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10 Methods You Can Use To Overcome Insomnia

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I’ve suffered from insomnia due to various reasons ever since I was a boy. It was especially tough to go through the day during my high school and university days trying to focus in classes and study without energy while doing all I can to avoid dozing off. As a result of my insomnia, my grades suffered, I felt depressed most of the time, and I swear I would’ve grown at least three inches taller had I gotten proper sleep during my developmental years.

You don’t realize just how important sleep is until you suffer from its loss. As strange as it may sound, as a basic bodily function responsible for your growth, recovery, and testosterone production that leads to better focus and productivity, I think it’s safe to say that maintaining a healthy sleep hygiene is the most masculine thing you can do for your body besides lifting weights.

The following is a collection of my knowledge based on around a decade of personal experience, research, trial and error, and working in a sleep clinic. My sleep is still not perfect, but I have made vast improvements by following these methods.

1. Make sure you’re not suffering from sleep apnea

If you suffer from poor sleep regardless of how long you pass out during the night, the first thing you should do is to rule out the possibility of a sleep apnea. Without getting too technical, sleep apnea is an obstruction of your airway during sleep that reduces the oxygen flow to your brain and causes many small wake ups throughout the night as your body tries to get you to breathe properly again. The sufferer may wake up fully during the night or will never reach a prolonged state of deep sleep without even being aware of it.

The signs and symptoms are:

  • You wake up feeling groggy and tired like you didn’t sleep at all.
  • You are known to snore loudly during the night.
  • You frequently wake up (usually in panic) during dream episodes (sleep apneas usually occur during REM sleep).

You are also more likely to suffer from an apnea if you are obese or happen to be an Asian male.

If you suspect that you suffer from a sleep apnea, the best thing to do is to go to a sleep clinic to get yourself tested and go from there. But you can still apply the other principles here to improve your overall sleep hygiene.

2. Don’t touch your bed unless you are sleeping (or having sex)

Surest way to have a lousy sleep.

It’s really simple: You want your mind and body to associate your bed only with sleeping. This means no working, eating, reading, watching television, or going on your mobile device while you’re on your bed. The bed is only for sleeping and the other type of “sleeping.” And considering how our brain processes a room as one environment, I’ll go as far as to say that you should avoid doing anything other than sleeping in your bedroom. So, if you have a computer in the same space as your bed, move it out. If you have a desk in your bedroom for reading or studying, move it out. Do all non-essential activities outside of your bedroom.

Now, some people swear that reading or watching television in bed helps them fall asleep, but I highly discourage it for it could lead to poor sleeping habits.

3. Control your diet

For me, this was the biggest issue which even the doctors couldn’t figure out. I suffered from a severe insomnia due to thirst and a burning sensation that would hit me in middle of the night. It seems idiotically obvious now, but I finally realized that the problem had come from the fact that I was in the habit of eating spicy food for dinner.

If you’re sensitive to spicy or salty food like I am, it’s best to avoid those types of food for the evening along with other heavy food that are high in fat and protein. In fact, it’s best not to eat anything so close to bed time as your stomach will be busy working while you’re trying to sleep. My sleep improved drastically when I started going to bed with an empty stomach by avoid eating anything past 6pm.

4. Stop consuming stuff that affects your sleep

It’s tempting to drink coffee or even an energy drink when you’re sleepy, but if you’re an insomniac, you must resist the urge to escape the the cycle of misery. I would also avoid anything loaded with sugar (it’s bad for you anyway) and avoid alcohol as well. A glass of wine may help you fall asleep, but the quality of your deep sleep will suffer without you knowing it.

5. Sleep and wake up on regular times

Your mind and body has a clock of its own and it likes to stick to a schedule. Always try to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time to maintain optimal sleep hygiene. It is especially important to get up at the same time every morning to train your body to maintain sleep discipline. If you happen to have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, you can start tweaking your sleep time by shortening your sleep schedule and going to bed an hour later than usual. It might be painful and take some time to adapt to, but your brain will eventually learn to make the most out of the hours you allot it.

