What is your "go to bed" routine?

I drink cheap liquor and talk to people on fluther until they tell me I am drunk and should go to bed.

If I work too late I have the same problem and lie there with work crap spinning around in my head. So now I try to stop working at least an hour or two before bed and I read in bed for a while. That helps me switch off and fall asleep.

I get ready for bed, then give the cats treats, and play fetch with my little girl cat (shh!! Don’t tell her she’s not a dog, lol!) Sometimes I read a bit, and then it’s lights out…

I like to play flow free on my nook. I put the light background setting to low. After a few minutes of playing and as I get tired my ability lessens and that is when I figure I am too brain dead to continue. Then I fall to sleep.
Another trick I use to use when I was working was to lay in bed in the dark (of course) and concentrate on the same number over and over again. The number would be the time I was to wake up. I actually did this to make sure I woke up a minute before the alarm because I hated hearing that thing buzz first thing in the morning.
It did work but I also found it worked to quickly send me off to sleep.
There was a draw back after a while of doing it. I started to wake up one minute before the alarm and shut it off and pass out again. Made me late for work a few times :(

Hubby has restless legs. We have discovered that he sleeps much better if he drinks a glass of red wine before bed. Other types of alcohol don’t help.

My routine is a nice, cool shower in the summer, a little fluthering, a bedtime snack raisenettes now. lol I play with my 2 cats too….zing the laser pointer around for them and then they are ready for bed too. I also go outside and sit by my garden in a little chair and just enjoy the coming darkness and summer night sounds.
I usually fall asleep easily, but sometimes wake up about 5 a.m. an hour and a half or so before I get up and then toss and turn, knowing I have to get up soon. l hate it when this happens, then I will finally doze off again about 30 minutes before I have to get up.

Grrr.
I will be sprawling out soon…aaaah….sweet sleep.

I put on a pair of cut off pajamas, brush my teeth, urinate, then twist my back and neck. Lastly, I pray.

Roll your eyes back and try to visualize your ideal vacation spot.

@Nullo If you are rolling your eyes back wouldn’t that mean you are having a seizure or something? lol

Nope. Just like some people smoke without being on fire. :D

I brush my teeth, floss, and mouthwash, then lay in bed and talk to you jellies until I get smacked in the face by one of you rudely telling me to stay awake…wtf, I’m up! :O

Then I realize it’s a dream within a dream and I just got hit in the face by my phone..OK..ouch, not a jellie¡

I like to listen to the radio in the evening (Radio New Zealand, public radio), lots of interesting interviews and documentary features, I lie in bed and listen, the radio is timed to go off at 11 p.m. and I am very rarely awake by that time, very rarely, it is my time and I relish it.

Are you a night owl? Does your “productivity” spike in the evening, and are you usually groggy when you wake up? Two strategies for night owls are to get up at the last possible minute and rush to get ready, or to get up early-ish and really stumble your way through the morning.

Probably, the best thing you can do is quiet your mind. There are two ways to do this. As mentioned (sort of) above repeating a mantra will necessarily diminish whatever stream of thoughts your mind wants to throw at you. Another technique is to become the observer of your thoughts and your mind. You can watch the thoughts arise, and recognize that you aren’t the thoughts or the mind but an inert observer. The effort it takes to concentrate on this will make you sleepy in addition to just quieting things down.

You should try adding exercise to your day. Try doing it around 4pm, 5pm or even 6pm. You should be sleepy by at least 11pm.

I sleep peacefully upon a pillow stuffed full of the nights billiard hustling dollars.

I never lay in bed for two hours, I would watch TV or get up and go to the living room. Just laying there is frustrating and I believe frustrating equals higher levels hormones that keep us awake. There is a possibility you are sleeping and don’t realize it. That is actually very common. But, no matter what it sounds like you aren’t getting a lot of sleep at night.

Have you had your thyroid checked? Thyroid problems wreak havoc on sleep.

Do you have thoughts racing through your head?

I like to watch a little TV in bed and set it to turn off on its own just in case I fail to. When I try to go to sleep; I like when I am tired and want to go to sleep. I turn onto my left, my sleeping position, and am usually out in less than 5 minutes.

One thing that has been scientifically shown to be important for sleeping is that your feet need to be warm. I know it is true for me. If your feet tend to be cold, put sleeping socks on, or if you hate to wear socks at night, be sure your feet are kept warm before you get into bed to go to sleep. Extremeties warming up to your core temp or just slightly more help trigger sleep.

If your room is not very dark wear a mask for sleeping. I can sleep with the TV on in the broad day light, but sleep in complete dark is much much deeper and restful I find.

Last check of Fluther and email for the night, drink bedtime tea and/or take valerian pills, check blood sugar, snack if necessary, read a familiar book I’ve read 100 times, valerian kicks in——WONK I’m out.

Have a wee, brush my teeth, hopefully have sexual contact of some kind and go to sleep.

Brush & floss teeth. Take 1½ grams of melatonin. Set the wakeup alarm. Dim the lights. Read a couple of pages. Pass out.

@bookish1 LOL..I read ” valium pills ” instead of “Valerian pills. haha
Yeah, nighty nighty.

@gondwanalon You’re regime screams “old fart.” lolol kidding, kidding…well…