In middle school and sometimes in high school, falling asleep was not easy for me. While my sister could go upstairs, climb into bed, and be asleep in no time, I’d stare at the ceiling for a good thirty minutes to an hour before finally nodding off.
I tried everything: Warm milk, trying not to exercise right before bed (although my soccer coach wasn’t about to change our 7pm practices just for my sleep problems!), counting sheep, lavender on my pillow, etc. etc. etc.
Thankfully, I don’t seem to have the problem anymore. Perhaps it was just a teen-hormone thing; maybe it was due to the fact that I didn’t keep a similar schedule on weekends. Whatever the case, I’m glad to finally be like my sister and doze off within 10-15 minutes of “lights out.”
Today’s post is not about food, unlike the My Morning Routine post.
Here’s how my nighttime routine goes down:
1. Get into comfy pjs
2. Brush teeth, etc.
3. Climb into bed with Killer Jigsaw Sudoku.
I highly recommend jigsaw sudoku. It’s a really fun challenge (especially the diabolical ones). And focusing on numbers is a good way to quiet my thoughts and lull me to sleep. Halfway through a puzzle, my eyes can hardly stay open.
Lazy Henry has no problem falling asleep.
What’s his secret?? Henry’s not sharing.
I usually eat a bowl of hot cereal of some sorts. It is usually oatmeal/bran or spelt. Bulgur has made it into the routine as well as toast. The meals are an hour before bed time and help me fall asleep faster.
I wear an eye shade, too. They are just so nifty!
I have to have a fan on or I can’t fall asleep. Something about the noise puts me to sleep. And I always read for a bit before laying down.
Oh dear….I have MAJOR sleep problems. For some reason, I MAKE myself stay up past midnight on MANY a night….why? I have no clue. Do I think I am going to be missing out on something? Oof!
The nights I am a grandma and asleep by 9:30 are HEAVENLY to me. I work a few early mornings throughout the week, so these are usually after going nonstop for a full day starting at 6am 🙂
I used to have a nighttime routine, but lately, it’s been a little nonexistent. Must reestablish one, for sure!
Ditto on the cool temperature. I also take a chewable melatonin, it really helps w/ my insomnia. And I try to read before bed, as opposed to staying on my laptop checking up on blogs, lol.
HAHA counting sheep BOOOOOOOOOOORRRRING. you are hilar! and i agree. whoever came up with that was LAME-O.
i luckily have a gene where I can fall asleep fairly quickly after lying down………as long as I am on my stomach and not too cold! 😀
lurveeeeeee the puppy pictures!!
HUGS TO YOU BEAUTIFUL CCK! 🙂 (i still will ALWAYS say ccv!)
I am more of a morning person, so sleeping in past 9AM is considered late for me haha. I’ve had sleep issues pretty much since high school and through college, so for awhile I’d stop consuming caffeine by like 4PM and tried to clear my mind of any worries, etc. before going to bed (theoretically so that they wouldn’t keep me awake). It was difficult because I drank a lot of tea and coffee and was focusing on school, but I’m sure it helped when I was really disciplined about it.
Mmm… I almost never have problems falling asleep. As in, the lights go out and I’m out 2 minutes later 😛 If I have a headache though my MIL bought me this lavender/vanilla scented pillow that goes over my eyes and it helps my loosen up a bit and fall asleep.
I love sudoku but I’m not that great at it. 😉
I used to have issues sleeping, but never anymore. I attribute it to 1. running/vigorous exercise and 2. giving up caffeine.
My weekday bedtime routine is getting my lunch packed, my clothes and workout clothes set up for the morning, brushing teeth/flossing, taking my vitamins, and turning on some sci fi or fantasy tv. I fall asleep best to sword fights or alien laser guns! 🙂 On the weekends, I just fall into bed and deal with it all in the morning.
For about the past 6 months my routine has changed, but the year before that, I used to do Sudoku every night before I went to bed until I was so sleepy I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I like doing even the easy ones simply to give my mind something to do. I used to also not be able to sleep in high school. I would go to bed and lay there for hours sometimes. I would create very detailed fantasy stories about my life and imagine what it would be like to say, meet the bassist from Everclear and fall madly in love. Usually that would keep my brain focused enough to fall asleep. Now I have almost no problems what so ever. Strange how that happens.
I am fortunate enough to sleep like a log, no matter what. As soon as I hit the pillow, I am OUT. I was never able to sleep til noon though–I am amazed when I can sleep past 9!
Okay, I’m 30, and I’ll still sleep until noon on the weekends if given the chance. LOL. I am not a morning person. I would completely shift the standard “work day” if I could, so I could stay up at night. Night owl all the way!
I’ve never tried the jigsaw sudoku. I’m currently working through a giant word puzzle book. Nerd alert! LOL.
I have trouble sleeping some nights but that’s because my sleeping habits are really inconsistent and unfortunately I don’t do much to fix it. Some days I’ll pass out super early but some nights, I’d go to bed at 4am even when I have work the next morning. I only have myself to blame.
As for my bedtime routine, I just need to use my eye drops because I have dry eyes and go to the washroom… I can never sleep without going to the washroom first or else I’ll be thinking about it all night and get anxious that I have to pee soon. Lol.
I do sometimes have trouble falling asleep and I’m a very light sleeper. I’m always thinking way too much, or worrying, and I’m pretty high-strung. 😉 So, relaxing and turning off my brain can be a chore, but luckily I work from home so I can usually sleep in the next day to make up for any missed hours of sleep.
It drives me crazy because no matter what is going on in our life, how much noise there is, where we are, whatever, Cody can fall asleep in 5 minutes flat, no problem. ARGHGHGHG!
usually i’m so tired these days that i fall right asleep. if not, i’ll count backwards from 100…usually works. 🙂
Being in college, sleeping peacefully can be difficult if the people around you are making disrupting noise. I turn off my computer 30 mins before bed and wind down with a good book. Just relaxing helps me fall asleep much better.