Mental exercises to help falling asleep.

[pdunderhill]

I should point out at the start that I'm a light sleeper and also have problems falling asleep in the first place.
Over the years I've been using mathematical problems to help me drift off. Things like thinking of a 4 digit number and trying to work out the cube root or working out all it's divisors.
I appreciate that this is probably some form of meditation and wondered if other dopers used similar 'tricks' and what worked for them?
Peter

[ThelmaLou]

I used to use number things, but I found that they engaged me and kept me trying to stay awake. When I can't sleep, it's usually the mental dialogue that keeps me awake. So sometimes I just repeat "no words no words" over and over again- sort of an internal white noise. This generally works.

[flodnak]

If you can remember any recent dreams, think about what you can remember. Even if you only remember, say, that there was a red car in the dream, concentrate on that red car and anything you remember about it.

[Turek]

Occasionally when I have trouble going to sleep (the "can't turn the brain off" type), I'll count backwards from 100, but instead of just counting I'll mentally visualize each numeral. This seems to occupy enough of my brain that the inner babbling stops.

[Khadaji]

I lay back, gently roll my eyes to the top of my head (where they would rest while sleeping) and count backwards from 20. If I hit 1, I start again. I also focus on slowing down my breathing.

[Darth Panda]

Back in the day, when I had trouble sleeping, I used to multiply large numbers in my head to help fall asleep.

[Renee]

I go through the alphabet, thinking the first word that pops into my head for each letter. It keeps down the interior babble, without requiring concentration that would keep me awake, and it's boring and thus sleep inducing. Sometimes it works, sometimes the babble wins.

[longPath]

I count backward from 100 too but I do it by 3s. 100, 97, 93.... I usually drift off before I get halfway.

[fuzzypickles]

Counting sheep doesn't work for me, because I have an urge to chuckle "Ha ha ha!" after each number -- it's my vampire blood, I can't help it. :D

Relaxation/meditation exercises work pretty good, but if I really need to sleep, I'll break out the Tylenol PM or drink some hot tea or Coca-Cola. (Yes, caffeine puts me to sleep -- my doctor's equally mystified by that.)

[Lobsang]

My brain hates me. If my thinking is about getting to sleep I am less able to actually do it.

I find that reading a book helps. Sometimes I can drift off because I've been deep in thought about something non-stressful.

[Zulema]

I count backward from 100 too but I do it by 3s. 100, 97, 93.... I usually drift off before I get halfway.

Me too but I find that counting backwards by 6's, 7's and 8's is the only thing that works.

[HMS Irruncible]

I had a difficult time with achieving meditation or sleep until someone explained it with the phrase "listening to the space between thoughts". It never had even occurred to me that there could be spaces between thoughts, and I found it so fascinating that I was able to get really good at it. Meditation-wise, I never got much farther than that, but I find it's a damned solid trick for falling asleep or beating back nonproductive internal monologues.

[nivlac]

I focus on visualizing pitch darkness and that puts me to sleep. Solving any problems in my head just keeps me awake.

[jsgoddess]

I have a weird mental game I've played since I was an insomniac child.

I take off all blankets, then:

I'm in a blizzard! Oh, it's cold. The wind, the snow, I'm freezing! Can I hold out until I get to shelter?

That goes on as long as I can stand it, then I cover up again. For some reason, that usually knocks me out.

[dracoi]

My old stand-by was to come up with some distance in the solar system and calculate the time it would take for light to cross that distance. This is especially effective if you stick with the 186,000 miles/sec for light speed, rather than copping out with metric.

Somewhat like jsgoddess, I've also found that being cold helps. Often, I'll get up for half an hour or so and read, then come back to bed after it's had a chance to cool down again. If it was up to me alone, I'd keep the thermostat at 58 or so at night, but I put up to 62 for the sake of my wife. I'm always blown away when we visit relatives in Arizona for Christmas; they think 70 is a good setting at night.

[Chairman Pow]

Two things that help me:

1. Keep a notebook by the side of the bed. if you have any thoughts, write them down so they don't bother you. You can deal with them in the morning.

2. Try the 'fourfold breath.' breathe in for a count of 4, hold for 2, out for 4, hold for 2 and repeat.

[minor7flat5]

At one point I started memorizing the Book of John, and I still have the first chapter memorized. All I need to do to get to sleep is to begin in my mind "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God..." and so on.

I usually fall asleep somewhere around when John the Baptist is saying "Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah wrote"

To the OP, try repeating something that you have memorized word-for-word in the past. Perhaps a poem or some literature.

