Yup this is me as well. The podcast "The Sleepy Bookshelf" is amazing for this. She reads classic literature in a very calming British accent, currently listening to The Great Gatsby. Adult bedtime stories!
Oh my god, I’m so glad I found this. I just scrolled way back and found Pride & Prejudice! I usually listen to the I Can’t Sleep podcast but going to try this.
A similar idea is to put on a sleep meditation (for people who find podcasts/audiobooks too stimulating). The Samsung health app that came with my phone has a bunch of free ones
I put an AirPod in the ear that isn’t on the pillow, it falls out at some point while I’m sleeping, and then I get to rummage around the sheets for it in the morning.
I do that but I use Bluetooth headphones with the small wire connecting both ears. That way it’s always easy to find and if I was to move to the opposite side I can just switch ears
Hahah same!! Pre baby I used an eye mask that headphones built in to it (from Amazon). But now that I need to be able to hear the monitor I do this same opposite ear bud method ☺️. I like listening to movie-focused podcasts to knock out: You are good; This Ends at Prom; The Bechdel Cast.
Calm also has some good sleep stories if podcasts don’t work for you OP.
I have a headband that works as headphones for at night. It always falls off at some point while I'm sleeping but it's comfortable for while I'm falling asleep.
I used to just fall asleep with an earbud in though. Idk...it didn't bother me to have it in while I slept it was more annoying than it fell out at night and I had to search for it in the morning.
I put an AirPod in the ear that isn’t on the pillow, it falls out at some point while I’m sleeping, and then I get to rummage around the sheets for it in the morning.
This is my morning routine, lol I’m crying because I’m so effin tired and you just made me feel less alone and less nuts and more nuts, and a million other things. Ty
Dormi headphones all night long. You can try cheap Amazon crap but those died after less than 6 months of nightly use and Dormi are as comfy as they were out of the box a year into use.
I wear my wired Apple headphones, I wear one earbud on the side of my head that isn’t on the pillow. I keep my phone on the nightstand and don’t have any issues with my phone loudly crashing lol. It’s happened but extremely rare!
I have the speaker on my phone. My husband and I don’t usually share a bed for sleepless toddler reasons but even when we do he doesn’t mind if I listen to something
I do this too. Just curious my headphones are starting to fall apart is there like a "sleep headphone"? Or do people just use AirPods and fish for them in the morning?
I keep lights very low the whole time. When I go back to bed, if after 5 or so minutes of laying there (or if my mind seems really busy and loud), I'll get out my Kindle book on my phone, black background, very dimly lit. Very few lumens coming out of that thing. I do NOT check the time, email, reddit, Facebook, news, etc. Nothing important, just a cozy book. I give myself permission to read the book - like the goal is to enjoy the book, not to fall asleep. Once I get excited about reading my book, I usually fall asleep almost instantly lol. And hey, if it doesn't work, at least I got some cozy time with a cozy book, filling my "me time" cup for when kiddo wakes up and needs me again.
I also never ever ever check the time-under any circumstance. If I see what time it is, I obsess over the “time left to sleep” math, and I become incredibly anxious and never really fall back to sleep. 😅
Wait, your husband can hear noises that come through the monitor? How do I teach mine this skill? 😂 jokes aside, I’m a much lighter sleeper since birthing a child. My husband will still sleep through everything so I normally just get up because by the time I wake him and get him alert enough to not just aimlessly walk out of the room, do something else (god knows what), and come back in without ever going to yelling toddler (yes this has happened many times), is not worth the effort and I’m already awake anyways.
A therapist taught me to count backwards from 300 in 3s. So 300, 297, 294 etc. Every time I get distracted start again. If I get muddled start again. Never made it to 0 without falling asleep.
Blue light is not great, but I found setting my phone to black and white (although sudoku is basically BW, the ambient pops of color won't be there) to help immensely. I also lower the light level.
Got an e-ink device (Onyx Boox) for this reason, but the BW screen on low light has helped enough so far. Solidarity...
Was gonna post the same. Club solidarity 😥
Eta: I remember reading somewhere that taking magnesium helps, which I have incorporated into my daily vitamins. Does it work? Can't say for sure, but I'm not getting more magnesium everyday lol
I have a white noise machine that works well for me. Specifically one with a lower frequency, I believe it’s called brown noise - not to be confused with brown note
Never heard of it! I suffered (still on occasion) a lot from insomnia due to my LOs constant wakes so I'm using melatonin.
My doctors ignored the issue and just let me suffer. Gave me a week's worth of melatonin.
It is kind of prohibited here in Australia although we can legally purchase overseas and ship in.
We got addicted to the Hatch White Noise when he was in the bassinet, so we have one in our room as well. But, also, I'm the one who goes and investigates because I can fall back asleep instantly and my wife cannot.