6. Get more sunlight

The more your body can differentiate day and night, the more active you’ll feel during the day while being able to sleep better during the night. This is the work of your sleep hormone, melatonin, as it is produced in dark while suppressed in light, and why it’s very important to get enough sunlight throughout the day—and especially in the morning. You should always try expose your eyes to light as soon as you wake up (sunlight was the natural alarm clock for our ancestors). As an added bonus, exposing your eyes to light early in the morning will also boost your testosterone and sex drive.

If you live somewhere north with lack of natural sunlight, it’s well worth the investment to purchase a sun lamp for light therapy. In comparison, the average lights we use indoors are pitiful, so it does little to nothing to help maintain our sleep hygiene.

7. Be physically active

This must be the most important point of all as sleep only seems to happen naturally when you give your body a reason to rest. I’ve seen documentaries of African tribes that sleep on dirt floor in a mud hut shared by the entire family. They sleep like they passed out even with insects crawling all over them because they walk and labor all day. If you want a better sleep, you must be physically active throughout the day.

For those who think hitting the gym is enough, lifting weights is great and all, but if you want to improve your sleep and, therefore, your overall health, you must add regular cardio workout to your routine. Running and swimming are both excellent as they pump your heart and really force you to work on your breathing. That said, you don’t even have to do some major cardio session on a daily basis just to get a decent sleep. Even going out for a walk can make all the difference. For example, if I spend more than 5 hours in my home reading, writing, and surfing the Internet, the chance of having an insomnia that night is around 30%; but if I spend three hours walking outside in the sun, it gets reduced to less than 10%. Sedentary lifestyle really is a disease.

8. Mind the temperature

Most people in the northern hemisphere tend to sleep too warm for their own good. This is usually a problem during cold winters when some people jack up the heater without knowing that it can have an adverse effect on their sleep (as well as causing you to get sick). Your body tends to adapt to the season, so if your room is too warm, your body won’t feel comfortable enough to get a good sleep. In addition, heaters will cause your home to get too dry, which will negatively affect your breathing. It’s best to keep your heater use to the minimum and just use extra thick blankets instead. If you’re in doubt, err on the side of sleeping too cold rather than too warm.

9. Be careful with naps

I’m not against taking naps (in fact, they’re great as long as it doesn’t affect your ability to sleep at night), but if you suffer from chronic insomnia, it might be worth to resist the temptation to sleep during the day so that you can sleep better at night. But if you insist on taking naps, try not go for more than an hour; 20 to 30 minutes sometime in the early afternoon is optimal.

10. Shut down your thoughts before going to bed

When you’ve decided that you’re going to hit the bed, you need to empty your mind of all thoughts to prepare for sleep. You should not be thinking at all and just bask in the glory of how great it feels to be in bed for your slumber.

To do this, some people meditate just before going to bed, few write down a list things they’ll do the next day so that they won’t think about it in bed, and others simply tell themselves (some verbally) that they’re going to sleep and that they’re shutting down their minds for rest. Once you’re in bed, short of a life-threatening emergency, there’s nothing urgent enough that it should bother you from within—let it wait until the next day.

Other Tips

  1. Take magnesium supplements before sleep to lower stress and to clam your body.
  2. Use white noise (or rain sound) to drown out outside noise.
  3. Get in the habit of sleeping on your side as it promotes better breathing.
  4. If you can’t sleep soundly because you experience severe itching at a specific area on your body in the middle of the night, you might have a pinworm infection. Just know that it’s a lot more common than you think.

Read More: How Boredom Kills Your Workouts And How To Overcome It

143 thoughts on “10 Methods You Can Use To Overcome Insomnia”

    1. Works while you are young… at least for a while….
      but be aware you are storing up problems for yourself for later!
      It sounds macho, but honestly it’s not worth it. Start getting a decent night’s sleep from a young age and continue to reap dividends, *increasing* dividends, through the rest of your life!

    2. Yeah, or so you think right now anyway. Eventually you’ll notice one morning waking up after 8 straight hours of sleep you accidentally got, that you feel 300% better than every other morning in your life. Your body was created by nature in response to the universe, and what it requires may be able to be short circuited by free will, but it comes at a cost. You’ll feel it, eventually.

      1. actually Sundays I do get more so that helps. but still maybe it’s personal but if I get a solid 4 or 5 without anything waking me up I’m amped and ready to go and feeling very happy.

  2. Shut off all electronics at least a half hour before bed. You need to unwind

    1. 1 hour before I sleep I lay down and read a good book. After an hour I’m getting dizzy. Then I throw the book away and start my journey to dreamland.

  3. Another great article! Sleep is woefully underestimated in importance for health, especially hormonal health (not just T… Cortisol, Leptin, HGH, GnRH, FSH & LH, and the whole gamut of Masculinity-vital hormones!).
    For anyone here who lifts, while your lifting programme is, of course, important… and diet has rightfully been credited with 80% of the ‘secret’ to getting results… if your sleep is off you can kiss your gainz(™) goodbye, especially if bulking. Much stressed by the first couple of generations of bodybuilders, sleep is pretty much forgotten in modern circles…
    All good suggestions, and would add Jim Johnson’s advice on switching off electronics (and especially *screens*) is vital.
    Also, old-fashioned remedies like ‘counting sheep’ because of their repetitiveness while lightly engaging the mind works wonders.
    My modern take on that is to create ‘autohypnosis’ tracks (basically affirmations) to play on my MP3 player, along with headband earphones, and listen to affirmations while drifting off…. works a treat, and has the added bonus of programming your subconscious with positive affirmations in line with your life goals…

    1. Good call on that last bit of advice especially. Playing some affirmations while you are winding down sets the mind up perfectly to do extra legwork for you while you sleep. The only other audio program I would add is ocean noises. Not sure what specifically in ocean noises, a lot can be said for the adjustments it does to the bodies alkaline levels similar to the effect of opera music, but it seems to create some extremely deep states of sleep that seem to recharge just slightly deeper than regular rest would.
      Good tidbits on exercise but it depends on the individual. Early morning exercise might be the best since some people get more energized if the exercise near their rest time.

      1. Thanks! Yeah, have tried ocean and other natural noises, and also autohypnosis tapes made by others, and eventually found those in my own voice do the trick best of all….

      1. What really helped was each recount he demanded netted him more votes. There were, what, four or five recounts before he got that seat?

        1. Geez, that many???
          I’d prefer a Sen Chevy Chase to Sen Stuart Smalley

        2. His election was such blatant open fraud that I’m honestly surprised he hasn’t been led away in cuffs yet.

    3. I have practiced autohypnosis without pre-recorded audio for years, now. It’s essentially meditation, but I allow for only a part of my mind (the part that makes vocal demands in your mind – you know, the “I WILL do the dishes RIGHT NOW” part) to be active.
      I was having sleep problems, so for the last few nights I drifted off while driving myself into a relaxation so deep that I literally can’t feel my body anymore. Nothing in the world like it.

      1. Yes! It *is* essentially (one of the forms of) meditation! It’s all the same stuff, whether stripped of religious or mystical significance, or wrapped in it (you find it in religions, various cults, several traditional martial arts, and so on).
        I’ve struggled with keeping it going without pre-recorded audio, and just caved and did the lazy thing in the end… because it’s my own voice I still get most of the benefits, but obviously nowhere near as disciplined at some of the masters at this stuff…

        1. I want to be a hypnotist proper (though I can’t be a proper hypnotherapist without a Masters’ in psychology in most states), and the first rule of hypnosis is state transferral. If you are hypnotized, you gain a powerful hypnotic state that others will pick up on, making hypnosis easier. It’s exactly the same way a strong frame can make frosty lasses buy you frosty glasses by the end of the night.
          When you practice hypnosis, and specifically when you practice being hypnotized, you realize how many times and ways people go into the hypnotic state on a daily basis. Most people aren’t aware that meditation, the TV stupor, and “the zone” are all hypnotic states, because they never put those ideas together.

        2. Absolutely! All of us slip in and out of hypnosis all the time! Most people are woefully mal-informed on the subject and think of it as something unworldly or unusual (I think it was ‘Monsters and Magical Sticks, or there’s no such thing as hypnosis!’ that awakened me to this). Once one realises that hypnosis is a natural and normal state for humans, it is an extraordinarily good idea to take control of it for oneself… the alternative is to be programmed virtually randomly by the various people and groups either consciously or unconsciously using hypnotic techniques…
          I especially love the work of Milton Erickson and Richard Bandler btw… but it’s all good!
          You only need the Masters if you want to go and practice clinical hypnotherapy surely? Aside from that *WE ARE ALL HYPNOISTS* in one way or another… the only difference being in our skill level and whether we are conscious of it or not.
          One of my favourite models of ‘social reality’ is that it is the temporary result of rival gangs of hypnotists….
          Either learn to program, or prepare to be programmed, right?

        3. You hit it on the head. Erickson’s work is solid gold, and Bandler could do little more than repackage what Erickson’s unregulated experiments discovered (like the Game theorists, he tried ridiculous things and used the results to produce groundbreaking theories).
          I find Igor Ledochowski’s seminars and courses to be among the best resources for learning to master hypnosis. He paces it very well, and he employs his hypnotic practice in his lectures to help you retain his material. It’s basically the same as immersion in a new language.
          But, unfortunately, psychology as a field is regulated to the nines. Most states require some form of licensing to practice hypnotherapy, and many of those require advanced degrees (no training, though – I find that amusing). So, if you want to actually help people and you have mastered the hypnotic trance and hold its powers in safe respect, you usually need a bureaucrat to tell you it’s okay.

        4. I’m going to look into Igor Ledochowski – thanks for the heads up!
          Bureaucrats with zero expertise in, and no clue about, the subject they are supposedly regulating!
          Best to just do it, but tell people you’re showing them, er, ‘relaxation’ and ‘visualisation’ techniques…

        5. Erickson taught us that it can be subtle. You can run the entire thing as entertainment, and casually drop what appears to be a throw-away comment (but in reality, it’s one of those seeds of truth).
          There’s a story about an extremely repressed young woman who couldn’t get intimate with her husband. It stemmed back to her childhood, when her mom taught her to be chaste and then died suddenly – that was one of the few teachings from her mother, and she clung to it. Erickson dropped an offhanded comment like, “I wonder what else she would have been able to teach you if only she’d been able to watch you grow up,” and that grew in her mind and fixed her problem.

      1. An excellent question!
        Obviously “I don’t know” is the only true answer I can give. I could speculate, and if I did I would offer the following possibilities:
        1. Arnie claimed a lot of things, often quite tongue-in-cheek “Milk is for babies – I drink Beer!”
        2. Trickery! It was not unknown for Arnie to either mischievously, or Machiavellianly, misdirect people with truly dreadful bodybuilding advice! Check out some of the numerous stories about him, some quite hilarious (my favourite is the *screaming* posing routine, which he got his victim to do after *jumping* on Joe Weider’s desk!).
        3. Steroids. Arnie was on fairly high doses (for his day – nothing by todays standards!) and they can wreak havoc with one’s sleep cycles.
        4. Steroids. The usual laws of bodybuilding are completely altered when these come into the picture. Natural bodybuilder need every trick in the book! lifting routine needs to be just right for your own genetics and body, diet needs to be permanently on-point, and sleep is absolutely essential if you want to grow! Throw in enough steroids and you can be lax on the other parameters and still grow at a rate that leaves Natty’s slack-jaw gazing in disbelief… I’ve seen people put on 20-30lbs in a *month* and even that is not the outer limit of what is possible…

      2. Classic. That’s like the kid in school who always studied his ass off and did great on tests but lied to everyone that he didn’t study at all–he’s just so naturally smart. Young Arnold kept a big facade of being a party guy and even smoked joints–when people were watching and taking pictures. As soon as he was alone he was 1000% Monk Mode. I can’t stand people who signal that shit.

        1. good point…however,his argument for sleeping only 6 hours was that he used it as time for learning new languages. he wasnt just wasting it watching TV. he claimed those extra 2 hours gave him an edge because he had more time to get stuff done.