ETA: Going for a sleep study next week. I can't imagine how I'll fall asleep all wired up like that dude in "A Clockwork Orange" with people looking at me on camera. I'll have to give each of the techniques from this thread a try.

[pancakes3]

If you can remember any recent dreams, think about what you can remember. Even if you only remember, say, that there was a red car in the dream, concentrate on that red car and anything you remember about it.

i used to do this, except a bit more proactive. when i was a kid i wanted to be a fighter pilot so my go-to dream kick-starter was an image of me in the cockpit, turning on the afterburners, and looking for MiGs. the transition from fantasy to dream was seamless.

[Mangetout]

I seldom have trouble sleeping, but if I do, I try to mentally plan an important project, breaking it down into stages, then breaking each stage down into tasks, materials, etc - I figure in these cases, since my brain is being obtuse about sleeping when I need to, defeating me by staying awake, it'll be obtuse about staying awake for something important, and will defeat me by dropping off to sleep. Usually seems to work.

[standingwave]

I count backward from 100 too but I do it by 3s. 100, 97, 93.... I usually drift off before I get halfway.I do this too but I start with a different number each time, 101, 102, etc.

[AnalogSignal]

I count backward from 100 too but I do it by 3s. 100, 97, 93.... I usually drift off before I get halfway.

You were probably drifting off as you typed that because 97 - 3 = 94. :)

[Darth Panda]

Counting sheep doesn't work for me, because I have an urge to chuckle "Ha ha ha!" after each number -- it's my vampire blood, I can't help it. :D

Relaxation/meditation exercises work pretty good, but if I really need to sleep, I'll break out the Tylenol PM or drink some hot tea or Coca-Cola. (Yes, caffeine puts me to sleep -- my doctor's equally mystified by that.)

A nice cup of coffee before bed works for me...

[Chimera]

Stop worrying about getting to sleep and move toward simply relaxing. The constant "I need to be asleep, why can't I sleep" can keep you awake.

Meditation style release. Let go of your thoughts. Don't stop them from flowing, but instead, just stop holding onto them. Let them come, let them go, let them keep flowing right on by without getting involved with them.

Hell, sometimes I admit to myself that I'm not going to get to sleep, but I WILL get some rest. So I just stay in bed, stay in a sleep posture and concentrate instead on just relaxing and enjoying the warm, soft bed.

[Fear Itself]

I build things. Sometimes I build a house in my head, with all the rooms and features I want. Sometimes I build a space ship, and fly it single handed.

It usually doesn't take long, my wife says I am asleep within two minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

[Atomic Mama]

I have grown orchids as a hobby; I'm still trying to, here, up in ALASKA! Just start naming off the various orchid LATIN names, alphabetically ... Ascocentrum, Bulbophylum, Cattleya, Dendrobium, Epidendrum, etc. etc.

You can go backwards as well: Zygopetalum ... now WHAT is an orchid name that begins with Y??? Where is my Orchids by Hausermann catalog when I need it?!?!?!?!

[Hennessy]

Visualization is key. I remember as a kid I counted from 100 and never had luck until one night I visualized 100 sheep jumping over a fence one by one. I was so happy I fell asleep that I woke up, j/p.

Also like someone else mentioned, if you ever wake up from a very vivid dream, don't move just yet and try to remember as much of your dream as you can. It's neat how its not actively in your mind but if you work backwards it all comes back to you. Anyway, when you go to sleep the next night, try remembering more of that dream or about dreams you've had in the past. I tend to remember dreams from god knows when once I start thinking about them.

Someone else mentioned visualizing numbers, that's another method that has worked for me. You know the flying windows screen saver? Picture a countdown in the same fashion, a black background and each number coming towards getting larger as it gets closer.

If you find this crap to be boring like I do sometimes, that just means your not mentally tired. Which I have found no solution for because I stay in my head all the while I'm awake. I can't figure a way to make it tired.

Your doing math to help you sleep? Your too smart for your own good.

[Wheelz]

Visualization is key. I remember as a kid I counted from 100 and never had luck until one night I visualized 100 sheep jumping over a fence one by one. I was so happy I fell asleep that I woke up, j/p.I'm sure it's an oversimplification, but I recall reading once that counting and visualizing are an effective combination because they keep both sides of the brain occupied. With that in mind, and as a NASCAR fan, one of my tricks is to count while visualizing the corresponding car number. 1: I picture Jamie McMurray's Bass Pro Shops car driving by. 2: The Miller Lite Dodge of Kurt Busch speeds past, and so forth. Often I don't even make it to Greg Biffle.