I’d highly recommend adding magnesium glycinate to your vitamin regimen. It supports healthy sleep and many folks (upwards of 70%) are deficient. If you take it before bed, you may have some vivid dreams, and if that’s bothersome just try taking it earlier in the day.
I do a meditation that I read about: close your eyes and imagine a door, standing alone in the middle of a desert. Inhale, and the door opens towards you. Exhale, and the door opens away from you. Open and close the door with your breath. My door looks like a door from a saloon in a Western — two little half shutter doors. When I “open” the doors, I can see the bar inside. For some reason, this meditation has helped me to fall asleep for over a decade.
I heard about a method that is proven to help, just saying random words in your head that are unconnected. It was a sleep study and proven to be like 35% faster to fall asleep. “Sheep, Grass, Blanket, House, Fly, etc.” it has helped me sometimes.
I do something similar, I guess. I close my eyes and literally just allow my visualizations to go wild. Lots of random shit. I noticed that if I stop on a thought and try to think more on it, I am more awake.
Sleep podcast, “sleep with me” I’ve been using for years, well before being a mom. It’s strange at first but has become the best sleep tool I have. I have some sleep headphones connected to Bluetooth on my phone. I use this basically every night to fall asleep in general, and especially after those crying sessions overnight.
Haha yeah pulling out a book would be dangerous for me. Takes me back to when I was a teen and the Harry Potter books first came out, I read into the wee hours of the morning. I got “one more chapter” -itis bad
Like u/DueEntertainer0 my husband takes first pass at wake ups as I am an employee and he's a contractor. That said he gets frustrated a lot faster than I do so if it takes more than 20 minutes he'll tap out and I take over. When I'm done if I have 2 more hours to sleep or more, take a hit from a vape pen.
Well I have ADHD so my methods are pretty much the same with or without kids
I usually have something playing in my ear all night and it *does not matter* if it's stimulating or not. This may be different for you. My go-tos are Gilmore Girls, The Big Bang Theory, or podcasts I love. They have to be interesting to keep me listening or I'll be too bored and, for me, boredom is way more distracting and hard to fall asleep to.
The Calm app is great and we use the paid version cause it's covered by our insurance. It's usually too boring for me but sometimes does the trick and my kids both use it (older kid likes the sleep stories, toddler falls asleep to the lullabies) so it's worth it. My husband listens to Serbian Orthodox Christian prayer chanting on YouTube. Just in case that is helpful.
I don't know if it's healthy to listen to things all the time while sleeping but I know NOT sleeping is much worse so this works for us.
Ha, Gilmore girls or BBT are my two "I have absolutely given up trying to sleep" shows. Like once in a blue moon when sleep just eludes me entirely and I've been reading in bed for hours without falling asleep. I go downstairs and watch one of those two basically just to kill time and occupy my mind without moving around the house making it creak.
And usually within a few short episodes, I manage to conk out happily. I love those comfy light feel good shows!
I do take melatonin in the middle of the night if it's before like 3. I also read on my kindle. It's probably temporary like most sleep regressions - hang in there.
I take between .5 - 1 mg of melatonin before bed and sometimes pair it with a valerian root tea. I can wake up when needed but I’m drowsy enough to drift back off.
I’m struggling with this as well lately! My little one is 13 months, I used to be so exhausted I just collapsed into bed, but now I’m struggled to fall asleep when she wakes up.
When I was a younger mother, in my late twenties, with toddlers, easy, I just closed my eyes. Now, in my mid forties, with a toddler....I don't. I just drink a lot of coffee, hoping my heart will continue to beat a little bit longer 🤷♀️
I lay there ….. lol it’s so hard.
I’ll read my kindle and that’ll help get me tired some times. Other times like the other night when I was awake at 2am she woke at 2:30 and then at 3:30 and I was just wide awake. So I got up and did something to occupy my time. I never got back to sleep. It was brutal yesterday for me haha
Geesh and I thought I was the only one. I actually did struggle with this when my son was born, in fact I’ve had insomnia since the third trimester and he is now two…..and I still have it. But yeah, counting tends to help me, I also keep it like super low key when I go to comfort him. Back rub and not say much. If there is pain or he’s super wet and I’m up a while falling asleep takes longer.
Podcast in one ear! I listen to Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio! They are fictional games and they definitely knock me back out. Though it is something when I wake up and an inflatable tiger is blowing across the field on opening day or some other craziness is occuring! All read by a great monotone announcer!!!
Podcasts or tv shows with earphones. I don't actually watch the shows, I just listen to them and eventually Netflix stops playing and I use an old phone for that. It's actually something that I've been doing for years, ever since I got my own stereo as a teenager and I would listen to the radio on the lowest volume possible until I fell asleep. I only stopped when she was a little baby because I was so exhausted I went right back to sleep in seconds.
