Submitted 8 months ago by s38b35M5@lemmy.world to [deleted]
I wake up at 3am to 4am daily as a neighbor makes noise walking their dog. This cannot be helped. Once I am awake, my mind won’t stop going over details about everything from the mundane to the critical. Often, I am able to fall asleep again after three or more hours of wakefulness, but onlyinutes before I have tonwake for the day.
Does anyone have success with quieting the mind without substances so that they can fall back to sleep?
Lots of great advice here already, the only thing I’d add is 4-7-8 breathing. There are lots of guides and explanations online, but essentially you breath in for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, then exhale for 8 seconds.
It takes practice before you can do it and stay relaxed at the same time, so I would suggest practicing during the daytime so when you do it at night it doesn’t fully wake you up. It took about a week of practice before I felt comfortable enough to feel the benefit, but I still use 4-7-8 breathing in lots of contexts four years later.
I think the theory behind it is tied to vagus nerve and helping the body relax and enter rest and digest states.
Do you have ADHD or something similar?
I always need to have something playing in the background to stop my mind from overworking.
Headphones with boring content is how I do it
Have a fan on for background noise
If you wake up, shift to a different position
Gather a bunch of the blanket in your arms
Get a heavier blanket
Use a humidifier
Have a drink/edible/nyquil
wrenchmonkey@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
alot of stuff you can read about meditiation is hooey, but practicing mindfulness and letting thoughts pass you by is a useful skill to practice. it takes some work, especially if you have a focus/anxiety problem. dont let your mind dwell on a thought, but dont push it out of your head, just “finish the sentence” as it were and move on to the next empty moment. it helps some people to visualize wiping a white board, smoothing sand, calming waves/ripples, etc.