        2. You’d have to be crazy to believe his stories about his life–he’s a politician now for gods sake, he was always a self-promoting show man. There’s nothing real there dude

  4. Melatonin works for me; you can buy it pretty much anywhere supplements are sold…it gives me awesome sex dreams, too. Win/win.

    1. This is *so* true!!
      Melatonin is a fabulous supplement – and used in conjunction with Magnesium (I tend to take ZMA at night) it bumps up those funky dreams even more!
      I also find Melatonin *great* for dealing with jet lag and massively reducing time to adjust… Without you can count on drifting in by an hour a day, with you are talking kick-starting the adjustment in a day or two.

      1. It’s good stuff. I had this feeling I was dropping really fast in an elevator when I first started taking it, as I’d start to drift off. I got used to that. Man, the hot chicks I have fucked in Dream Land on melatonin…heh.

        1. yeah, same here…. weird the first few times then adjust. It’s a regular in my supplementation toolbox these days…

        2. I wondered if anybody else had the “elevator dropping” feeling. Good to know I’m not the only one…

        3. Oh for sure… probably not how I described it to myself, but it fits as a description…. a definite ‘moving through space’ and a little disconnected kind of feeling.

        4. I would feel like I was dropping straight down through the mattress at first, like a sudden drop, as if an elevator’s cable had been cut and I was free-falling. Went away after the first couple of weeks.

        5. yeah…. it’s not just you
          I can’t believe more people aren’t clued in on Melatonin! Cheap, natural, and works a treat (and the dreams!!)

        6. Oh those dreams…shit, I’ve had sex while asleep on Melatonin that were damn near as real as waking sex (and much better, in many cases)…

  5. Get yourself a decent pillow. As I have gotten older, I would wake up with a stiff neck due to flattened out pillows. The one from As Seen on TV My Pillow did the trick. I was skeptical at first paying $40 for a pillow, but now I realized waking up without a stiff neck every morning was worth it.

    1. Or pretty much anything leading to blowing one’s load…
      Kicks in the sleep reflex in us guys without fail 😀
      “OMG, I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’RE FALLING ASLEEP ON ME!”
      “You still here? zzzzzzzzz.”

      1. Hahahaha. So true. I had this ex who was a massage therapist. She would give me a full-on massage with oil every night before sleep. After I was all relaxed, she would flip me over and suck me till my forehead caved in. I would probably have married her, if she hadn’t been a nice bunch of girls (multiple personalities, and some of those personalities you definitely didn’t want to know)…

        1. Yeah… it’s funny isn’t it? New-Age-Hippy-Chick(™) types, or anything delusional like that (crystal healing! WTF?!!) are usually totally filthy, but invariably mad as a sack of bats…
          You’d think they’d get the hint about what we are (only) interested in by the fact we tune out immediately after, right?

        2. You would think. But then, you would think logically (whereas chicks don’t…heh)…

      2. Funny you say that. A girl in my rotation texted me this morning that she can’t sleep because she was watching porn and playing with herself for 2 hours and now can’t relax

        1. No further proof needed of the difference between Men and Women….
          I hope you put the poor girl out of her misery?
          Being the public-spirited altruist and benefactor of women-in-need that you are!

        2. Of course not. Let her suffer her post cock Stress Disorder a bit.

      3. Second only to when you’re going out the door in the list of times SHe Wants to Talk….

        1. she has nice deltoid development. would make for good gym partner

        2. and, surprisingly for a woman, quite an impressive Adam’s apple!
          Will make some man very happy no doubt…. Perhaps many men… Perhaps simultaneously….

        3. kick your deadlifts up a notch by doing them in stiletto heals, massive gainz

        4. Bingo! Plus you get extra work on the soleus and gastrocnemius as a bonus!

        8. I know right? I mean who wears horizontal stripes to the gym? too funny

        10. Also pretty obvious that girl wants all teh Broz staring at her prominent…. er…. heels

        12. I met one of those she-la’s in the Philliphines while in the Air Force. They called them Billy-Boy’s!!!!

  8. One little trick I tried and worked very well: human beings are programmed to wake up with cold lights (mainly blue) and get sleepy with warm lights (like sunrise).
    So I got a colour lamp. When I wake up, I put it with blue colour. The evening, I put it with yellow, and then I keep changing it to reddish values. It works wonderful.