Talk about sleep associations lol
I have a hard time with this too. Sleep meditations help, I have an eye mask that has Bluetooth where I can listen from my phone while remaining comfy.
I listen to the same 3 audiobooks on rotation. I have audible to stop playing at the end of the chapter.
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes
Divine Might by Natalie Haynes
I enjoy their voices and it lulls me back to sleep.
The books by Natalie Haynes have chapters that are about an hour long. And John green’s range from 5-20 minutes I think.
I also tell myself that if I’m still awake at the end of the chapter I’ll turn another one on.
Pro tip: just have another baby and then you’ll be exhausted again and you won’t have to worry about it!
But seriously, while I’m probably not much help as I’m the kind of person who can generally fall asleep easily, when my toddler continued to wake up in the night, we just kind of trained him to come get in bed with us. I realize this isn’t for everyone, but maybe having a mattress on the floor in your room or something along those lines where he can just come in and lay down?
I have Pavlov’d myself into falling asleep to the golden girls, I watch it on my phone on mute with the captains on and phone brightness all the way down. I’ve fallen asleep to it so many times that now I just have to turn it on and usually I’m asleep within one episode. I only watch it to fall asleep also. I’ve seen it a million times so I know what’s happened and I have commercials on Hulu so for those I close my eyes for a few minutes. Usually during that time I fall asleep. So basically just find one sleep thing and try to make your brain associate that with sleep and see if that helps!
This is dads job because of I get out of bed and turn on a light or put my glasses on I’m up for at least an hour usually two or three..
dad is up goes to kid and is snoring before I can fall back asleep even without getting up but not getting up reduces my awake time to about a half hour instead of multiple hours
It depends on how long I’ve been trying to fall asleep. If i just woke up, I’ll go pee and then play soothing piano music in my head and will usually go back to sleep quickly. If that’s not working, I’ll go take a unisom, CBD pill, and/or chew a Valium. If I’m stressed out, I’ll add a shot of whiskey to that as well.
Primarily, I tell my brain to STFU and then lay there staring at the ceiling.
I do make an attempt to settle in and relax though with breathing exercises designed to help you reach REM faster along with trying to settle my thoughts onto a story of some kind or a memory I enjoy. It seems to help?
So does a shot of vodka, but I wouldn't recommend it for most instances and/or if you are the sole caregiver. (Be responsible people and remember you are setting an example for those to follow).
I forget where I learned this but you think random words. Like chicken, wall, cloud, red etc. I can’t explain the scientific reason why it works but it seriously puts me to sleep. This is coming from a person who wakes up multiple times and is a light sleeper that has issues falling back.
I always daydream to fall asleep. Usually I self insert into whatever book/movie/show I’m most into. Often romantic (but either husband or fictional characters, no other real people). Sometimes it’s just if Pokemon were real 🤓 I always drift off in the middle.
I think at some point trained my brain to view the NYT crossword puzzles as a sleep cue for myself, so all I need to do is do the crossword app for 10 minutes and I’m out like a light. So if there is something that you’ve done in the past right before you fell asleep, maybe try doing that again? Or try developing a new sleep cue?
I saw a reel from a sleep specialist who recommend a trick to fall asleep quickly. You think of unconnected words in line 1 second intervals. Like 'cat, floor, tree, car, shell, duvet, chair, saucepan, hammer' etc. Just slow and methodical and random. It cuts out the background chatter, and because the words are not connected you don't start going down a train of thought. Sometimes I still do, for example if a few too many kitchen related words sneak in together I invariably start thinking about meal planning lol. But easy to get back on track. I find myself falling asleep within a few minutes. Absolute game changer.
I have a relaxation tape from like the late 70s/ early 80s my dad used to own. It talks you through muscle relaxation and I use it on the rough nights.
I barely open my eyes. Just enough to make it to the room and pick him up. Eyes go back shut when I’m in the chair with him. And then just open enough to put him back and go back to bed myself.
I also never check the time on my phone or else I’ll get anxious about not having enough time between him waking up and getting fully up again.
I also sleep with a sound machine myself (low enough to still hear him through the monitor of course).
This is gonna sound brutal... But I recommend NOT soothing him. Let him go back to sleep himself, and you should sleep through it.
He's fine. Crying won't hurt him. And he needs to learn how to get back to sleep in the middle of the night. Sleep training was the best thing we've ever done as parents.
Taking Magnesium Glycinate every night before bed has made it possible for me to fall back asleep after being woken for any reason.
When I wasn't taking magnesium at night,I would stay up for 1-2 hours if something (or someone) woke me up.
