Please post your getting to sleep tips (for me!)

[WewishyouaBUMPERLICIOUS]

I'm taking a really long time to get to sleep at the moment as I often do, and if dd wakes up in the night I am struggling to get back to sleep. I struggle to switch off.

Does anyone have any tips for getting off to sleep?

Trying to read a really boring book, counting - I really find this works!

Good Luck!

iPod with one of those naff Chillout albums - would never listen to it any other time, but it really is hypnotic. Works on my 9 yr old too when he's too wound up to sleep.

Not too much risk of strangulation if you put headphones on from behind your head, IYSWIM.

Sweet dreams.

I take Night Calms they are just enough to send you off to sleep. They do not put you in a deep sleep so you could hear dd if she wakes up.

how's about some of that deep breathing they do at Yoga?

I'm in the same boat Bumperlicious (which is why i am on here at 11pm!).

This is what works best for me...

-don't go to bed until you are relaxed and tired, not because teh clock says it's late and therefore it must be bedtime.
-get ready for bed (ie, undressed, clean teeth, cleanse whatever you do) then come downstairs and relax on the sofa with a book, glass of hot milk, cuddle with DH, cuddles with the cat if DH is still at work etc etc
-don't have anything in your bedroom except your bed (within reason obviously but no tv, no books, no clutter)
-lavender on your pillow or a heated lavender cushion perhaps
-if you are not asleep within about 20 mins, get up and go back to the wind down zone on the sofa or do something boring like wrap some christmas presents, sort your christmas cards out into piles of which ones are to go on display at the front of the shelf and which at the back
-if you still can't sleep wake your DH and have sex - the orgasm after effects (hormone releases) will send you to the land of nod.

Good luck

picture a scene with a waterfall

imagine the sound of the water

imagine the water rushing past

imagine it is a beautiful day

you're lying down next to a beautiful waterfall

the sun is warm on your face

the sound of the water is all you can hear

you are feeling very relaxed

the water is still running

your eyes are heavy

your breathing is slow

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

ps. go to the loo before you go to bed

seriously waterfalls are meant to be great for getting to sleep.

also imagining writing your name in some warm sand over and over again

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Some people swear that not letting your tongue touch your teeth or cheeks (holding it in the middle of your mouth) works.

I relax my body bit by bit from the bottom up, each body part for one exhalation. Toes. Balls of feet. Heels. Tops of feet. Whole feet. Ankles. Calves. Knees etc.

Also, don't have caffine after midday.

i sometimes mentally make a cake, measuring flour and putting it all together.

anything dull and methodical you can muster, get it all ready in your head and will be fine.

Hot chocolate, lazy sex or 'heavy petting'(snurk) and heavy blankets.

I had problems sleeping for years, but found a solution with "talking books" from the library. It's like being read a bed time story. I find they distract me from the fact I can't sleep, which means that I fall asleep really easily IYSWIM. The World Service on the radio works well for me too!

MUST. TURN. OFF. MN....

Thanks for your tips. I might dig out my iPod and listen to some talking books or some chillout music, Massive Attack or something! Not sure if that will help though as i have always been kept awake by reading rather than fall asleep like most people do!

I do yoga and have tried the breathing/relaxation techniques, but what I need is to record my yoga teacher's voice to help me sleep

I find that unless I completely exhaust myself both mentally and physically, I can't drop off before 2 am. On the days that I go for a run, and then have a hot bath, I get to sleep within the hour. The hot bath works by over-heating your body so that your cooling mechanism kicks in, and your body then cools right down (as you lie in bed sipping water) to sleep temperature. Apparently our body temperatures drop for sleep, and if they stay high, it is v. difficult to get to sleep. The bath is also good for relaxing muscles (add lavender essential oil to the bath).

Radio 4. Its the most boring thing on earth.

Once you are in bed, switch of from what has been happening in the day and visualise and remember a really tranquil sight or moment that you have experienced or seen.

Then step by step go around that picture and describe in your head what you see and why it appeals to you. For example if it is a beach, hear the sound of the waves, feel the sand under your feet, feel the warmth of the sun on your skin etc etc.

If you can lose yourself in your visualisation, it should send you off xx

Seconding what DixiePixie said - very good for preventing racing-mind syndrome.
I have an underpillow speaker attached to my ipod on sleep mode.
HTH - sympathies - nothing worse than not being able to sleep.

Have a fiddle. Oxytocin is your friend

Rescue Remedy always works for me if I can't get back to sleep. I keep some in the bedside table drawer.

i do my times tables. never get past sixes.

Really maidamess? I was just thinking yesterday that I should start listening to radio 4 if I want to be more intellectual like! people on here are always say "i heard a really good discussion on Radio 4..." maybe i won't bother!

lol @ chubby!

I'm kept awake by reading too. I guess the talking books thing works because reading is more active than lying back and being read to - so I can allow myself to relax!

Radio 4 is great in the wee small hours for lulling you to sleep with its ZZzzzz inducing mix of world politics, philosophical debate and the shipping forecast.

Another vote for Radio 4. I put it on to go to sleep at night and sometimes if I wake too early in the morning I put it on again to send me off for another hour.

a bath with lavender oil, then into bed with clean sheets (washed in that sleep easy lavender softner stuff), lavender glass smelly thing in the room, ipod in, chillout on, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz