Try a technical book about a subject that you have no interest in. Something like Practical
Handbook Of Bee Culture with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen or
perhaps The American Railroad Freight Car.
The Silmarillon. I probably read it once every two or three years and I still can’t memorize or at least put things in the right groove (ex: distinguish between Eldar and Sindar names and words.)
I haven’t even gone beyond the following:
Valar: Manwe, Ulmo, Aule, Namo, Irmo, Orome, Tulkas
Valier: Varda, Yavanna, Nienna, Vairie, Este, Vana, Nessa
Aratar: Manwe, Varda, Ulmo, Aule, Yavanna, Namo, Neinna, Orome
Named Maia: Ilmarie, Eonwe, Osse, Uinen, Melian, Olorin, Sauron, Gothmog
Avari: those who refused the summons
Eldar: those who heeded
under the Eldar: Nandor (Teleri Silvan elves), did not go to Beleriand
Sindar (Teleri grey elves), went to Beleriand but not Amman
High Elves, went to Amman; included Vanyar, Noldor and Teleri under Olwe.
Not a joke or trying to be cute:
Try your favorite dictionary and read it in order. Bookmark where you get/got to before falling asleep and start there next time.
Jumping around with one word leading you to the next by virtue of some connection between the words will probably keep you awake!
So do it in order and see how fast you lose interest and just fall asleep with the book on your lap or the bed or the floor.
The phone book (in order) will also work!
Another trick is to try to remember the lyrics to a song you liked 20 years ago. (I use this method myself).
I strongly recommend the novels of Marcel Proust. He writes long, meandering sentences about memories, old conversations, and times gone by.
The textbook I had for Economics 101 in my undergrad university was pretty boring, and I fell asleep over it a couple of times.
If you don’t have such a textbook, then I’d add another vote for Moby Dick or The Silmarillion. I cannot get through a few pages of either without nodding off.
+1 on the podcasts. They have the advantage over a book in that you can rest with your eyes closed while listning - as opposed to a book where you’ve got to have the lights on (or a backlit e-reader).
An audiobook would have the same benefit.
For what it’s worth, you don’t want something incredibly boring. you want something juuuuuuuust interesting enough that your mind can focus on it, but not so fascinating that you stay awake to keep listening. Mind-numblingly-boring stuff will leave your mind free to wander onto other topics which might in themselves keep you awake.
I love reading poetry, but if you don’t, that ought to do it. Nature poems especially.
The Calm app has sleep stories - I don’t much care for the fiction ones, but the ones that are, say, audio of Bob Ross’s painting episodes or the Welsh dude reciting facts about breeds of sheep are actually very sleep-inducing.
Ferris Bueller’s teacher reading GDPR regulations, though, just put me off.
How about the year-by-year United States federal budget?
Do you have any examples? It’s hard to research “boring” podcasts in another language.
That might raise your blood pressure.
I used to read an ebook over and over and over again. It worked… but then I started getting stressed by the boredom and had to switch.
Based on my med school experience, I recommend a pathology textbook.
The book also contains a glaring error: Penrose’s “proof” that a human can compute something no computer can is grotesquely wrong. And he still cannot admit it. I lost all respect for him after that.
When I was in HS, Silas Marner put me right out.