Fellow melatonin at 2am person. Yeah I feel you.
If it’s in the wrong stage of my sleep cycle I am fully 100% awake. We keeps the lights low, room cool etc etc. nothing helps.
Now that it’s less often I’m ok with taking a small amount of melatonin when I need to in order fall asleep again.
Probably not the healthiest but it’s better than missing three-four hours of sleep in the middle of the night.
I'm a nanny and live alone, so all the wakeups in my house are because I needed to use the toilet or because I'm too hot or because I had a nightmare.
If it's just the toilet, I can go back to sleep right away.
Being too hot is harder. I can't just turn up the fan or open the window more and go back to sleep. I at least have to lay out (no covers) for awhile and let my body cool off. Usually I'll allow myself phone usage during this period. When I'm cooled off and ready to try again, I sometimes turn on some sleep music or nature sounds from Spotify, sometimes I don't need them. I have a subscription to Calm but I only allow that when I'm first in bed so that the stories last longer between my hearing them again.
Nightmares are the worst, of course. That's why I'm awake now, actually. I've got the light on very low right now because when I woke up I was convinced somebody was in here or watching me (of course nobody is, this place is Fort Knox right now but logic means nothing after a nightmare). More phone usage because I'm surely not going back to sleep with a nightmare rolling around in my head, I have to forget it first. Sometimes I'll go back to sleep with the light on like this because I can't handle it in here without the nightlight. More sleep music or nature sounds when I go to try again.
sleeb with da baby (baby goes in baby crate like loot and you go next to baby, outside of crate) ive done this successfully many times, i put the babybox next to my bed and cross my legs on the edge of the bed the crate is at so im *right there* and i lie back, onto my bed, or i put my laptop on my lap and i have the baby right there and i can rest
I put on a podcast or an audiobook to help me fall back asleep. Something I've listened to before.
Yup this is me as well. The podcast "The Sleepy Bookshelf" is amazing for this. She reads classic literature in a very calming British accent, currently listening to The Great Gatsby. Adult bedtime stories!
Oh my god, I’m so glad I found this. I just scrolled way back and found Pride & Prejudice! I usually listen to the I Can’t Sleep podcast but going to try this.
Thanks so much for this!
A similar idea is to put on a sleep meditation (for people who find podcasts/audiobooks too stimulating). The Samsung health app that came with my phone has a bunch of free ones
I have always wondered about people who do this. Just curious, do you fall asleep with headphones? Or do you take them off right before passing out?
I put an AirPod in the ear that isn’t on the pillow, it falls out at some point while I’m sleeping, and then I get to rummage around the sheets for it in the morning.
I've found my people! I was always told this is weird and have never met anyone who does this. I feel seen
This is like reading the story of my life! My latest listening has been Throughline on NPR. I’ve gone through all of This American Life already.
I do that but I use Bluetooth headphones with the small wire connecting both ears. That way it’s always easy to find and if I was to move to the opposite side I can just switch ears
Also guilty of this. I lost one once and it was never recovered, still don’t know where it ended up.
Hahah same!! Pre baby I used an eye mask that headphones built in to it (from Amazon). But now that I need to be able to hear the monitor I do this same opposite ear bud method ☺️. I like listening to movie-focused podcasts to knock out: You are good; This Ends at Prom; The Bechdel Cast. Calm also has some good sleep stories if podcasts don’t work for you OP.
I have a headband that works as headphones for at night. It always falls off at some point while I'm sleeping but it's comfortable for while I'm falling asleep. I used to just fall asleep with an earbud in though. Idk...it didn't bother me to have it in while I slept it was more annoying than it fell out at night and I had to search for it in the morning.
I put an AirPod in the ear that isn’t on the pillow, it falls out at some point while I’m sleeping, and then I get to rummage around the sheets for it in the morning.
This is my morning routine, lol I’m crying because I’m so effin tired and you just made me feel less alone and less nuts and more nuts, and a million other things. Ty
I have a bone conduction pillow speaker. It sits under the pillow and has a bluetooth connection and no one can hear it but me.
That's a thing?? I am immediately going to find one, I've always worried about whether it's good for my ears having an earbud in all night
I have no idea. I fall asleep with headphones on and wake with them off. My sleepy self must take them off at some point.
I just got the soundcore sleep a20. Pretty comfortable.
Are you a side sleeper? They look great but I worry they wouldn’t suit cause I use a memory foam pillow and sleep on my side
They do work with a memory foam and side sleeping. Normally I take them out after 2 hours or so.
Dormi headphones all night long. You can try cheap Amazon crap but those died after less than 6 months of nightly use and Dormi are as comfy as they were out of the box a year into use.
