Tips to turn your brain off when you're awake in the night?

[largeprintagathachristie]

After I've made a middle of the night visit to the loo (sigh, every bloody night) my mind/brain does the following, resulting in hours of wakefulness:

• plays some kind of song incessantly on a loop, ranging from an advertising jingle I've heard that day through to a song I love but haven't heard for 20 years. The more I try to stop it, the more incessant the "earworm", as the Germans call it, is.

• worries about current situations with work/pandemic/you name it

• races over things that aren't anxiety inducing but most definitely do not need to be thought about at three o clock in the morning.

I've tried sort of body scan relaxation, "start at your feet and relax each part of your body" but I only ever get to the feet before racing off on other wakeful loopholes as above. Same with breathing; I manage about two controlled breaths before my mind darts off to something else. It ends up where I'm basically internally shouting at myself to RELAX AND STOP THINKING, which is clearly counter productive.

If anyone has any tips that work for them, I'd be really pleased to hear them.

When I was single I would turn on the light and read (and I do have a little book lamp thing so that's not impossible now) but I love reading and tend in that situation to read for hours and hours and there's work in the morning regarding. So I'm really looking for ideas to go help me to go back to sleep rather than advice to get up and do something else.

I struggle with this too OP. Sometimes reading works. I've got a kindle paperwhite which I have on dark mode and low brightness. The advantage of the kindle is I can have a book on the go specifically for when I wake in the night - something that I'm already really familiar with that I find soothing (think Jane Austen!).

I recently bought a headband thing with Bluetooth speakers in from Amazon so I could listen to audio books at night, but it hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped. Getting them connected and the audio playing is easy enough but I find it wakes me up more. And although I drift off quickly once it is playing, I find I don't go into a deep sleep properly, I just drift in and out.

Sorry I can't be more help, but I feel your pain!

Sudoku puzzles work for me, switches my brain off completely. I'm no good at crosswords but number puzzles do the trick.

I use the calm app and listen to sleep stories

Nothing much happens podcasts

Amazing

Have you tried This works sleep spray ?

There's no magic bullet but almost all research suggests you should get up out of bed and read/ do something not screen related until you feel tired. Don't stay in the bedroom. This sometimes works for me. I also listen to a podcast/ audiobook to take my mind off whatever I'm thinking about. Something easy, not a thriller!

I struggle, I even had insomnia cbt
So your environment is important, is it too hot/cold, dark/light
Do not use things with blue light so phones/kindles, if you do you need to put them in dark/bed mode as the light affects your brain
I was trained to get up and read etc in another room if I can’t get back to sleep, no amount of lying there and hoping will work
No caffeine after 10pm
Write the thoughts down and put them in a box. Read them at the end of the week or next day if you can’t wait. Most things are pointless thoughts but writing it down gives your brain a bit of closure
Good luck

This probably sounds a bit weird but here goes-

I try and remember every town I have ever visited, or everywhere I have been on holiday/every pub I have been to visualise and count them. I suppose it's a variation on counting sheep but it works for me..

Oh I also recently bought a Bluetooth headset for bed as we’ve had a squirrel in the roof and it’s kept me up
It has worked, I’ve played white noise or some nights nothing but it covers my eyes and ears.

Boring repetitive noise, like white noise helps me sometimes. I found an 8 hour loop of a printing press that I like;

Also I bought a weighted blanket from amazon which really does the trick! I just got the cheapest one, didn't worry too much about weight etc just wanted to try it out and its been great, off to sleep within minutes every time.

Audible on Kindle - Agatha Christie is good , put sleep timer on.

Pick an age when you were a child and go over your memories.

This works sleep spray.I buy a big bottle,works out less expensive,it lasts about 6 months.

Second the calm app sleep stories

You are describing my brain too OP! I've tried the lavender spray, pleasant on the pillow but can't say it worked any miracles.
The podcasts sound interesting, also I found some of the 'cosy cabin' You tube videos help to relax me so I put them on my tablet whilst sitting in bed. For those not familiar with them there's all sorts of mock up cosy settings, log cabins with fires, snow outside, sound of a blizzard. I try and immerse myself in the scene and then keep it in my head and create an image of me actually in it whilst trying to sleep. Some nights it works better than others but at least it's relaxing!

There's also plenty of real scenery that's relaxing (You tube) like stormy/tropical beaches, you name it, it seems to be there.

I use an app called Sleepa. It has lots of different white noise sounds to choose from, and you can mix sounds to form your own white noise, or just play one individual sound. It also has calming music for meditation. I have been using the meditation sounds to help me get to sleep, I have found it really useful.

I make alphabetical lists e.g. girls names, 5 starting with A, 5 with B etc or flowers, dog breeds, anything really

Mmmm re reading over the thread I' m not sure if the videos are the greatest option during the night but certainly a help to me before bed.

I work my way through the alphabet thinking of three things relating to a specific topic. So over Christmas that eas my theme:

Advent, angel, Away in a manger
Bauble, Boxing Day, baby
Cake, crib, cards...
Decorations, donkey...
You get the idea.

Each time I woke, I had to go back to A and remember all the ones I had thought of before. I even set sub-rules like no more than one carol per letter!

It works for me.

I am currently doing Springtime. Quite hard!

Alphabetical lists of groups of things
Book/poem tree/plant city/river
Writer famous person historical site
Place I've visited fictional character poet/painter
are some of my mind lists.

I enjoy listening to an audiobook on youtube - something interesting but ultimately boring - Ive been listening to 2001, Sherlock Holmes. They often go on for hours.

Another way might be listening to a constant stream rain, thunder and lightening, crickets, or static pink/brown noise. Again you can find hours of these on youtube. I find they help me stay calm and focused.

I’m exactly the same, particularly repeating over and over in my head unimportant or even imaginary scenarios and weird earworms.

As others have said, I need to “distract” my mind by reading. I discovered this works for me when I got Kindle paper white. I don’t turn on the bedside light and keep the Kindle back light low enough to read. Eventually I’ll feel drowsy enough to nod off.

@Sparklingbrook I do a similar thing. I let my mind go back to places from my past. For example, I walk through my primary school, I don't force any memories instead I let them drift into my mind. It's amazing the memories locked away!

Gin.

I get this from time to time. I have to imagine my thoughts getting rolled together into a ball and put in a box. I then visualise the box lid closing and being locked. I then put the box in the corner and tell myself I will deal with it later.

If you try to eliminate the thought it will not go away. Allowing yourself to believe you will deal with it later tricks your brain to allow you to move on from it at that moment.

Hope this helps

Once upon a time, a sleep therapist came to my work, and one of the tricks she taught was to breathe normally, but count your breaths up to 10.
Every time you notice your mind wandering, start from one again. I rarely get past 5 before I fall asleep, usually having restarted 4/5 times.
Key is not to get caught up on what your mind has wandered to, just acknowledge and move on.
I also like the sleep stories on calm, particularly with Erik Braa narrating.