I’m looking for suggestions that zombie-me could follow through with. The problem is I can barely bring myself to get out of bed, let alone do a useful task. It just wastes typically 2–5 hours of my life as I wait for tiredness to finally (re)take hold.
You work to strengthen unions and take down capitalism.
Here are some helpful resources to read in bed while you’re trying to fall back asleep
https://afsc.org/news/how-support-unions-and-striking-workers
https://tcf.org/content/commentary/worker-to-worker-organizing-may-finally-have-its-moment/
Jack it, then you can sleep again
Procrasturbation is unhealthy
Brain-dead response. That isn’t even procrastinating. What are we procrastinating here, chastity? Release is good for you.
But it’s a hell of a lot better than laying there listening to your own late night thoughts.
Move to the couch, and read a boring book if you can’t sleep. Don’t do anything stimulating or chances are it will make it harder to eventually go back to sleep.
Yin yoga is good for this exact situation. I do it without getting out of bed usually (husband is a heavy sleeper). I read somewhere “vigilance is the enemy of sleep” and that makes sense. Yin yoga is designed to calm your nervous system and I find it does help knock me back out. Try to let go of unhelpful thoughts, if you think you need to remember something for the morning place a rubberband around your wrist to make you notice and remember in the morning then let it go.
If it’s so late (early?) that you might as well get up, a morning run, jog, or walk as the sun is rising is a very encouraging activity. It feels so happy to see the new day born, and vigorous exercise in particular (so if you can run instead of walk, do it) is invigorating.
I shitpost on this obscure Internet technology forum called Lemonworld or something to market my movies and confuse some tech nerds.
It’s an incredibly productive use of my free time.
I started listening to Alan Watts while I find the topics really cool, his voice just puts me to sleep.
I did cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia years ago, and at the time had the same issue with waking up and then laying in bed for hours trying to get back to sleep. It led to a horrible cycle of anxiety about whether I’d be able to sleep, which of course made it harder to sleep. The most important rules are to try to go to bed and get up at the same time every day. If you’re awake in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep after ten minutes, get out of bed and do something quiet with no screens. I recommend hand washing dishes, dusting, or folding laundry. This is productive, calm and quiet, and boring enough that you will be happy to go back to bed when your body says you’re ready. When you start doing this, you’re going to be even more tired during the day. Just suffer through it, don’t take a nap and don’t try to counteract it with caffeine or other stimulants! That will only exacerbate the cycle of insomnia. I also recommend keeping a journal of when you go to bed, every time you wake up, and when you’re finally up for the day. You might find that you naturally wake up less if you give yourself a different bed time window.
Practice your telekinesis and telepathy
Listen to an audiobook.
Smoke a joint and go back to sleep.
I will eat a couple melatonin gummies and then read until I get sleepy enough to turn out the lights.
I would caution doing this too much. Melatonin is great for short term sleep issues. But too much melatonin can turn into insomnia. It’s happened to me several times, where I take melatonin too many nights in a row (I’m talking weeks, or even months), and I end up having difficulty sleeping for almost a week when I try not taking melatonin anymore.
I understand this is your experience but I’ve yet to see this confirmed by any well crafted studies.
That could be the case. I don’t know if any long term melatonin use studies have been conducted. But they do caution against using it long term given the safety of it hasn’t been well studied.
Good point!
Mindfulness practice, set the intention to consciously watch everything your mind is doing.
This kind of practice may also help with getting back to sleep.
Meditation doesn’t require you to leave your bed, and the only way you could fail at it is by falling asleep again.
I had this happen to me this morning!
Was up at 4am and thought… oh! I can scan some of those old family photos I’ve been meaning to get to. Just ended up on my iPad reading the news and browsing Etsy and eBay for two hours instead. Every time, I remind myself I need to keep screens out of the bedroom.
Otherwise, if it’s nearly morning anyway, I find it a good time to listen to music and make playlists. If it’s too early, I’ll read a book.
Instant ramen.
