<p>The whole summer I slept at like 3am... NNOW THAT SCHOOL HAS STARTED, I cant sleep at like 11pm anymore. What helps you ppl sleep?</p>
<p>Eat warm foods.
Listen to talk radio (the men at night have nice mellow voices)
'Day' dream about something that makes me smile</p>
<p>an episode of the sopranos (i'm dead serious)
or same with quitejaded, daydream about something</p>
<p>LOUD, familiar music. I need some kind of sound to get to sleep, and if it's familiar, I don't feel the need to pay too close attention to it. And the loudness... I don't know, just sort of works for me.</p>
<p>What I did to start sleeping earlier after going to bed at 1am for the entire summer was force myself to get up early one morning, stay awake all day and then go to bed at 10 or 11. That way (hopefully) it sort of results your "tiredness" clock.</p>
<p>Do intense exercise one night that makes you so tired that you fall right to sleep at 11pm. That should adjust your body clock.</p>
<p>Stealing my bf's hoodies to sleep in. Seriously comfy :)
That, or listen to calming music.
Also, make sure that your alarm clock doesn't give off too much neon glare... it is SO distracting!</p>
<p>I stay up really late until I can't stand it anymore and then I fall asleep</p>
<p>Try reading the dictionary. I haven't tried it but maybe you can and tell us how it works. :)</p>
<p>But, um, I listen to really soft music and sometimes the really sappy stuff that Delilah plays (syndicated radio show). Or, I have my cat sleep next to me. Yeah, laugh at me. :o</p>
<p>I liek to play a little 'game' with myself at these situations:</p>
<p>You are not allowd to move.
^that's the rule.
The aim? Not moving until you fall asleep.</p>
<p>When I'm tossing and turning, I always feel a bit more revitalised when I'm active. So, I just, lie there, frozen. Oh and you're not allowed to move when your knee is itchy. It's really harder than it sounds. honest.</p>
<p>Tiredness. I wouldn't try to sleep if I couldn't sleep. The time could be used for something productive.</p>
<p>the only perk of being deaf- when i take my hearing aids off i cant hear ANYTHING and the dead silence usually gets me asleep. </p>
<p>other than that, if im just like hyper or something, i like imagining dreams and stories and stuff with my eyes closed and then it usually evolves into a real sleep-dream. it usually works for some reason</p>
<p>NoFX.. will tht itchy knee let u sleep?</p>
<p>-reading
-milk
-breakfast foods
-concentraing on breathing (think yoga!)
-thinking about something that makes me happy or that I'm excited for</p>
<p>imagine the color black
now picture a tiny glowing star in the middle of all this darkness
force yourself to stare at it no matter what
it will bore you and you will sleep
the hardest part is forcing yourself to stare at it and not shift your train of thought</p>
<p>YourMaster: there could soon be another thread: "What helps you stare at that star?" :D</p>
<p>have you tried adjusting your sleep pattern gradually? go to bed 30 minutes earlier everday until you get to 11.</p>
<p>I once read that if you can't fall asleep after trying for 20 minutes (I play the you-can't-move-game or try slow yoga breathing) then get up and do something else for 40 minutes, as long as it's either slow or requires little movement or light. I read or do homework with soft lighting or fold laundry practically in the dark. Try again after you're done. If you try to fall asleep when you're not tired, it often doesn't work, at least for me.</p>
<p>Then again I barely get any sleep. Yeah. Don't try my way.</p>
<p>Try to have the same routine every night & go to bed & wake up at the same time all week (including weekends). Turning off the computer <gasp> & avoiding TV & all video games for an hour before sleep, take a warm bath, read quietly something boring and/or relaxing every night before sleeping. Do NOT do anything else in your bedroom & especially your bed except sleep.</gasp></p>
<p>If worse comes to worse, you can try buying a therapeutic bright light to help "reset" your internal clock & help you wake when you're supposed to. We've tried all of this with our kids & it has some limited effectiveness.</p>
<p>Camomille tea is supposed to be helpful. Melatonin (a supplement) is also supposed to be helpful (but some find it habit-forming). My son takes 300mcg/night.
Good luck!
HImom</p>
<p>I've actually tried counting sheep. I picture little animated sheep jumping over a picket fence and smiling. Then they go faster, and faster, and faster. I eventually go crazy and end up sweating with my eyes wide open for fear of being attacked by a bear (yeah, I don't get it either).</p>
<p>I also envision myself being eaten by swarms of cockroaches under the covers, and slap random spots on the bed spontaneously to surprise them and let them know that I'm not gonna take any bull**** from them.</p>
<p>Oh wait, this doesn't help you, does it.</p>
<p>I can't force myself to sleep. I got used to sleeping around 6 or 7 for a while about a month ago. My sister said I should just lie down and I'll fall asleep automatically. I lay there for two hours (until 5:00 AM) one night before I got up and watched a movie. Usually I'll go for a quick two-mile run at 5:30 if I'm up, and by the time I get back, I'm exhausted. Then I watch some cartoons or Step By Step or some other super boring show and end up sleeping for hours.</p>
<p>Oh, and Garden State works well for me, too. I've never gone through the entire movie without falling asleep.</p>
<p>To get back to a more sane (relatively speaking, of course) sleeping habit, I decided that, instead of pushing my clock BACK to 12:00 AM (as opposed 7:00 AM), I would push it FORWARD to the next night. I would do so by pulling an allnighter just <em>one</em> night and fall into a mega-exhausted sleep the next. I tried several times, but was unable to stay up the entire day, thus defeating the purpose, and, alas, was forced to give up.</p>
<p>So, in the end, my solution is to get used to sleeping late and getting about 5 hours of sleep on your good days. Sure, you'll hate every waking minute of your life, but hey, at least you'll get good grades (and if you don't, well... nevermind).</p>
<p>Actually, once school starts, you'll be <em>forced</em> to get up at a certain time, meaning you'll get less sleep than usual. Soon enough you'll be tired all the time, so you'll be able to sleep a few hours earlier. Yes, this method actually works.</p>