Meta

Notes

A list of things:

• a dark room, comfortable temperature, and quiet (i always use earplugs)
• eating enough foods in the evening that make me feel "full" for a long enough time (e.g. enough fats and proteins). Often for me, sleep issues seem corellated with feeling hungry in the night.
• sports in the morning or early afternoon, but not in the evening; stretching and meditation in the evening seem to help
• no caffeine or similar substances 8 or 9 hours before sleeping
• drinking warm herbal tea before going to bed, in particular e.g. with
  • lavender
  • orange blossom
• lighting a candle and having just that light for a bit before going to sleep
• burning palo santo
• massage of the feet with lavender massage oil right before going to bed
• taking magnesium in the evening an hour or two before going to bed
• some journaling/free-writing in the evening to clear out thoughts
• no screens (computer, phone) at least ca. 2 hours before going to bed
• trying to fall asleep while listening to "rain sounds" in a loop on my headphones. This seems to be calming for me, and also seems to help block out external noises as well as internal mental chatter in my head
• listening to this 30min guided sleep meditation once in bed and ready for sleep (the guy's voice is somehow really relaxing!)
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8LIbeKQ60U
• sleep medication: I sometimes use "Benocten" to help with falling asleep. I have the impression my sleep quality is less than normal if I use it, but sometimes this is preferable to no sleep. The next day I'm sometimes a bit groggy from it I think. With other sleep medication that I've tried I feel more groggy though and they also often didn't work to make me sleep for sure. So I've opted to not use sleep medication, except Benocten once in a while.

Resources