how do you fall asleep at night?

[Krill]

Well, it depends on what I have been doing. If I have been doing something interesting, I will end up thinking for hours on end when I shuld be asleep. Normally though, just read a book for half an hour, and When I feel my eyelids begin to feel heavy, just stop reading immediately, lie on my side, and I can be asleep within 10 secnds.

literally.

[Blake]

I'm also one of the unlucky bastards who can't go to sleep. If there is one thing I envy it is the ability to go to sleep just whenever. I also have no problem sleeping for 8+ hours and I wake up dead. So I have no problem staying asleep or staying awake, I just happen to be a bit too good at both... (it is however handy at times since I can like drive while dead tired and am guaranteed to not fall asleep it the wheel - I wouldn't do something so foolhardy though since tiredness still causes loss of reaction time and stuff).

Some things I try...

Focusing on the "hypnotic imagery" generated by the brain in the absence of any visual input, that appears inside of the eyelids. It looks like shifting colors but you normally wont notice it because it's meant to put you to sleep.

Daydreaming. This can sometimes lead to real dreaming especially once the brain starts getting confused and the sensation of "vertigo" appears - at this moment the brain doesn't know if it should be paying attention to the senses or the daydreaming and it can be nudged in the right direction by focusing on the dreamworld. This probably makes more sense to a lucid dreamer like myself. "Entering a dream" does seem to be a generally useful technique to get to sleep. (it has on occasion resulted in very screwed up lucid dreams that can make it IMPOSSIBLE to get back to sleep afterwards - but having such a lucid dream is usually worth it anyway.)

Counting backwards from 101. Just gives something to focus on. Counting doesn't usually do much for me since I can usually still think about other things at the same time. Counting backwards works a little better. Counting down from 201 to 100 is good too, since saying 'one hundred and' one hundred times is just the kind of tedium that puts you to sleep...

Scratching my scalp. Helps for some reason.

Sleepy relaxed tired dark deep tired sleepy drifting.... imagining words like these in a tone a hypnotist might use seems to help quite often.

Catching (and resisting) the "roll over" instruction. When you sleep you will change position, well whatever part of the brain that is repsonsible for this (brainstem, I think) tries to make you do this before you're fully asleep, depending on how you react to the roll over instruction the brain can determine if you're conscious or not - if you don't react it decides that you've drifted off and does the paralysis thing to stop you physically acting out your dreams. If you consciously resist shifting position the brain can't tell the difference and will paralysis your body anyway, leaving you in a state of sleep paralysis - I've had the pleasure of experiencing this and the alternate name - "Old hag syndrome" is indeed very appropriate and if you're not crazy you may find it very, very scary. However the "resist rolling over" thing hasn't ever worked that way for me, it does however help me go to sleep for some reason, maybe by focusing my attention "inwards"...
(How I managed to induce sleep paralysis was staying away for way more hours than is healthy (like 40 i think), then sleeping for a few hours, then staying awake for another 18 hours or so, then sleeping... it was during this second sleep period that everything got screwed up enough for my mind to be awake while my body slept. It was really loud, like screaming static in my ears, and I actually felt a ghastly hand grab my shin through the covers. VERY groovy and I can see why this experience can scare the living **** out of people and why it's also known as Old Hag's Syndrome or Alien Abduction (in earlier times, witches, vampires, spirits etc), would hate to experience it without knowing what it is.)

Jacking off sometimes helps but it's a bugger when it doesn't work, seems to make thing worse really.

[Immortal Wombat]

The only times I can't sleep are when I haven't been awake long enough. Try spending more time on Poly.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Bkeela
I have a number of fantasies I like to think about as I am trying to sleep. All the fantasies involve beautiful women.

All my fantasies are set in a post apocalyptic world. Sometimes I lead a nomadic existence riding a camel around the desert, with a few female slaves for company. Sometimes I lay in ambush for slave trains, and when I free the female slaves (all nude of course) they offer their services for lack of alternate options.

Sometimes I roam around in a car like Mad Max.

Sometimes I live in a desolate city beseiged by zombies.

Sometimes I am in an underground bunker with a number of other women.

Sometimes I live in a utopian underground city, where all the inhabitants have been conditioned to avoid sex. I of course take it upon myself to corrupt some of the female citizens.

If I see an attractive woman on the street, or there is a woman I fancy in Survivor or some other show, then she will star in my fantasy.

I do not think about explicit sex or anything, for that would distract my intention to sleep. I just think about mundane, domestic type situations where the women wear nothing but undies.

Pretty sad, but it gets me to sleep without fail.

hmm, I have the same post apocalyptic world fantasies. . Okay, mine don't have slaves, I'm not into that sort of thing.

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Bkeela


Sometimes I am in an underground bunker with a number of other women.

This implies that you are a female yourself.


If I can't get sleep, I just have hot'n steamy sex with my gf, and fall asleep pretty quickly afterwards, from exhaustion.

Of course, it takes up to three hours, so I might fall asleep quicker otherwise, however, it's much more fun.

[Dis]

last night I could not sleep. I had some severe pain in my ankle. I don't know what I did to it. That's the weird thing. I had to take a pain medication (aleve) just to fall asleep. I finally fell asleep around 7:30 this morning.

I'm a wimp when it comes to pain.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun


This implies that you are a female yourself.


If I can't get sleep, I just have hot'n steamy sex with my gf, and fall asleep pretty quickly afterwards, from exhaustion.

Of course, it takes up to three hours,

Do you have a problem with retarded ejaculation or is it some other problem??

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by alva
I have the same problem as Diss, always takes me ages to fall asleep but put me in a plane, bus or car and I'm gone in a minute.

I don't like the complete silence of it all.

You also get nice, rythmic motion.

Okay, not always

I reckon it is not complete silence in the womb, so that could be unsettling to many. Perhaps playing some light music?