How do you go "back" to sleep?

I listen to a book on CD or tape. It lowers my anxiety, distracts me from the feeling of “not falling to sleep” and doesn’t seem to strangle me when I do. Only downsize is the cost of AA batteries.

usually I just turn the TV back on and set the sleep timer again

I have recently taken to listening to noise sounds (waves, water, breeze) via an app on my iPhone called Ambiance. It has been working this past week, as I too suffer from middle insomnia.

I have a ‘sound spa’, and I turn on the ‘summer night’ selection. The crickets are soothing for me, and I am able to drift back off to sleep.

When I was preggers I had major insomnia. I started listening to talk radio….I now leave the radio on all night long, routinely.

The BBC is on from 12 midnight to 5AM. It is very educational and interesting. It distracts me enough from obsessing about not being asleep to sometimes actually….sleep.

I have an ionizing air purifier (made by Hampton Bay) on my nightstand that generates white noise aplenty. I honestly do not know how I survived without it.

i think the greatest man-made sleep sound is the noise of a humidifier or a fan. quite comforting actually.

It depends for me on what is causing me to be unable to sleep. I have different methods for different problems:

1. If it was a bad dream or generalized anxiety (for example, there was a scary domestic violence incident across the street last weekend and we ended up causing 911 at 3 AM after one guy broke the picture window in the front of their house), I ask my hubby to spoon me. That makes me feel safe enough to drift off.

2. If I can’t turn off my mind, I use a variation on a common visualiztion technique. I picture myself dumping each worry or care in physical form in a pile on a riverbank. Then I step into a small rowboat, lie down in it, and using one foot push off from the bank and drift down the river away from my cares.

3. If I have no idea why and nothing else works, I have found if I get up and go to the couch and read for 20–40 minutes, I will start yawning.

Nighty, night, cc34 and sweet dreams!

I forgot to mention Milo. He senses when I wake up; having him walk around on top of me in the dark makes me laugh. Having him then choose to curl up in the most inconvenient spot for me also makes me laugh.

:0)

I’ve heard masturbation works :), not that I know or anything!

I think sex definitely helps: solo, with partner, or just dreaming about the next time…

I pray myself back to sleep or play on my iPhone.

I lay on my back with my arms above my head on the pillow. For some reason, this position puts me back to sleep pretty quickly.

I’ll go to the kitchen, have a light snack with milk, then go sleep on the couch.

I am a total insomniac

Gail please cover your ears. (or eyes).

I rub one out or get the lady next to me to help in a similar fashion. It pits me right out.

I also like ambient noise like a fan or mellow music on the lowest setting.

dream about my fantasy life, in which I’m a hot, attractive fetish model who also happens to be a billionarie. I smile myself back to sleep.

I open a book that’s really boring (I always seem to have plenty of them lying around…)

or if I want to keep the lights off, I’ll talk to myself about how it’s not that important whether I go to sleep or not, and play the ‘isn’t it nice?’ game – i think about how i don’t have to do any work right now, or pay attention in class, or stand on my feet, or sit in an uncomfortable chair, or figure out anything, all i have to do is lie here, relax, and enjoy how warm and soft my bed is. i focus on different body parts – my toes, my heels, my feet, my calves and lower legs, thighs, butt, lower back, upper back, arms, neck, head, and concentrate on each one, thinking about how comfy and warm they are. sometimes i readjust them to get even more comfortable. if i’m still awake when i’m done with that i just try to be thankful that i can just relax in my bed, and not worry about sleeping or not. if i start to worry about the things in my life, i say to myself ‘shhhh, it’s okay. worrying now won’t help. just relax.’

usually i fall asleep pretty quickly this way.

@chica: LOL! I laugh because if I did that, my mind would say, “F*** off, idiot, the world is ending! Worry more!!” and I’d stay awake. You’re lucky that works for you!

@Marcis; Whatever pits you out is find by me.

poof, you’re not the one in charge of your own mind? ;-)

edit: fine

@chica: absolutely not! Either that or I’m completely sadistic.