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?

  • fitgse@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    7 months ago

    Here is what I do, it is a type of visualization meditation.

    I have been watching futurama (original seasons) for 20 something years. I have seen each episode literally hundreds of times. I have them burned pretty well into my brain at this point.

    I have ripped just the audio track from the DVDs. When I wake up in the middle of the night (2-4 times per night!), I turn on a random episode as audio only.

    The goal here is to try to visualize the episode as you only listen to the audio. This forces you to focus on something rather than stress about life. It really helps me stop thinking about anything else. Because I know the episodes so well, it has become quite easy to stay focused on it (like watching with your eyes closed). And since I’ve seen the episodes so many times there is no fear of missing out, so you don’t try to stay awake to finish an episode. I can typically fall back asleep within 5-10 minutes with this technique.

    I personally have these on my phone in a playlist and sleep with a single wired ear bud in one ear. I have a sleep timer set for 25 minutes. If I wake up, all I have to do is tap the button on my wired Apple headphones and it’ll continue playing for 25 more minutes. No need to open my eyes or take off my sleep mask.