I wake up at 3am to 4am daily as a neighbor makes noise walking their dog. This cannot be helped. Once I am awake, my mind won’t stop going over details about everything from the mundane to the critical. Often, I am able to fall asleep again after three or more hours of wakefulness, but onlyinutes before I have tonwake for the day.

Does anyone have success with quieting the mind without substances so that they can fall back to sleep?

  • zout@kbin.social
    0·
    9 months ago
    1. Make sure you can’t see a clock at night. Not knowing how late it is will stop your mind from going over at least one detail, how much time you have left to sleep.
    2. Get a notebook next to your bed so you can write things down if something urgent comes up in your mind. If you’re like me, changes are you’ll never write down anything.
    3. Try to not think about anything for 10 seconds or better 10 breaths. No toughts whatsoever.
    4. If everything fails, have a book or e-reader ready, so you can relax while reading for a bit. Nothing with LCD screens though, they tend to wake you up even more.
    • Ulvain@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      9 months ago

      These are great tricks!! I’d add one that’s always worked for me: if you can’t get your mind to go still in pt#3 above, think back of the story in a book or show you like, and let your mind wander about the characters, the story, the background, the intrigue etc. Focusing on fiction and story helps me drift back, vs focusing on real life things…