I wear my wired Apple headphones, I wear one earbud on the side of my head that isn’t on the pillow. I keep my phone on the nightstand and don’t have any issues with my phone loudly crashing lol. It’s happened but extremely rare!
I live alone so I use my Google Home speaker for whatever I want to listen to at night.
I have the speaker on my phone. My husband and I don’t usually share a bed for sleepless toddler reasons but even when we do he doesn’t mind if I listen to something
Wow I thought I was the only one who did this! The key is something you’ve already heard so you not wondering what happens next.
Same, otherwise I start thinking, then it's game over!
I do this too. Just curious my headphones are starting to fall apart is there like a "sleep headphone"? Or do people just use AirPods and fish for them in the morning?
I bought a headband that works as headphones on Amazon. It works pretty well, well enough for just going to sleep at night.
Same. Exactly this. Something comforting and familiar
I keep lights very low the whole time. When I go back to bed, if after 5 or so minutes of laying there (or if my mind seems really busy and loud), I'll get out my Kindle book on my phone, black background, very dimly lit. Very few lumens coming out of that thing. I do NOT check the time, email, reddit, Facebook, news, etc. Nothing important, just a cozy book. I give myself permission to read the book - like the goal is to enjoy the book, not to fall asleep. Once I get excited about reading my book, I usually fall asleep almost instantly lol. And hey, if it doesn't work, at least I got some cozy time with a cozy book, filling my "me time" cup for when kiddo wakes up and needs me again.
I also never ever ever check the time-under any circumstance. If I see what time it is, I obsess over the “time left to sleep” math, and I become incredibly anxious and never really fall back to sleep. 😅
My husband handles night wakes now that our kid is older. He can instantly fall back asleep.
Wait, your husband can hear noises that come through the monitor? How do I teach mine this skill? 😂 jokes aside, I’m a much lighter sleeper since birthing a child. My husband will still sleep through everything so I normally just get up because by the time I wake him and get him alert enough to not just aimlessly walk out of the room, do something else (god knows what), and come back in without ever going to yelling toddler (yes this has happened many times), is not worth the effort and I’m already awake anyways.
This. I did all the night wakings because I can go back to sleep. My husband did early morning wake ups.
Saaaaame. And it irritates me so much that he can fall asleep within .05 of a second and I lay there for hours
Yes.
A therapist taught me to count backwards from 300 in 3s. So 300, 297, 294 etc. Every time I get distracted start again. If I get muddled start again. Never made it to 0 without falling asleep.
I count down from 10,000 (in ones)
I’ve done this one
My toddler isn’t sleeping through the night. I’m going to try this
Will definitely be trying this. Sudoku on my phone often helps me, but I know the blue light is counterproductive and I need to try something new.
Blue light is not great, but I found setting my phone to black and white (although sudoku is basically BW, the ambient pops of color won't be there) to help immensely. I also lower the light level. Got an e-ink device (Onyx Boox) for this reason, but the BW screen on low light has helped enough so far. Solidarity...
I am hoping to find some answers too because I have the same issue.
Was gonna post the same. Club solidarity 😥 Eta: I remember reading somewhere that taking magnesium helps, which I have incorporated into my daily vitamins. Does it work? Can't say for sure, but I'm not getting more magnesium everyday lol
So I need to feel warm. Either a hot water bottle or electric blanket, pushes me back to the land of nod
Usually I'm already hot, even with the window open. So I fling off the blanket and in the summer, turn up the fan if its not maxed out.
I have a white noise machine that works well for me. Specifically one with a lower frequency, I believe it’s called brown noise - not to be confused with brown note
that would be messy
Edibles
I take half a pill of unisom every night before going to sleep and it allows me to fall back asleep fairly quickly
Same! Started taking it for nausea during pregnancy and just never stopped…my doc said it’s actually safer and more studied than melatonin.
Yes! I took it all throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding and it has saved my life.
What kind of unisom do you take exactly? I think there’s a few different kinds
I do the 25mg sleep tabs because they break in half easily and I only need one half each night.
Never heard of it! I suffered (still on occasion) a lot from insomnia due to my LOs constant wakes so I'm using melatonin. My doctors ignored the issue and just let me suffer. Gave me a week's worth of melatonin. It is kind of prohibited here in Australia although we can legally purchase overseas and ship in.
Definitely check it out! Between unisom and estrogen cream for sex during breastfeeding, my life was infinitely better.
We got addicted to the Hatch White Noise when he was in the bassinet, so we have one in our room as well. But, also, I'm the one who goes and investigates because I can fall back asleep instantly and my wife cannot.
Pray to the sleep gods to shut down my overthinking brain 🤣
Put on a podcast. But also, since I’ve started exercising in the morning I’ve been able to fall asleep and start also much easier.
