I read books in bed to help fall asleep
Not just one thing but
- no coffee after lunch
- Magnesium Threonate after dinner
- reading, stretching and/or meditation before bed
- dark room
- physiological sign (I learned from Huberman’s podcast)
And tracking my sleep quality with my smart watch
Losing half my skull, got me a month long coma. Problem with that is I did not wake up energised haha.
As far as being able to calm down before bed - avoiding TV / phone screens is a big one.
Reading is good. Reading about positive things. Better.
There is a ton of research around using sleep to hard code thoughts. Which - if you were doing deep thinking about work could help but if our goal is calming down… you’re right. Prob won’t help.
I’ve experienced a noticeable difference with my blue light blocking glasses. I don’t care if they look kinda weird - I’m at home anyway and wear them after the sun goes down/couple hours before bed. I’ll get tired even if I’m using my phone, and I’ve noticed my eyes feel less strained as well when I wear them. Sleep comes easier when I use them - even if it is just a placebo. Works for me.
Going to bed by 10pm for me. I am a night owl and have been my whole life. Making this switch really changed things for me. Now if I wake at 4am, I’ve still had a decent night’s sleep. And if I wake at 1 or 2am, there is lots of time to get back to sleep for the rest of the night before I have to get up for work. I also find that the days I can work from home, waking up an hour later because I don’t have to commute or get as dressed up make a huge difference for getting a better amount of sleep.
Taking Magnesium supplements and eating magnesium rich food before bed. Kiwi works great! Recently, I found that hot chocolate is also really good for sleep. Milk has tryptophan and chocolate has Magnesium, both needed for sleep. But I think drinking hot milk also works, since it make you feel cozy and full with some carbs, again good for sleep .
@Harmon
The caffeine in hot chocolate doesn’t bother you ?
Amari said:
@Harmon
The caffeine in hot chocolate doesn’t bother you ?
The caffeine is in really minimal amounts and no it doesn’t. This is coming from someone who is extremely sensitive to coffee to the point that I stopped drinking coffee because it affected my sleep even if I had it before 12pm. But like I said, just hot milk can work too!
Medical cannabis flower and oils., plus Dadorexant and melatonin. The combination has been lifechanging, and I now sleep 8 hours a night.
After listening to the Ologies podcast episode on sleep, I started using a comfortable sleep mask. Really did help!
Ashwagandha. It suppresses cortisol which makes all the difference. You may need to experiment to find a dose that works for you without making you unmotivated and missing your usual joi de vivre.
Weighted blanket
Sleep earphones
Eyemask
It’s primarily the eyemask and earphones that helps. Block out light and listen to something mildly interesting and soothing, helps me from thoughts spiraling away and usually I fall asleep quite quickly.
Acupuncture, Ashwagandha and a sleep hypnosis session on Spotify
Not eating past 3pm
Cymbalta, CBD, Hydroxyzine and a weighted sleep mask finally got rid of my chronic insomnia of 3 years.
Red light therapy 10 minutes before bed has massively changed my sleep pattern for the better 
Eating a piece of toast. I dont know why, but I swear by it.
Isle said:
Eating a piece of toast. I dont know why, but I swear by it.
Maybe it’s the carbs helping to release serotonin and get you feeling more relaxed before bed. Toast could be a little sleep hack! Do you go for any specific kind of bread, or just whatever you have around?
@Winslow
Nothing specific. I can’t even explain but it works for me!