It used to take me up to two hours to fall asleep at night. Long story short, lots of counselling and a few lifestyle changes later I’m usually under in about half an hour. That’s still more than average, but pretty good by my standards. What helped me most was:
Limiting caffeine. Not drinking caffeine after midday really helped reduce general anxiousness and racing thoughts.
Learning to meditate. Clearing your mind and defocusing is a life skill. A short meditation in the evening helps wind down, and when you get good enough at it you can kinda just flip into that mode when you need to sleep. Unclench your muscles and focus on breathing.
No screens before bed. I’m not great at sticking to this one, but if I shut down the pc and put my phone down a couple hours before bed and just read or something, I sleep a hell of a lot better.
I would love it if meditation worked for me but ADHD brings a whole other set of barriers. My brain refuses to “meditate” - there’s always 1000 different shiny squirrels demanding to be thought about at any given time. I don’t know how to overcome that.
It used to take me up to two hours to fall asleep at night. Long story short, lots of counselling and a few lifestyle changes later I’m usually under in about half an hour. That’s still more than average, but pretty good by my standards. What helped me most was:
Limiting caffeine. Not drinking caffeine after midday really helped reduce general anxiousness and racing thoughts.
Learning to meditate. Clearing your mind and defocusing is a life skill. A short meditation in the evening helps wind down, and when you get good enough at it you can kinda just flip into that mode when you need to sleep. Unclench your muscles and focus on breathing.
No screens before bed. I’m not great at sticking to this one, but if I shut down the pc and put my phone down a couple hours before bed and just read or something, I sleep a hell of a lot better.
I would love it if meditation worked for me but ADHD brings a whole other set of barriers. My brain refuses to “meditate” - there’s always 1000 different shiny squirrels demanding to be thought about at any given time. I don’t know how to overcome that.