20
votes
What habits help your sleep the most?
For me, it has to be getting up the moment I wake up. No matter if I wake up before the alarm, I still get up. That helps a lot with fighting oversleeping. Not only am I late, but I also feel bad after spending a lot of time in bed, my head often hurts. So I only figured I better spend less time sleeping than more. And it works, too!
No caffeine after noon; timed blue-light filtering and meditation apps. Also, these days, OTC anti-inflammatory meds before bed 'cause I'm starting to get old and creaky, and the payback for an active life has come due. No more waking up in the middle of the night with a knee or hip or shoulder ache.
What sorts of meditation apps do you use? I'm enjoying Headspace.
Headspace as well. "Monkey mind" is a huge problem when I'm trying to get to sleep or if I wake up during the night, and it's the best way to help the scurrying anxious thoughts to bed down.
Putting on a blindfold (or sleep mask) so I can sleep in a truly dark room.
Amazing difference in getting asleep at night and sleeping a full night's sleep even after dawn.
Don't go to bed until sleepy.
If not asleep in 30 minutes, get back up out of bed.
Wake up early every morning, no matter how tired.
Sleep mask + foam ear buds when in a strange room.
Ambien for the first 1-2 days in a different timezone.
Treatment for sleep apnea.
White noise. All I need is a simple fan running to stir the air a bit and I sleep quite well. If the power goes off and the noise disappears I'll end up bolt-upright and wide awake within a minute. If the white noise isn't present, I tend to fixate on every little sound - crickets, floodboards creaking as they expand/contract from heat changes, rain dripping, cars driving by, trains, people or tv at low volume somewhere else in the house - whatever. The white noise masks that stuff so I can ignore it.
I get insomnia about twice a month. I find a tiny nip of cannabis is the perfect cure for that, always puts me to sleep in minutes.
I can sleep without white noise, but it's better with it because of my tinnitus.
Even when it's cold i turn on the fan facing the wall.
I turn off my lightbulbs and turn on my LEDs to orange-red if I still need light. I don't know if that helps but I do it. If I'm having a real tough time getting to sleep I'll listen to some audio, heartbeats or storms/rain or just plain white noise depending on my mood. Gives me something to focus on I think.
Kindle Paperwhite, seriously. It's like magic.
Grab a folding cover for it, go to bed, put it on it's side and start reading. 10 minutes tops i'm sleeping.
I have worked on the following habits to help me sleep:
focusing on my breathing helps me sleep