Another thing I do sometimes is "replay" the last movie I saw in my head. I picture the characters and try to remember the dialogue, and inevitably my brain takes over and changes everything, eventually morphing into an actual sleeping dream.

[Mama Zappa]

External sound. If I rely on my own thoughts to try to get to sleep, my mind starts racing, thinking up stressors, etc.

So, I set the TV on something like Discovery Channel or National Geographic. Something just interesting enough that my mind processes it versus turning inward, but not interesting enough to fully engage / wake up my brain.

If not the TV, the iPod plugged into one ear, with a podcast of a similar quality. There are some specific meditation podcasts, but I usually go either for a fiction podcast, or something dealing with science or history.

The TV or iPod has to be on a sleep timer, of course, or this would disturb my sleep.

[pdunderhill]

Thank you, thank you all, Mamma z., I sleep best in a 'womb' type environment, no light, no sound.
Strange as I work in TV Sound all day... maybe not that weird. Oddly enough one of the worst nights sleep I had was having to sleep in a totally dark completely silent sound studio overnight.
Wheelz, tried the 300 mile drive from London to Cornwall as a visualization, I kept getting lost going through the one-way system in Plymouth.
Hennessy, you have a point, not that I'm bright, but I can't find the proverbial 'off' button.
Tried booze years ago and that was self defeating. tried mild narcotics and couldn't cope with dope paranoia so stopped those two lines of experiment.
Fear Itself, my friend I build Computer Servers in my mind down almost to component level
Atomic Mamma, love the name btw!, I will try but fear I will remember a 'z' named flower when I'm counting down through 't's'.
'Eat All' you've raised the crux of the matter, I think. Me the concious Peter and that invidious bastard Peter who only wakes up when I'm asleep. Dmn I swore I'd have no truck with those Jungians.
Good people I will try the most of your suggestions and I thank you for them, the alternative is to make some use of the 20+ hours a day I spend awake.
Peter

[BoneMan]

I've always had terrible insomnia. To fight it recently, I've been reciting any poems I have memorized or am trying to memorize. Even better than poems though is children's books because with them I can dwell on visualizing the pictures that go with the rhymes. "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Bill Martin & Eric Carle has historically been the most effective since it has nice spaces for slowing down and breathing, but I've become inured to it by now.

[Hennessy]

I noticed this year I actually go through it during the winter (right now). This will be 6th time I have stayed up over 24 hrs to try and establish a normal sleep pattern. I did it yesterday and woke up at 3 in the morning and couldn't fall asleep until day struck. I am of no use without sleep. I'm sure there is an underlying cause for my situation as there may be for you. Have you ever just found stuff to do until you were tired? Did you find that you could actually be productive during these hours?

I'd say there is a reason for it, you just gotta figure it out or create an alternative. Do you remember staying up all night when you were growing up? You could be nocturnal. Not exactly one of the better beliefs to have but it might just be true. Maybe you feel like your missing something deep down and you dont want to goto sleep until you have it. Ultimately, you need to learn how to relax. Use your dog as a reference, it is probably bored as ever but do you ever get the idea it is having trouble sleeping? Animals always seem able to go to sleep out of boredom, which is smart. Insomnia seems to be the exact opposite. I'm just throwing stuff out there but there is a solution. Determination and willpower will find it.

I dunno about booze, I heard ambien knocks you out, the right amount of oxycodine(codone?) will shut ur head & body up quick and fast, but just don't rely on it, use it once recreational to goto sleep early. Weed can work if you accept it as a relaxer and not a stress-er. Stress may not be a bad thing but it does not help you sleep. Understand that simply thinking can also be said as applying stress to your brain therefore its better not to think. Your probably tense as hell and cannot tell. Get comfortable with yourself, someone said earlier to listen to gaps between thoughts. Again, weed can help you with that if you allow it too. Good Luck

[Wheelz]

Tried booze years ago and that was self defeating. tried mild narcotics and couldn't cope with dope paranoia so stopped those two lines of experiment.You're right, alcohol may make you feel sleepy, but it actually disrupts your REM cycle so you get a worse night's sleep. Narcotics also carry the risk of addiction.

But if you're not averse to trying another pill, I've had good results with Alluna (http://www.cantsleep.org/reviews/alluna.html) and some generic equivalents. Its active ingredients are valerian root and hops extract. Non-narcotic and non-addictive. I didn't think an herbal pill could affect a 275-lb. guy this much, but it knocks me out every time. My only caveat is that if I have to get up in less than 8 hours I feel groggy during the day, so don't try it if you don't have enough time for a full night's sleep. YMMV, of course.