    1. check out the app flux (https://justgetflux.com/)
      it adjusts your screen’s visual temperature (from normal to red dominant) depending on time of day so you don’t get wired from being online at night.

      2. Installing and working the next restart. It seems like a really good idea. Though I use dark skins in almost every program, but it surely helps.

      4. Just to thank you again. I’ve been using it for a couple of days and it has been really a discovery. Thanks!!!!!

  9. Most of the times, when you can’t sleep at night for a long period of time, you’ve messed your brain. (Circadian Circles inversion)
    There are solution to put it right. It’s quite simple, but not easy.
    1. Accept that you’ll be a zombie the first week. Organise yourself to find a suitable week. Take a firm resolution…and…
    2. Get upt reasonably early, always at the same hour. Even if you had a bad night.
    3. Get out as soon as possible. Expose yourself to the natural light for at least half an hour. Your brain will get the right stimuli, and will eventually reverse his circadian circle.
    4. During the first week, don’t take a nap or anything like that. Your body, and your mind will trick you to keep his habbit. (being sleepy in day, waking at night). Tired ? Do sport.
    5. Before going to sleep, find a reassuring, cooling ritual. Something that please you, but who don’t gives you long excitement. Reading is fine (that’s what NFL player are teached to do !) Call of duty isn’t.
    6. Go to sleep to have at least 7 hours to rest.
    7. You won’t sleep much the first days. Accept it. Then you’ll fall in deep sleep due to exhaustion. Then you’ll get the habbit to sleep well. That’s how it works.
    8. As i say, the first week is very hard. You don’t sleep much and you are like a zombie during the day. Then, everything changes. You’ve re-wired your brain to get the normal wake-sleep circle. Enjoy it.
    You can make exeptions, but as long it stays exeptions, and not during the first weeks.

      1. Thank you. I’ve been suffering insomnia for a long time. There are other thing that can be said, but it’s the usefull core.

        1. Of course, if there are other things that prevent you to sleep, like PTSD, i strongly envourage you to get a serious treatment.
          Finding acceptante of what you did or what you are is a great stress reliever on the long term.

          But let’s be clear. you sleep can stay damaged long after you recover from your problems.
          The method i explained isn’t magical, but is the most efficient i could find.
          If you are able to accept a shor t period of pain, it works quite well.

  10. Getting a full night’s sleep is very important. Upon awakening, here’s my favorite little prayer to start the day – “Dear Lord, please give me the strength to believe in myself when others do not, the resolve to strive to improve my position while others try to tear me down, and the will to maintain empathy in the face of hostility. Amen.”

        1. Ok, ‘cuz I was wondering if it was implicit in the ‘improve my position’ bit…. 😀

        3. Or maybe improve *her* position?
          On the constant diet of boys, there’s probably still much she can learn…

        4. Yes, even horny schoolteachers crave knowledge. Carnal knowledge, but knowledge all the same…

        5. Dear Lord, please help us to help them help themselves, and thereby increase the range of positions all thy Filthy Nymphomaniac Schoolteachers take, in thy name, Amen….

        9. Erection=MyCunt to the power of 2!
          She seems a fine religious girl that Miss Johnson… should go far!

        11. Another well educated young lady displaying tremendous assets and a praiseworthy resolve to spread enlightenment and religious fervour to all young men of stand-out enthusiasm…

        13. I can’t help but think how brave it is of her to educate the next generation on the value of women like her! And of course the essential work on informing them about women’s needs!
          Pink is such a feminine, poised, charming, ladylike colour!

        17. There was some speculation in another thread as to whether you were the cheeseburger that Andrea Dworkin choked to death on?
          I considered it unlikely you’d take one for the team to choke that landwhale to death, but if it was – great job!

