How do you fall asleep? Silence? Noise?

[Borisjohnsonshairbrush]

Just this ..

Having an anxious episode tonight and falling asleep will be very hard for me so it's headphones in and I'll put on "friends" "will and grace" or a comedy with canned laugher, shut my eyes and try and drift off.

I can hardly bare the silence. Anyone else have a certain sleep style?

I also need a pillow between my legs and a really soft well worn sheets I hate brand new sheets....

I like to either fall asleep listening to an asmr video on YouTube (and then the adverts wake me up!), or with ear plugs in which generate a sort of 'white noise' inside my ears. I'm not a good sleeper 😒

Silence and pitch black. I usually have no trouble sleeping but lately I've been waking anywhere from 2-4am and been unable to get back to sleep so I'm on strong sleeping tablets which do the trick.

A soundtrack of wave sounds or mountain stream for 45 minutes to help us drop off. Works a treat.

Dark and silent. Asleep in about 3 minutes. Interesting, I was a crap sleeper when I was young.

Audiobooks but only something very familiar overnight, otherwise it's over stimulating

Podcasts- What's your Problem, Monkey Tennis, For the Many

YouTube- Bailey Sarian

Any Alan Partridge

LBC- Clive Bull in particular

I was reading about this. Apparently seeking sensory input isn't unusual. I listen to podcasts or radio plays

Old eps of The Archers, bed entirely to myself, window slightly open.

A familiar audiobook on just loud enough to hear. Distracts me from my thoughts but doesn’t engage me too much.

I suffer horrific anxiety and cannot bear silence. It suffocated me.

I have to have noise, not loud and nothing i will engage in. Crime channel does wonders. Stick it on quietly, snuggle down and eventually fall asleep

I go to sleep in silence unless I'm struggling with anxiety and then I either listen to music or rainstorm sounds.

My littlest DD ask alexa for "relaxing classical music" to go to sleep. Makes me laugh as I much prefer a bit of rock

Monkeytennis97 I love Bailey's murder mystery and makeup.

I have ptsd from an rta and one of the things that haunts me is the silence after all the metal and glass stopped smashing and grinding so I have to have some noise in order to sleep. I listen to court cases on YouTube and if I’m feeling extra anxious I always listen to one particular one.

I use the Calm app - Sleep stories. Soooo good. They're mainly about 30 mins long. It's rare I'll get to the end of one. If you have it I recommend Erik Braa, Anna Acton and Matthew McConnaughey 😍

[quote CalmConfident]**@floppybit* @Megan2018* @JSL52

Another rain fan here…I listen to the Rain episode on BBC sounds sleepscapes. I am off into sleep in moments. Only the rain works….the waves version make me anxious and alert ![/quote]
Ooh I like waves in real life. Might have a listen.

Pitch black Darkness and silence for me please !

I've been using the show Friends to get to sleep for the past 20 years so no, you're not odd. How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory are also good ones. What is a bit morbid is that I also like to listen to True Crime YouTube videos to get me to sleep 🤣

I've FT'd an acquaintance today and she has had the best intro to a deep sleep just listening to her new husky pup snoring in his bed next her.

A crime documentary! Emma Kenny is good!

I have to be in the recovery position, facing right (towards the edge of the bed), near an open window and in pitch black and as near to silence as a snuffling husband will allow. Once I'm out, you could parade a brass band through the room, but any chink of light would wake me up!

I have tinnitus - I can only fall asleep listening to an audiobook. And I'm very fussy about the narrator!

Luckily, me and my husband are the same, completely dark and completely silent, our DD (2) needs a nightlight and some sort of soft noise to sleep though, either white noise or piano music

I'm astounded so many people sleep with electronic aids or noise.

Just total quiet and darkness is bliss for me

I have tinnitus

Me too! It wasn't until we moved that I realised how bad it was. It's SO quiet in our room that I genuinely thought there was an alarm going off somewhere - no, just your ears

Luckily I can mostly tune it out. I had pulsatile tinnitus really badly a few years ago, that I couldn't sleep through. ENT couldn't offer me any help though unfortunately.