When you can't sleep are anxious and cannot wind down before bed?

Order out and drink coke with an A&W Teen burger, while Fluthering, and answering questions.

Stay away from caffeine, don’t eat a lot before bed, relax with a good book or some good music, and get lots of fresh air. Keep the room a little cool, so you have lots of blankets but it’s comfortable.

Watch TV or take a walk or swim.

Watch some really inane, mindless TV. Find a dreadful sit-com or a stupid movie, and you’ll fall asleep within minutes. It works for me every time.

I get this all the time.
Don’t do what I am doing now: don’t use electronics. Don’t use a computer, text your friend, watch TV, anything. It makes your eyes think it’s daytime.
Write down your worries/anxietes on paper
Drink tea
Stretch to relax your muscles and get ready for bed.

I curse myself for drinking anything with caffeine past 3:00 pm.
If I really need to sleep I’ll plug in a sleep hypnosis app or count my breaths.

Chamomile tea and whiskey, sex then listen to binaural beats at sleep frequency.

Glass of wine, Tylenol pm, erotic fan fiction reading. It rarely works anymore.

I’ve given up on sleeping, and have decided to spend my time reading all the classics I’ve never gotten around to. Tonight I’m starting Frankenstein. Next up is The Phantom of the Opera.

OTC sleeping pills have saved me the past two years. I know it’s not the best option, but I sleep now. and I don’t hear my husband’s snoring

I drink booze. It was my assumption that was what booze was for.

I always listen to a novel on CD, on a Walkman, in the dark, in bed, earbuds in, with my eyes shut. At some point, I alway fall asleep, for several hours at least.

I repeat this whenever I awaken, often several times before morning.

At present, I am listening to “Possession,” by A.S. Byatt. The story is so confusing that I listen to each CD twice.

It’s not a bad system; I have stopped fretting about insomnia.

I’m usually pretty stress proof, but on the rare occasion that stress becomes unbearable, I have diazepam prescribed for back spasms from a pinched nerve due to osteoarthritis. During a particularly stressful period I asked the Doc who wrote that script what to take for sleep, and she said just take one of the Valium. Works wonders.

sex, smoke, tv, or tea

@gailcalled I used to do that but I found myself staying up much later than I wanted because I’d always get into the audiobook and fight off sleep to hear the end of a chapter ok wait…one more chapter…..oh wow, that just happened…ok, one more chapter…

@uberbatman: That happens occasionally, near dawn, when I am at the dénoument of a mystery story; otherwise I can resist the temptation, although I do understand it.

I read books with short chapters so I can stop when I get drowsy. They are unimportant books that few brains. Usually 20 minutes is enough to numb my brain and I put the book away and fall asleep. Sometimes I’m not truly sleepy when I turn out the light and then I have a couple routines. One is to see what I see with my eyes closed. Sometimes It’s a deep forest and I just walk in it. Sometimes I’m on a street walking past houses until I’m asleep. Lately I’m try to sing myself asleep (in my mind; not out loud) All of these things tend to kind of numb my active brain. zzzzzzzzzz

I listen to the BBC History Extra podcast, put you write out. If it’s early enough that I don’t have to get up for another eight hours, I will take 2 milligrams melatonin.

Breath: inhale slowly, hold your breath for about five seconds, exhale slowly, hold yourself from breathing for another 5 seconds, repeat. When doing this, relax as much as you can, hold yourself as still as you can.

Read

I usually have no trouble getting to sleep but I keep a book on by bedside table just in case. I avoid drinking coffee and don’t drink anything at all after my evening meal.

I rarely have trouble getting to sleep unless I’m sick. When I do, I get up and play a mindless computer game. I find the distraction helps.

I find reading really helps me relax. Cuddles from my partner definitely make me feel happy and safe and then I drift off into blissful rest!!

Read a book or magazine. Have some milk.

I read a book and sip room temp water.

Yuck. I simply cannot abide the writing style of Frankenstein. Moving on to the Phantom.

I find that books, TV, radio, or browsing the web are too engaging to help me fall asleep. I play Word Warp or Whirly Word on my iPhone. The color schemes are set to very dark so they don’t overstimulate me and the sounds are off. These games give 6 letters and you have to make as many words as you can out of them. For this task, I have to think enough to be distracted from whatever is stressing me, but it is tedious enough that it helps me fall back to sleep.