        18. I musta missed that exchange. I can neither confirm nor deny I am the burger in question

    2. That’s what motivates you to produce BETA MAGAZINE? Whatever keep it rollin’!!

  11. I used to have problems sleeping all the time since I am always working away on the PC. The best thing I did for my sleep was to install f.lux (or equivalent) on all of my electronic devices and configuring it to about 2800K so most of the blue light is gone.
    Cannot rate it more highly.

  13. Good article, Savage. Just got me my 8, and I lit the fuse with one and a half chapters of a good book. Put my phone down like a dead soldier.

  15. And not to steal thunder here, but what’s the longest a guy goes without sleep? For me, it was 27 hours. Fell asleep standing up at work. Dropped a can on my foot. That’s how I woke up.

  16. I can’t sleep thru the night.
    2-3 hours at a time. mostly wake about 12:30AM
    and wide awake, alert and ready for action.
    double edged sword. Sometimes my work/life requires this. And I am great at it.
    However, lately waste time getting back to sleep and not so chipper…
    tried everything, just accept it..

  18. Swimming has really helped me get my sleep adjusted so I’m not sleeping all day
    and another thing that helped is removing all electronics in the bedroom.

    1. thanks for the link – not seen this before… another interesting approach

      1. I downloaded a white noise audio line from a youtube video and put it on my smartphone that is connected to my JBL Bluetooth Speaker.
        Everyone has his own approach 😉

    2. It’s so quiet where I’m moving, and dark, that it can be somewhat frightening if you’ve never experienced it before. I’ve seen people freak out at the stillness, and if the moon isn’t out it’s so dark that you can see the Milky Way very clearly and nothing else, I mean literally you can’t see your hand in front of your face. I don’t know how you city boys are able to relax comfortably with all that bustle and commotion and light. Even where I live right now at this moment would seem like an isolation chamber compared to most big cities.

  20. 10. Shut down your thoughts before going to bed
    Not being able to turn off the brain is generally the only sleep-related issue I experience anymore.
    Someone recently suggested counting backwards carries a sleep-inducing effect. I’ve only had reason to do it twice so far, but will continue to try it as there does seem to be something to it.
    Back in my college days, insomnia had become a rather serious problem. Fortunately, Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) comes with this helpful warning supplemental instruction: “May cause drowsiness. Alcohol may intensify this effect.” Taking one with a bottle of beer provided some much needed relief.

    1. yes… for me it’s actually the most difficult as well – even being aware of it seems to make it more intense.
      Apart from the boring repetitive stuff that slows the mind (you give counting backwards, I’ve offered the old-fashioned counting sheep, same difference) the article writers suggestion of *writing everything down* has proven effective for me. It’s like it gives permission to my brain to drop the subject, whereas if I don’t get it all down in writing my head somehow seems to think I’m going to forget about what it finds so important and wants to keep going over and over…

      1. counting backwards, … counting sheep, same difference
        The advice, when given to me, was particular about noting that it takes more concentration counting backwards than forwards, occupying more of your brain on a still monotonous task. It was also suggested there was some psychological effect of deescalation in counting down as opposed to up. I’ve not gone out of my way to read more about it, but I’ll just pass along the claim that there might actually be a real difference.

        1. both sound feasible…. theres all sorts of considerations like this in the embedded language…. lots used in things like Eriksonian Hypnosis and NLP….
          With the sheep it brings in visual imagery, and also dynamic movement, in *that* way drawing in more of the brain and also hopefully engaging it to remain on the subject…
          Of course counting backwards is a *classic* induction technique in hypnosis

  21. After I got in shape and lost 50 pounds my snoring/apnea stopped. No machines necessary.
    I also went pretty low on carbs. I think that my body became unaccustomed to carbs and, when I ate a few with dinner they worked as a soporific.
    Losing weight, learning game and getting fit (I climbed Mt Rainier twice last summer) also made getting pretty, younger women into bed easier. Satisfying sex makes sleep much easier.

    1. The soporific effect of carbs is well documented, especially in a keto context.
      The effect of sleeping with significantly younger women, in my experience, is also conducive to sound sleep and general health, as you note…

  22. I was a big fan of intermittent fasting; I only ate after I got home from work, basically 6-9pm. I slept like a stone. Not for everyone but I liked it.
    I lost a ton of weight and (as a side benefit of fitness) ended up falling asleep next to some younger, decent looking women after great sex. Nothing like waking up and hearing her making coffee and eggs.