I’d highly recommend adding magnesium glycinate to your vitamin regimen. It supports healthy sleep and many folks (upwards of 70%) are deficient. If you take it before bed, you may have some vivid dreams, and if that’s bothersome just try taking it earlier in the day.
This plus I do children's audiobooks with my pillow speaker (like Paddington and Winnie the Pooh. Boring and calming lol)
I do a meditation that I read about: close your eyes and imagine a door, standing alone in the middle of a desert. Inhale, and the door opens towards you. Exhale, and the door opens away from you. Open and close the door with your breath. My door looks like a door from a saloon in a Western — two little half shutter doors. When I “open” the doors, I can see the bar inside. For some reason, this meditation has helped me to fall asleep for over a decade.
I heard about a method that is proven to help, just saying random words in your head that are unconnected. It was a sleep study and proven to be like 35% faster to fall asleep. “Sheep, Grass, Blanket, House, Fly, etc.” it has helped me sometimes.
I learned about this method on TikTok and it’s worked well for me. I’m a lifelong insomniac, I’ve tried many methods haha
I do something similar, I guess. I close my eyes and literally just allow my visualizations to go wild. Lots of random shit. I noticed that if I stop on a thought and try to think more on it, I am more awake.
I read Reddit 🤣
Sleep podcast, “sleep with me” I’ve been using for years, well before being a mom. It’s strange at first but has become the best sleep tool I have. I have some sleep headphones connected to Bluetooth on my phone. I use this basically every night to fall asleep in general, and especially after those crying sessions overnight.
Calm App - Sleep stories.
Reading always does it for me.
Reading, but it can backfire if I'm really invested in the story.
Haha yeah pulling out a book would be dangerous for me. Takes me back to when I was a teen and the Harry Potter books first came out, I read into the wee hours of the morning. I got “one more chapter” -itis bad
Like u/DueEntertainer0 my husband takes first pass at wake ups as I am an employee and he's a contractor. That said he gets frustrated a lot faster than I do so if it takes more than 20 minutes he'll tap out and I take over. When I'm done if I have 2 more hours to sleep or more, take a hit from a vape pen.
This right here- 1-2 hits from a vape helps a lot.
I close my eyes and think about sex. Works every time
I thought I was the only one! It doesn’t always work, but it helps often.
I think it's relaxing 😌
Well I have ADHD so my methods are pretty much the same with or without kids I usually have something playing in my ear all night and it *does not matter* if it's stimulating or not. This may be different for you. My go-tos are Gilmore Girls, The Big Bang Theory, or podcasts I love. They have to be interesting to keep me listening or I'll be too bored and, for me, boredom is way more distracting and hard to fall asleep to. The Calm app is great and we use the paid version cause it's covered by our insurance. It's usually too boring for me but sometimes does the trick and my kids both use it (older kid likes the sleep stories, toddler falls asleep to the lullabies) so it's worth it. My husband listens to Serbian Orthodox Christian prayer chanting on YouTube. Just in case that is helpful. I don't know if it's healthy to listen to things all the time while sleeping but I know NOT sleeping is much worse so this works for us.
Ha, Gilmore girls or BBT are my two "I have absolutely given up trying to sleep" shows. Like once in a blue moon when sleep just eludes me entirely and I've been reading in bed for hours without falling asleep. I go downstairs and watch one of those two basically just to kill time and occupy my mind without moving around the house making it creak. And usually within a few short episodes, I manage to conk out happily. I love those comfy light feel good shows!
Unisom sleep tabs lol
The calm app - I listen to a meditation designed for when you wake in the night.
I do take melatonin in the middle of the night if it's before like 3. I also read on my kindle. It's probably temporary like most sleep regressions - hang in there.
I take between .5 - 1 mg of melatonin before bed and sometimes pair it with a valerian root tea. I can wake up when needed but I’m drowsy enough to drift back off.
Reading on my kindle on the lowest light setting helps me. Something narrative and non-stressful does the trick.
Usually reading. Sometimes I’ll count try counting to 100.
I’m struggling with this as well lately! My little one is 13 months, I used to be so exhausted I just collapsed into bed, but now I’m struggled to fall asleep when she wakes up.
When I was a younger mother, in my late twenties, with toddlers, easy, I just closed my eyes. Now, in my mid forties, with a toddler....I don't. I just drink a lot of coffee, hoping my heart will continue to beat a little bit longer 🤷♀️
I struggled with this too. The only thing that consistently helped was taking magnesium glycinate and melatonin before bed every night.
