Well I did it again, I’ve set myself up for failure tomorrow by taking a “nap” in the afternoon. I swear I meant to just have a 30 minute power nap but I slept for two hours and woke up at 8:30 pm. I hate when I do this. I have to be at work tomorrow at 8am and with the drive and showering and breakfast I probably need to be awake by 5:30-6am. It’s almost 1am now. What do you do if this ever happens to you. Do I stay up and work on other things I need to do and try to stay up all throughout the night and into tomorrow evening, do I lay in bed looking at my phone, do I try to get an hour or two of sleep? Help me out here.
Well…
What my dr tells me is, if I can’t fall asleep within 30 minutes, get up and leave the bedroom. Go into another room and do something soothing, like read a book. Absolutely no tv or screen time. Drink some tea (caffeine free) or milk if that relaxes you. Do that for a while (until you’re tired) and then go back to bed. Rinse and repeat. You may only get a few hours of sleep tonight but hopefully you’ll get some. Try not to just give up and stay up all night.
My husband swears by some sleep meditation, but I’m not very good at it. He concentrates on the sensation of his breathing. Just what his breath feels like, moving in, moving out. Let’s his thoughts just go where they may. Breathe in, breathe out. He falls asleep in 5 minutes every night, the fink.
I’ve had some sleep specialists suggest a nice boring monotone podcast. Something just interesting enough to focus your mind off of other things, but seriously dull. I like “basic brewing radio” but you need to be into brewing beer for this. Or “Backstory - with the American history guys” who delve into the history behind current news.
Avoid computers and screens - the light keeps you awake.
Often good to get out of bed to change things up if you’re restless. Maybe take a shower. Ben Franklin, IIRC, was into have a glass of warm milk.
Put on some classical mysic and let your mind drift. It works for me.
My husband has this issue. He gets up and putters around. He also swears by a heady shot of caffeine. He’s the only person I know who can knock back a mug of curl-your-toes coffee, return to bed, and be down for the count for the next few hours.
I always have something incredibly dull to read on my nightstand. Two pages in and my eyes start fluttering. That’s my cue to turn out the light.
In a pinch, Benadryl.
A combination of classical music and cold milk… ok it was ice cream did the trick and I did manage to get about another three hours of sleep, but that little extra was so worth it.
I did have this thought last night, as I was in bed, trying to sleep. 
Benadryl. Also, a really hot shower sometimes works. Then you curl up under the covers, all cozy and drift off.
Chamomile tea. It actually does have some mild psychoactive properties. I get a mild relaxing buzz from it. I hate the way Benadryl makes me feel.
Have you been to a doctor about these issues?
I will occasionally take a benedryl, but I have to take it earlier in the evening, not at 1 am when I have to get up at 5:30 (especially if I have to drive) as I will likely still be groggy.
When I am in your situation (and I certainly have been there), I will simply return to bed with the certainty that whatever happens I will make it through the next day. If you tell yourself that you absolutely have to get a good night’s sleep, you will not get back to sleep.
If you have eliminated obstructive sleep apnea as the problem, look into Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia.
I usually tell myself what I tell my 6 year old when she doesn’t want to go to bed – you don’t have to sleep, but you do have to rest. And then I rest calmly and do breathing meditations. Sometimes I fall asleep, sometimes I never make it to actual sleep. It took a little while to train myself to avoid the “OMG I WILL BE SO TIRED TOMORROW AND I HAVE SO MUCH TO DO” panicked thought cycle, because that is not restful.
There are podcasts out there that are specifically intended to help you go to sleep with their smooth, droning ways. “Sleep With Me” is probably the most well-known, but there are others. The same guy even does one that recaps Game of Thrones, called “Game of Drones”, with the intent of helping you sleep.
I think the issue the OP had was taking a two hour nap at 6:30 not an actual sleep issue.
The simple solution is to not take a nap when you have to be up early the next day. Ride it out until 8:30 and then sleep a full night. Once it gets past a certain time drugs aren’t going to be any help as they’ll leave you drowsy. I’ve tried both getting up, and staying in bed and I think staying in bed has worked the best for me. Even when I don’t feel like I’m sleeping I think the rest pays off with better energy and not feeling sick the next day.
I just stay up all night, not by choice.
11 pm bedtime. 0005 vehicle noise into my rental where I am thus hidden homelessness
That was may 23 and may 24 resectively
3 am bedtime. 0325 am vehicle noise into my rental where I am thus hidden homelessness
That was May 24
105 pm nap attempt
155 pm noise allied with the vehicle noise into my rental where I am thus hidden
homelessness
That was May 23
830 am try to nap
943 am vehicle noise into my rental where I am thus hidden homelessness
940 shrill noise [unlogged, sleep deprivation enforced at me]
This city has prohibited me doing the emergency or non emergency numbers upon
fear of arrest, etc.
Okay, was not able to re edit the post, where I supplied equivalent may 18 data.
“read a good book”
Preferably one containing the 4th 5th 8th 14th amendments and civil rights
Preferably one detailing the ramifications/gist of US Code 18 title 241
And the bible of course…
What I’ve also newly done, keep a copy of your birth certificate on your person so if it details why they are noisily making you homeless, and suffer injury or homelessness actual or death, you or your loved ones may know the root cause. As In, ‘root cause analysis’ we learned so much of while running a major city power grid where such sleep loss errors resulted too often in injury or death. And where I was ‘disliked’ in my key role, in favor of… or because of… but that puts me in a minority [ 1 in 20 ] of surgery in the ICU isolation belatedly and reluctantly instead, an ‘isolate’ vs the person I hope to be by responding personally and personably and in a personable way and in a personable WEIGH … ha ha. You get the idea. I write too much too often. Going away out of this thread now.
May not work in the OP’s case, but something that has always worked for me when I get stuck in that “can’t quite get over the edge to sleep” mode, where you’re on the verge of drifting off for hours, is to force myself as awake as I can get - full alertness, I-have-to-get-up, can’t sleep, morning get-up time feeling. THEN slowly relax back to sleep. Seems to break the cycle of whatever is holding sleep away.
Yup. Or, with less of a hangover, Dimenhydrenate (Dramamine) + melatonin. You’ll have less of a hangover then you get from Benadryl.
If this is a regular occurrence, see a doctor. I have had sleep studies, and there actually is something wrong with me. Now I take medication to sleep, but not narcotics or sedatives. They are medications it’s safe to be on long-term, and have no street value.
Before my sleep studies, I went back and forth between being tired all the the time along with having terrible anxiety about going to bed, and being on things like Ambien or Restoril every night.