    1. Yes, yes, YES to the IF!
      oh, and to waking up with younger women… especially if you’ve trained them to make zero-carb breakfasts!

    2. Nassim Taleb preaches IF in Antifragile.
      I did IF in school by default (had school all day long and I hated breakfast so I ate everyday at from 5-8pm). Since two weeks I started eating from 1pm to 6pm. Maybe I will modify this apporach a bit.

  24. Nighty night tea has been a godsend for me. I forgot what the brand is but combined with a bit of honey and lemon I’m out within 30 minutes after I consume a cup.

  25. Melatonin works wonders and is natural — as Mr Savage mentioned, the brain already produces it when it’s time for bed.
    Antihistamines (Benadryl / diphenhydramine or Unisom / doxylamine) work too….But careful with the Benadryl…if you take too much, you’re going to have the worst trip you have ever imagined.
    I don’t want to steer anyone towards controlled substances so if you can, stay away from your ambiens, lunestas, all that shit. Trust me, I could sustain a blog for years with just stories of fucked up things I did on ambien, and had no recollection of in the morning. All the insane things you’ve heard are probably true.
    Also I say avoid trazodone too. Docs will write you that one on the double bc it’s not a “schedule” drug aka a controlled substance…But that shit makes you dopey as fuck, and we don’t want to be dopey, we want to own our lives.
    Seriously though…Just get a nut off. That always helps me fall asleep. If there’s a lady involved, so much the better; but old Rosy & her 5 sisters will do the trick just as well, when you need them.

    1. Absolutely! Melatonin is manufactured naturally in the brain in response to ambient light levels…

    2. It’s great. It works. But you HAVE to re-built your hability to sleep, or the best drug will become a crutch eventually.

  26. make sure you sleep with head facing north – feet south.
    (note: some sources suggest different directions – but it can be personal for everyone. bottom line: if you’re not getting a good sleep, change the direction you sleep in. you may need to turn your bed and rearrange the bedroom).

      1. i have no idea. look it up if you want. all i know is it worked for me. that’s the only thing that’s important.

  27. 5 HTP and Theanine have really helped me get quality sleep with no after affect.

  28. 1) I had to give up lifting, strenuous exercise or working too physically on the house after 5pm. It absolutely does something to my cortisol or adrenals that keeps me from falling alseep. Physically exhausted but your mind does not turn off. A walk around the neighborhood and light stretches seem to be ok. Some of us are meant to by physical during the day and at least for me trying to make up for it throws my system off.

  29. Melatonin (start with 6mg 45 mins prior to bedtime), magnesium, chamomile, valerian root, no caffeine 12 hours prior to bedtime, north facing head, foam mattress (not spring), nothing electrical plugged in within a few feet of your head, no TV in bed, thick curtains / blinds and comfortable ear plugs — this advice will cure 95% of all insomnia cases.

  31. #10 is the one that gets me. People will always say, “Oh you should just read before bed.” That has the reverse effect of getting my mind going.

  33. 1 hour before bed, I dim all my lights, phone/TV (very low brightness) and lower any volume if need be.
    I usually get a message while in bed where I run an application called ‘Screen Filter’ and put the brightness to 13%.

  34. Photo at #9 – No women, negroes, or transgenders built this city.

  35. I found out accidently that taking some neem pills at dinner gives me deep sleep. I was taking the been to help with gum issues and the better sleep was a pleasant surprise. Of course one should cycle herbs or only take them when really necessary.

  36. to be honest i think all this “we need more sleep” stuff is modern day bs…6 hours of sleep is plenty for most adults.. even Arnold Schwarzenegger claims one of the main reasons for his success was only sleeping 6 hours a night. the 8 hour sleep night is as modern of an invention as the 8 hour workday.

  38. take a bunch of night time pills and except for the coffee and the temp- this is a pile of imagination.

  40. That itching at night could be pruritus ani. Adjusting your diet helps, especially eliminating processed meat and cutting down on alcohol.

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