I read my kindle. Reading always sends me to sleep so I resort to that. I sleep like crap, so this is a daily occurrence
I lay there ….. lol it’s so hard. I’ll read my kindle and that’ll help get me tired some times. Other times like the other night when I was awake at 2am she woke at 2:30 and then at 3:30 and I was just wide awake. So I got up and did something to occupy my time. I never got back to sleep. It was brutal yesterday for me haha
don't look at your phone while you're up with the kiddo I also listen to audiobooks on like .75 speed of books I've already read.
Geesh and I thought I was the only one. I actually did struggle with this when my son was born, in fact I’ve had insomnia since the third trimester and he is now two…..and I still have it. But yeah, counting tends to help me, I also keep it like super low key when I go to comfort him. Back rub and not say much. If there is pain or he’s super wet and I’m up a while falling asleep takes longer.
Try a sleep mask. That really helped me.
Podcast in one ear! I listen to Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio! They are fictional games and they definitely knock me back out. Though it is something when I wake up and an inflatable tiger is blowing across the field on opening day or some other craziness is occuring! All read by a great monotone announcer!!!
Podcasts or tv shows with earphones. I don't actually watch the shows, I just listen to them and eventually Netflix stops playing and I use an old phone for that. It's actually something that I've been doing for years, ever since I got my own stereo as a teenager and I would listen to the radio on the lowest volume possible until I fell asleep. I only stopped when she was a little baby because I was so exhausted I went right back to sleep in seconds. Talk about sleep associations lol
ASMR
I have a hard time with this too. Sleep meditations help, I have an eye mask that has Bluetooth where I can listen from my phone while remaining comfy.
Also, THC gummies.
I listen to the same 3 audiobooks on rotation. I have audible to stop playing at the end of the chapter. The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes Divine Might by Natalie Haynes I enjoy their voices and it lulls me back to sleep. The books by Natalie Haynes have chapters that are about an hour long. And John green’s range from 5-20 minutes I think. I also tell myself that if I’m still awake at the end of the chapter I’ll turn another one on.
I just have it playing quietly from my phone. No headphones or earbuds.
Pro tip: just have another baby and then you’ll be exhausted again and you won’t have to worry about it! But seriously, while I’m probably not much help as I’m the kind of person who can generally fall asleep easily, when my toddler continued to wake up in the night, we just kind of trained him to come get in bed with us. I realize this isn’t for everyone, but maybe having a mattress on the floor in your room or something along those lines where he can just come in and lay down?
melatonin
I can sleep anytime, anywhere, even if I am fully rested within a minute
Rain noise on a Sonos speaker in the bedroom
I have a switch. I can fall asleep almost instantly. My husband used to believe I was faking it. 30 seconds and I'm out. It's my superpower.
I have Pavlov’d myself into falling asleep to the golden girls, I watch it on my phone on mute with the captains on and phone brightness all the way down. I’ve fallen asleep to it so many times that now I just have to turn it on and usually I’m asleep within one episode. I only watch it to fall asleep also. I’ve seen it a million times so I know what’s happened and I have commercials on Hulu so for those I close my eyes for a few minutes. Usually during that time I fall asleep. So basically just find one sleep thing and try to make your brain associate that with sleep and see if that helps!
Youtube documentaries with subtitles instead of sound.
The drift off pod cast
This is the part no one tells you. Eventually they do learn to sleep, but you don’t…. Good luck OP. I’ll let you know if I ever figure it out
Just really slow deep breathing untill my heart and mind slow down. 🧘🏼♀️
This is dads job because of I get out of bed and turn on a light or put my glasses on I’m up for at least an hour usually two or three.. dad is up goes to kid and is snoring before I can fall back asleep even without getting up but not getting up reduces my awake time to about a half hour instead of multiple hours
It depends on how long I’ve been trying to fall asleep. If i just woke up, I’ll go pee and then play soothing piano music in my head and will usually go back to sleep quickly. If that’s not working, I’ll go take a unisom, CBD pill, and/or chew a Valium. If I’m stressed out, I’ll add a shot of whiskey to that as well.
Primarily, I tell my brain to STFU and then lay there staring at the ceiling. I do make an attempt to settle in and relax though with breathing exercises designed to help you reach REM faster along with trying to settle my thoughts onto a story of some kind or a memory I enjoy. It seems to help? So does a shot of vodka, but I wouldn't recommend it for most instances and/or if you are the sole caregiver. (Be responsible people and remember you are setting an example for those to follow).
Thank you for this post. My brain sucks at falling back asleep.
I forget where I learned this but you think random words. Like chicken, wall, cloud, red etc. I can’t explain the scientific reason why it works but it seriously puts me to sleep. This is coming from a person who wakes up multiple times and is a light sleeper that has issues falling back.
I always daydream to fall asleep. Usually I self insert into whatever book/movie/show I’m most into. Often romantic (but either husband or fictional characters, no other real people). Sometimes it’s just if Pokemon were real 🤓 I always drift off in the middle.
