peaceful. I am often plagued with anxiety dreams that awaken me, then once awake, I struggle to fall back asleep. The chaga keeps my dreams peaceful. I typically have a sense of wellbeing while I sleep. Even during especially stressful seasons, chaga keeps me calm. I can usually skip an occasional night of not taking it, but after a relatively short period of time without it, my dreams become less peaceful and the struggle begins anew.
I use a supplement called Cortisol Manager. It took a few weeks to take effect, but once it did, it virtually eliminated the 3:00 AM wake-up that plagued me. (I’m female, age 60.)
Magnesium glycinate up to an hour before bed or melantonin (sometimes you have to up the dose) seem to work. But before that, I have found:
1. Don’t watch or read anything upsetting or too interesting before bed.
2. Don’t read or watch tv in bed.
3. Don’t stress about sleep, tell yourself, “It’s no big deal, I can take a nap eventually and catch up”. Worrying about sleep seems to prevent sleep for me.
4. Get up and read or watch something boring if you’ve laid in bed for 45 minutes and feel no closer to sleep- return when you feel sleepy. As with #1, you could get into the habit of NOT sleeping in bed.
5. Try to avoid eating or drinking much before bed - especially things that can upset your stomach.
I have struggled with insomnia all my life. I am like The Princess and the Pea story, the smallest thing can keep me awake. I often joke that the planets have to be in alignment before I can sleep. But a lot of it is mental, learning to ignore and accept background noises, and learning how to THINK in a sleep-encouraging way.
Another tip- if you have an acid stomach- take a bit of baking soda (as much as you need, usually around 1 tsp)with water.
Great tips, the hardest for me is deciding to get up and leave the bed, but it really does help.
Haha, last night I stayed in bed for over an hour and a half before getting to sleep. I wasn’t WIDE awake, however, but sort of in a sleepy state, almost but not quite asleep, if you know what I mean. I did get up after 90 minutes, but only to go to the bathroom. Wide awake is a different story.
Glycine and bromelain on empty stomach...if still not able to fall asleep within minutes then I hold hands over OPEN eyes and stare into complete darkness for a minute...usually it makes me want to close eyes and drift off in less than one minute.
The Anne I will try the hand trick.
I take the bromelain for inflammation and the glycine for creatine, but it also helps for drifting off and staying asleep.
When my grandfather couldn’t sleep he always drank a glass of very warm whole milk. He also drank a glass of hot water every morning when he first got up claiming that it would clean you out and reset your body for the day.
Just throwing it out there for thought ???
I do the hot water in the morning now! Love a warm glass of milk, I just saw a recipe from India that adds some other ingredients that to it that are supposed to amp it up, but milk does help if you don’t have a problem digesting it.
For me, I've learned what keeps me up is conventional mind chatter. While I'd hit the pillow tired, mind chatter prevents my mind+body from going to sleep. Until eventually (45mins - 1.5hrs later) when fatigue has deepened enough that my mind is forced to slow down, then I konk out. But I've learned that I can force my mind to mostly quiet-down, and within a few minutes I'm out. I only realize my success in the morning, when reflecting back. Note that I'm not referring to 100% cessation of thoughts (only the best meditators can do that!), but mostly a "gentle forcing" of 80%+ reduction in mind-chatter/talk. It takes some work, but I have to be careful to not work too hard at it. Instead I have to find a sweet spot between actively suppressing this mind noise and just "letting it go".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyIAAlF69dA
The Physics of Why STRETCHING Before Bed Changes Your Entire Body
The Feynman Method
This video breaks down the real physics and physiology of why stretching before bed isn't about "loosening up" — it's a mechanical reset that forces your nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into deep, restorative sleep.
A combination of Blue vervain, passion flower and Meadowsweet sometimes helps. Sometimes I use a similar combination but with catnip, Lemon balm and Linden (this is available as Peaceful Center). When waking up at night and having trouble to fall asleep again, 2 capsules of White willow bark and one Valerian sometimes help. If I am worried about something very little helps. Eye exercises, concentration on breath, on third eye, on feet, prayer, mantra, countring... tried them all. Nothing works 100% but I am glad sometimes something does.
I count backwards from 100, then repeat as many times as necessary. I usually works for a busy mind, maybe not as much for serious insomnia.
I find pink noise. A constant drone can help. Just like a long droning train ride.
Too baroque music - that in the point in a suite where when it gently becomes quieter, a fall along, drift off in conjunction.
Reminds me of that recent X post on "Lull" the autonomous baby driver startup: https://x.com/andrewamann/status/2072375717518606373?s=20
Progesterone in Vitamin E oil causes some sedation and has anti-cortisol effects. This is for males and females taken just before or 30-60 min before bedtime. As a male, I take ~50mg of the oil and rub it on my upper and lower oral gums. Women may require larger doses. Seems to work well for me. This is the product I use: HealthNatura
https://healthnatura.com
Simply Progesterone Oil 1oz
When insomnia rules the evening, I've always done this (supposedly, the military uses it, but I have no proof of that, only others asserting it is true):
Start at the toes: relax them, counting to (or down from) 10.
Then the arches, same procedure
Heal, ankle, calf, knee, thigh, buttocks, waist, abdomen, chest, shoulders, upper arms, elbow, lower arms, fingers, neck, jaw, ears, and head, top of head... then go into maintenance, feeling tight areas and repeating the procedure for each tight area.
You are looking for complete relaxation in every part of your body. Add hair follicles if you want. Sometimes I'm out before I complete, but not always. The maintenance of relaxation is where I most often drop, and it doesn't take long. Needs to be quiet (no distractions).
My brain is often a talky mess when I go to bed. This shuts it up.
That's interesting that it works for you, whenever I try progressive relaxation I can get very relaxed but do not go to sleep, rather enter into a meditative state perhaps, and eventually just give up. Trying too hard to sleep in any way always seems to interfere with letting go and going to sleep.
There is this... I used to be a guy who was asleep by the time my head hit the pillow. In my 70s, now, not so much. I don't "try" to go to sleep, though. I just close my eyes, do the routine, and sooner or later, I'm gone. Now, if I wake up in the middle of the night (the old age thing), yeah, then it's stay up for an hour, then go back to bed.
While I can’t claim it helps me get to sleep, chaga mushroom powder has helped me to stay asleep and for my sleep to be peaceful. I am often plagued with anxiety dreams that awaken me, then once awake, I struggle to fall back asleep. The chaga keeps my dreams peaceful. I typically have a sense of wellbeing while I sleep. Even during especially stressful seasons, chaga keeps me calm. I can usually skip an occasional night of not taking it, but after a relatively short period of time without it, my dreams become less peaceful and the struggle begins anew.
I use a supplement called Cortisol Manager. It took a few weeks to take effect, but once it did, it virtually eliminated the 3:00 AM wake-up that plagued me. (I’m female, age 60.)
He’s got Marty Feldmann eye’s