[shunpiker]

Some great ideas in this thread.

The most common method for me is the counting backwards w/ visualization. The counting can become automatic, but visualizing the numbers keeps me "focused" on the task. I can see how the NASCAR analogy would be productive too, because I often like to have the numbers twist or dissolve while I'm visualizing. Maybe the added motion helps the concentration. It's not too difficult to see how the old term, "counting sheep" came to be used.

When that doesn't do it, I will say over-and-over something like "sleep, sleep... think of sleep". I'm not worrying about sleep. Instead I'm focusing one thought so that my mind isn't enveloped in its display of the wildly-fleeting worries of the day.

As poster Ma Zappa said, turning on the TV to something mildly benign works as well. Formula One racing can sound like a sweet lullaby to me.

When trying to fall BACK asleep, nothing works better than trying to remember part of the last dream (as poster flodnak said). That is concretely effective for me.

[AllShookDown]

I count backwards from 99 to 90 over and over again. Anything else is too much to keep track of.

[Leaffan]

Last night I watched Piers Morgan. It worked instantly.

[cjepson]

Stop worrying about getting to sleep and move toward simply relaxing. The constant "I need to be asleep, why can't I sleep" can keep you awake.

Meditation style release. Let go of your thoughts. Don't stop them from flowing, but instead, just stop holding onto them. Let them come, let them go, let them keep flowing right on by without getting involved with them.

Hell, sometimes I admit to myself that I'm not going to get to sleep, but I WILL get some rest. So I just stay in bed, stay in a sleep posture and concentrate instead on just relaxing and enjoying the warm, soft bed.

This is pretty much what I would say. One thing I've been trying out recently is to go into a free-association thought process, like automatic writing but without the writing part. Letting my brain come up with stuff like: "If there were only a sequence of calculating pumpkins that would suffice to occupy the melange of whistling purposes and I could supply this with a significant source of working spatulas but without freezing into the void..." Basically, this mimics the "thought derailment" that tends to occur just as you're going to sleep, and can trick the brain into actually going to sleep. I've had some success with it, and even when I don't, it's kind of entertaining.

[filmore]

Sometimes I count backwards from 300 by 3's.

A while back I was having trouble sleeping so I decided not to fight it. Just observe what was happening as long as I could. The last thing I could remember before falling asleep would be seeing flashes of light. So to help me fall asleep, I would imagine I was watching a lighthouse where the light would shine in my face as it goes around. I would count the flashes each time the light came around. It doesn't always work, but sometimes it fasttracks me to that flashing light phase and I go right to sleep.

Another thing I do sometimes is sing the Star Spangled Banner in my head. Why that song? Because it won't get stuck in my head. I also sing that song if some pop song is going round and round in my head. The SSB will often times stop my mind from singing the pop song.

Sometimes I try to remember a recent movie or TV show scene by scene. Essentially, try to rewatch the show in your head as perfectly as possible. I rarely get more than a few minutes into the show before I'm asleep.

And if nothing seems to be working, I turn on a Vornado fan which makes lots of white noise.

[Sunshine and Smiles]

Interesting to see how many different methods everyone has! As for me:

I originally started out doing A-Zs. I would select an umbrella topic (band names, song names, countries of the world) and try to run the gamut. If it were too easy (band names for me got way too easy) I would list as many as I could for each letter before moving on.

Now, I value slowing myself down through careful breathing and concentration. Once my frantic heart stops racing (it's really amazing what you can do to your normally unconscious body by just thinking about it), then I turn to:

Counting prime numbers. Start at at 1, and work my way up as far as I can. Normally, I don't even reach triple digits. But if I do, it starts to get into all sorts of calculations to check if the number is prime which will 99% of the time do the trick and send me to sleep.

[MeDrewNotYou]

Back in my pre-musician days, but when I still didn't have any real training, I'd 'write' music in my head. Kind of like imagining being at a concert but I'd be in control of what was played. Once I started learning actual nuts and bolts of music ,though, I found that I was too distracted with keeping everything straight: what time signature, thinking 'crescendo here' etc.

Nowadays I do something similar, but with stories. For instance, I've been on a Star Wars kick recently (Clone Wars has been awesome lately!), so I write the story/watch the movie in my head of this smuggler or Jedi or whatever. I usually have a general idea of where I left off before falling asleep, so from night to night I can watch things unfold.