Does anyone else do this in order to fall asleep?

[ldontWanna]

I need (and I do mean need) to roleplay in my head before I go to sleep. A bit like a bedtime story. Mostly inspired from whatever book or tv show I'm currently reading/watching . When I have a bad night's sleep/can't fall asleep it's normally because my brain is buzzing so I can't focus on the "story" and keep coming out of it. Even when I'm exhausted I still do it but it might only take a few minutes before I drift off. Reading or listening to something before bed is not enough.

It came up today when talking to a friend and she said it was really weird and has never heard of it. She's the head on pillow , fast asleep type though.

So any others that need to do this to fall asleep?

I do it! I either do up all the abandoned properties near me (I'm currently making a tiny house out of a ladies toilet in the park) or I'm leading a community of people after the apocalypse. We all live in caravans and grow veg.

Yup I do this! Or sometimes play word games in my head. DS has a scenario he imagines where he has started as a pupil at Hogwarts, and also has a tree house on an imaginary island he visits.

If DD sleeps in my bed then she becomes a (sleeping child) part of the story too , otherwise it would be weird to just have her sleeping there when all this is going on and it interferes with it. So the characters need to whisper and be careful to make sure they don't wake her up.

Don't really need it for OH as he tends to sleep quite far away from me so I can actually pretend he's not there.

I could have written your OP, I'm exactly the same! When I'm really tired and lose focus and keep going back to it then I know that normally means I won't sleep that night 😩 My DH doesn't understand at all because he closes his eyes and goes to sleep, he asks why I'm even thinking at all, drives me mad!

I’ve actually found it interesting to ask people (if you know them really well!) if they have a “fictional universe”. My mum does, weirdly. I’ve never asked my dad - he would just look at me as if I was mad. Siblings, no. Several ex partners did (and some didn’t). DP doesn’t.

I think my DD does, from some of the things she’s said to me!

Oh and I asked a friend once and she clearly thought I was a fruitcake 🤣 so be careful who you ask!

Yes! I do it, usually one of two scenarios.

@ldontWanna

If DD sleeps in my bed then she becomes a (sleeping child) part of the story too , otherwise it would be weird to just have her sleeping there when all this is going on and it interferes with it. So the characters need to whisper and be careful to make sure they don't wake her up.

Don't really need it for OH as he tends to sleep quite far away from me so I can actually pretend he's not there.

Oh I can't have real people in my stories, and while I'm playing myself in the stories, it's like an alternate universe version of me.

One of the longest running stories was through my teens, and I was a character in the universe of the TV show The Tribe (anyone remember that?). Was kind of sad when I realised I couldn't justify keeping that one going as I'd got too old for it 😂

I used to but haven't in the last few years - don't know why.

I can remember doing this when I was 5 so basically my whole life. A lot of the time it's self inserts into books/tv/movies I've seen/read. I've also been on Graham Norton a lot. I probably have about 4 ongoing but go through phases where I'll do one for weeks then get bored. I'll occasionally fall into it when walking on my own or on train journeys.
I tend to start from the start a lot of the time so never get particularly far. It's quite a calming way to get to sleep and will use it to distract myself from worries or if my head is buzzing.

@MedusasBadHairDay oh she's not DD per say. She is the DD of the character I'm playing and she is part of it all with traits and personality even if she's fast asleep. Or (one of my back up always works scenarios) she's the daughter of this powerful/magical couple , a hybrid with amazing powers that got sent away and hidden for her own protection. Then it depends... either one of the parents comes for a visit/to check on her, or we're found and in trouble , or things are safe again and we have to navigate returning her to her parents while me still being part of her life. There's a lot of potential and material in that one, but it's also really easy to build probably why it's one of my favourites.

I recite the Lords Prayer (in my head) and I’ve fallen asleep before I get to the end 🙏. If I wake in the night it often helps to get back to sleep too.

Yes! I do that..., absolutely nothing to do with real life just let my mind wander and I do dream of these things too....

If I get stressed and start thinking about real life I just do some deep breathing and concentrate on that

Yes I do.

I've never done this… would be too mentally stimulating for me, I think.

I make myself lie perfectly still, and count down my breaths from 100 (saying the numbers in my mind as well as picturing them). If I move, lose track, or get to zero, I start at 100 again. Usually if I'm tired enough I fall asleep before I get to zero. If I've done a couple of 100–1 breath countdowns and am not asleep, or I'm particularly stressed, I'll do a foot-to-head progressive muscle relaxation exercise, a foot-to-head body-scan exercise, then start back on the 100–1 breath counting. And if that doesn't work, I'll go and have a bowl of cornflakes and faff about online for a bit because sleep clearly won't be happening

Doesn't everyone do a bit of daydreaming at bedtime?

DH thinks about his alternative life as a Wimbledon champion apparently!

My DH admitted to doing exactly this! He plays out matches in his head with all the top players, who are his idols. He wins, of course

😂😂 I love this!!

I always daydream before I go to sleep.
I go to bed earlier just to do it.

Yep but I do it if I'm bored in everyday life, I used to act out scenes in my head from a tv show I'd recently watched while I was stacking shelves boredshitless it actually made me want to go to work so I could 'act' the next episode

I've featured in many tv show/film

I do this, have done since I was a small child. In my case it probably is maladaptive because I do it throughout the day too, even when someone is talking to me.

I don't do this to fall asleep, instead I usually count my breaths or listen to a podcast. I do it if I'm listening to music though and I'll imagine I'm the singer (I can't sing for toffee in real life.) In my head I've performed at Eurovision, been on the Graham Norton show and performed at Glastonbury .

I also do it during sex and this may be maladaptive but I can't orgasm without being in a fictional scenario . It's not imagining that I'm having sex with someone else per se, it's like a film going on in my head with fictional characters.

Yes @ldontWanna, I don't usually stick with the money related ones .. I gravitate back to 'indoor pool with retractable roof? Or long but narrow indoor pool along the length of the house for laps, AND a properly-outdoors infinity pool for lolling around in?' I imagine myself having the conversation with the architect (and I know without them telling me that they think I have 'a good sense of space' ;-)
I am SHAMELESS. (That was literally last night's one).

Following on from the poster who said the 'stories' became romantic/sexual in one's teens and then you got older and life got too busy for all that nonsense - I agree! In my teens for several years I went through the same fantasy of 'the Day David Bowie Understood How Amazing I Am'. And then I started having partners/sex and then children, who made me so tired that I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It's only been since they are older and less exhausting that I've returned to the whole nightly narrative.
I love this thread!

Yes I do. I believe it's called maladaptive daydreaming. I think of it like choosing a bed time story. I find I do it much more in times of stress or I'm anxious about something. It's my escape.

Sorry should have read the full thread

Yes I do this & have done since I was child.