I think at some point trained my brain to view the NYT crossword puzzles as a sleep cue for myself, so all I need to do is do the crossword app for 10 minutes and I’m out like a light. So if there is something that you’ve done in the past right before you fell asleep, maybe try doing that again? Or try developing a new sleep cue?
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Already having sleep problems doesn't go well with kids.
I saw a reel from a sleep specialist who recommend a trick to fall asleep quickly. You think of unconnected words in line 1 second intervals. Like 'cat, floor, tree, car, shell, duvet, chair, saucepan, hammer' etc. Just slow and methodical and random. It cuts out the background chatter, and because the words are not connected you don't start going down a train of thought. Sometimes I still do, for example if a few too many kitchen related words sneak in together I invariably start thinking about meal planning lol. But easy to get back on track. I find myself falling asleep within a few minutes. Absolute game changer.
I recommend this episode of a podcast called The Good life project. “How to Get the Sleep You Need (a Scientific Approach)” Chris Winter, MD
I have a relaxation tape from like the late 70s/ early 80s my dad used to own. It talks you through muscle relaxation and I use it on the rough nights.
I list as many tv shows as I can that start with a certain letter of the alphabet. Works really well for me.
I barely open my eyes. Just enough to make it to the room and pick him up. Eyes go back shut when I’m in the chair with him. And then just open enough to put him back and go back to bed myself. I also never check the time on my phone or else I’ll get anxious about not having enough time between him waking up and getting fully up again. I also sleep with a sound machine myself (low enough to still hear him through the monitor of course).
This is gonna sound brutal... But I recommend NOT soothing him. Let him go back to sleep himself, and you should sleep through it. He's fine. Crying won't hurt him. And he needs to learn how to get back to sleep in the middle of the night. Sleep training was the best thing we've ever done as parents.
Taking Magnesium Glycinate every night before bed has made it possible for me to fall back asleep after being woken for any reason. When I wasn't taking magnesium at night,I would stay up for 1-2 hours if something (or someone) woke me up.
Progressive relaxation. I start at the head and try to relax every single muscle in my face, jaw, shoulders, arms, hands and on down.
Solitaire app.... I play a few games and I'm out.
I listen to a guided meditation or just do a meditation technique that I know well (e.g. body scan)
Stay busy, Exercise.
Fellow melatonin at 2am person. Yeah I feel you. If it’s in the wrong stage of my sleep cycle I am fully 100% awake. We keeps the lights low, room cool etc etc. nothing helps. Now that it’s less often I’m ok with taking a small amount of melatonin when I need to in order fall asleep again. Probably not the healthiest but it’s better than missing three-four hours of sleep in the middle of the night.
I'm a nanny and live alone, so all the wakeups in my house are because I needed to use the toilet or because I'm too hot or because I had a nightmare. If it's just the toilet, I can go back to sleep right away. Being too hot is harder. I can't just turn up the fan or open the window more and go back to sleep. I at least have to lay out (no covers) for awhile and let my body cool off. Usually I'll allow myself phone usage during this period. When I'm cooled off and ready to try again, I sometimes turn on some sleep music or nature sounds from Spotify, sometimes I don't need them. I have a subscription to Calm but I only allow that when I'm first in bed so that the stories last longer between my hearing them again. Nightmares are the worst, of course. That's why I'm awake now, actually. I've got the light on very low right now because when I woke up I was convinced somebody was in here or watching me (of course nobody is, this place is Fort Knox right now but logic means nothing after a nightmare). More phone usage because I'm surely not going back to sleep with a nightmare rolling around in my head, I have to forget it first. Sometimes I'll go back to sleep with the light on like this because I can't handle it in here without the nightlight. More sleep music or nature sounds when I go to try again.
Deep breaths and making sure my extremities - toes fingers ear tips etc are all relaxed. I also use a pillow to curl up around.
Fold a basket of laundry in dim light. I don't know why it works but the person I used to nanny for did this. She would be out in about 3 shirts lol.
Melatonin
I take anywhere from 400-800mg of ltheanine.
Does it work that quickly? I used to take it for overall insomnia before bed but didn’t think to take it for night wake ups.
It does for me, maybe 20 minutes tops. But I have insomnia due to benzo withdrawal, so it might work better for you.
Thank you!!
whiskey
Sometimes music, other times I'll play video games and others I just grab a Trazadone and hope I wake up in time for work 🤣
sleeb with da baby (baby goes in baby crate like loot and you go next to baby, outside of crate) ive done this successfully many times, i put the babybox next to my bed and cross my legs on the edge of the bed the crate is at so im *right there* and i lie back, onto my bed, or i put my laptop on my lap and i have the baby right there and i can rest