Man, I can hear birds chirping. My roommate's sleeping, I can't turn on the TV, or music...I don't have a car, every place close by is closed...what do I do?

i don't know if i have an insomnia or not, but i never got to bed earlier than 2-3 am. once a week i end up staying up till 5 or 6 am.

i used to be very stressed about it, but now i try to find benefits in it. i borrow dvds from my uni's library and i read a lot. so, this depressing time is actually doing me benefit. i watch about 5 films a week and read at least 1 book per week.

i tend to get bored with music, however, when i can't fall asleep. i can't make myself listen to it under that sort of pressure.

I'm pretty much a sound sleeper but lately due to personal stress I'm going through I've been doing some tossin' and turnin'. I put my ipod on. I've got plenty of weekly podcasts and just listen to them.

Count the first 200 prime numbers.

Read James Joyce.

Smoke and drink wine.

take valium

Rub one out.

Masturbation and depressants.

Melatonin and Eluvium

buy you some headphones so you CAN listen to music

(dunno if yr TV has a headphone jack, tho)

problem with music for me is it give my mind room to wander and that's part of the not sleeping problem. Still say an iPod with podcasts. The talk will keep in concentrated on that and not on your thoughts plus you are being productive. That is if you listen to good podcasts.

I wound up ichatting and working on homework until 5 am, at which point fatigue finally caught up and I slept for 2 hours and 45 minutes, then made it to work by 9am.

Yeah, gotta get headphones. Masturbation? Well, I had a couple of hours to kill, and I think anyone would get mighty sore after awhile...

The worst thing you can do is worrying about not sleeping -- that's the kiss of death for insomnia I think

headphones for listening is good - I've got a discman beside the bed
reading is the other one - I've actually got a little headlamp for reading so as not to disturb the wife

do you go spelunking between her thighs with that?

I think the idea is that maybe once should relax you enough to doze off.

They say not to lay in bed & try to get back to sleep if that takes longer than 15 minutes. Get up & do stuff, then go back to bed when you feel more tired. I tried that recently & it worked (but I did only get a couple of hours' sleep). Something that usually works is turn down the tv too low to make out any words, turn away & close my eyes. Oh yeah, and Nyquil.

drink and make obscene posts on craigslist. online poker.

Seroquel. Write that down. The greatest sleep drug in history. I'm not exaggerating - as a life long insomniac, its changed my life.

I read today that the drug company who makes this drug that they've earned over one Billion in the last 3 months selling this drug. Worth every penny.

fixed

A couple tylenol PM and a long hot shower. You will wake up groggy from the shit that did to your liver though.

I can't believe how fucked up this is. I actually do this to help me fall asleep.

bump.

well...not so much insomnia, just terrible sleep patterns for me lately. i've fallen into a bad habit of going to be around 11:30, which doesn't coexist well with my 5:40am wakeup time. i'm perpetually tired and my eyes only feel good when they're closed.
i'm so used to waking up early that i can't sleep in on the weekends and i'm up by 6:30, despite a much later bedtime. saturday afternoon naps don't really pick up the slack.

a few times a year i'll wake up at a random hour, still half to three-quarters asleep, and just assume it's time to get up. this morning i got in the shower while noting how unusually tired i was. i figured the water would wake me up...it didn't. brushed & flossed, all that hygiene stuff, then stepped out of the bathroom. it was still pitch black outside. i went back to my room where the clock said 2:05am. WTF

My body is mostly incapable of keeping a regular sleep schedule during the times of the year when I work full time (ie, when not in school) and average on 4-6 hours a night, even with exercise and no naps. I recommend a large glass of wine, but this is apparently "bad".

I usually just lie there. If I get up and read I just end up getting more awake until morning.

Yawn.

I suggest headphones + TV + ganja + sofa + after a surprisingly short while, you'll be asleep.
The internet will, unfortunately, keep you awake, even tho it can be rather dull. Ironic, no?

You're s'posed to do something mellow and quiet, like reading. Nothing stimulating like TV. And warm milk, seriously.

I've heard this too--tryptophan makes you tired and the calcium relaxes your muscles. Almonds and bananas also have sleepy-time agents.

I might need some of the ideas in this thread.

I took a melatonin pill last week and it did the trick. Took me by surprise, really.