How do you spend your time when you can't sleep?

Toss and turn and worry about the world. After a while, I get up and scroll the internet. My eyes aren’t usually focused enough to read something.

It’s not unusual for me to be awake in the middle of the night, either from falling asleep with the TV and light on or just from waking up for no reason at all. I will go on FB, Fluther, NY Times, New Yorker, and hopefully after a few hours I get tired enough to fall back asleep.

If I read a book or magazine, that means turning on the light. Computer I can do in the dark because it has its own light.

I usually just toss and turn for a bit, but sometimes I read. My ereader has a low-light adjustment, so it’s not too interruptive of the drowsies. I always have a couple of books going that are soothing and mindless.

Get up and take pee, then go back to bed and put my head on the pillow. When I close my eyes I imagine walking from our timeshare in Poipu to Long’s Drugs. I usually don’‘t get past the second flowering cactus.

I try to stay off the screen and listen to music or a podcast. There’s a better chance I’ll fall back to sleep this way.

I scroll through my phone. Probably not a good idea to help me fall back to sleep.

I listen to video game music. Like Starcraft, or Chrono Trigger.

Also precious metals stacking and mining videos.

My house furnace runs for 10 minutes, then shuts off for 18–22 minutes. I know how much time is passing without looking at the clock.
I know picking up my iPhone or tablet is counterproductive to sleeping. I let an hour and a half pass before doing that.
Turning on the TV, and just listening, but not watching, the news is an option.
I am also known just getting up and doing the dishes.

@filmfann I listen to YouTube, music on my cellphone with the brightness turned down to as low as it goes.

Last night I watched the Nickelback video “never gonna be alone”, and I was choked up, and moved to almost tears. I had to call family to help move past it.

Count slowly backwards from 500 in 3s. If I’m awake over an hour I get up and watch “The New Adventures of Old Christine”. I have about 20 episodes recorded specifically for this.

I read something on my kindle. Occasionally i mighy play a game of chess on my phone.

I brought back a souvenir from LA, a cold with all the symptoms My eyes are tearing, my nose is stuffy, etc. Sleep is very difficult so I watched YouTube videos (Omeleto shorts) for a while and then decided to eat something. I just had a hard boiled egg and triscuits. It’s 4:10 AM I’ll go back to bed now.

My FB settings are set to the dark (black background) preference so it’s not like such a bright light in the dark room.

I just woke up at 4 – am hoping to get back to sleep around 7 for an hour or two more. This is typical. When I worked it would suck and be very stressful because the time I’d be falling back to sleep would be the time I should have been waking up, and it would make me late and I’d be totally exhaustesd. Now that I’m no longer working, it’s all good most days, unless I have to go somewhere in the morning. I try not to schedule things too early in the mornings, because of my sleep difficulties. Anything before noon is stressful.

Fluther a little, facebook, solitaire or rummikub online. If I’m wide awake I might clean a little, but that won’t last long.

If I’m getting sleepy I watch a show I recorded and set my timer on my phone or ipad for 30 minutes to shut off the TV show. It’s more like listen to a show, I usually close my eyes.