ALSO
What the FUCK do you mean two hours. That's two hours I NEED in my life. 9-10h of work and work adjacent activities, 2h of sport, 8h of sleep, two hours of DOWNTIME!?
this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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If you're not allowed anything stimulating for two hours then what are you supposed to do during that time? Just lay down and wish you were dead? π€¨
Not stimuli, stimulating. Stimmin you know, the little sister of swimming
No thank you I'll just keep smoking weed about it.
This advice: "If it takes you 2 hours to fall asleep, go to bed 2 hours earlier."
Instructions unclear: never left bed. :(
I've tried it before. I just lay in bed rolling around staring at the ceiling and replaying all of my anxieties for hours before giving up.
Wait, don't read? I thought I had always heard that reading is a really good choice before bed.
Reading is better than the flashing lights of a TV which are better than doing physical activity for most people. Reading is still mentally stimulating, and can keep someone's mind going when they are trying to relax. For neurotypical people, nothing is better than any of those things, which is the audience for those websites.
For neurodivergent people those activities have very different impacts on our ability to be able to sleep, and nothing often opens the floodgates of random thoughts. For me, a movie I have seen a lot of times before is the best way to fall asleep because it doesn't keep me paying a lot of attention and keeps my mind from wandering to other things. That's why I have shows like Futurama to wind down with.
For me it's gotta be a documentary that's interesting but not toooooo interesting, you know? Something with a bit of intrigue to get my attention while I'm watching it, but my interest isn't high enough to keep me awake watching it.
Ancient history, history of languages, paleontology, true crime, fromsoftware lore videos, that kind of stuff will do it. Or, randomly, TomatoGaming vod streams will do it? He's not soothing at all, but it conks me right out, I don't get it.
Whatβs your go-to movie that youβve seen a million times, when you need something to watch and fall asleep with?
I havenβt used TV/Movies for sleep but I think Iβd go with The Office for TV (how original I know) and maybe something from the MCU for a Movie.
Not the person you replied to, but "How It's Made" has really been fitting the bill for me lately. It's just interesting enough to somewhat hold my attention, but the narrator and music are low energy and don't keep me awake.
That narrator is so good, and I can see that show being perfect for going to sleep. Ideal blend of interesting and dry.
Don't really have a go to movie. Pretty much anything I've seen a bunch of time like the original Star Wars trilogy, Constantine, Lord of the Rings, any of the Alien movies, Predator, any Mel Brooks movie, MCU movies, and a whole lot more.
I've accidentally read until like 3am before, so I imagine the content/interestingness is important.
I have no trouble falling asleep, even after binging screen time for hours before bed. I'm happy to be an outlier on this one.
Yeah I legitimately turn on YouTube videos on my phone to help me fall asleep. Works great. Key is to just not watch anything super interesting/stimulating.
You definitely are. I am unable to sleep without a high-THC concentrate loaded with Myrcene and/or Caryophyllene.
e: I also need YouTube to be playing in my headphones all night long. If I don't have either of these then I can't fucking sleep.
I think "I need a medically induced coma to rest" makes you the outlier.
Yep I don't even filter out blue light. ZZzZ.
For me the most effective tip has been, don't spend time in bed/bedroom other than for sleeping, that way your body will take the cue from your surroundings and recognize it's sleep time.
Look at these rich people with other rooms they can be in!
Jokes aside, if want to play on my computer, and I do, room it is. I could play switch or steam deck downstairs, but that's a shared space and my roommate uses it too.
The way I understand it, avoiding being in the same room is ideal, but the main thing is just not actually being in bed when you're browsing the internet or whatever
It's interesting how different people are. For me if I don't spend time reading or gaming or browsing stuff in a place, I just won't go there to sleep either - I ended up sleeping on the sofa for over five years because of it. But I am autistic so that messes with stuff like this
same, I'd sooner pitch a tent in the living room that go to another room just to sleep π
Are we not doing phrasing anymore?
I literally canβt fall asleep unless Iβm reading something and simultaneously listening to the audiobook version with my headphones and noise cancelling is on.
I have broken too many. It sucks.
I think you just described a torture device personally
Itβs all about the bad habits we pick along the way
I found a crossword app which I can use to calm down and become tired enough to sleep. Without it I'm kinda lost :D
Sudoku for me.
Picross here, though Sudoku makes its rounds
I hate these on the phone but am an addict on PC :D
Turned out cross stitching satisfies the same itch for me, in case you need an analog option.
I totally understand that! I have pretty small hands, so it doesn't frustrate me as much as maybe someone with bigger fingers. Cross stitching is super fun, definitely! I've got a whole set-up up in the ol' hobby graveyard closet lol
Small person, small hands but delicate stuff is totally not my forte :D
I do Wordle and the other NYTimes games before sleep. Connections usually puts me to sleep. Trying to figure out all those unrelated words keeps my mind from the issues that might keep me awake.
Harm reduction approaches are useful in scenarios like this, imo. For me and my Android phone, this means using the app Twilight to filter blue light from my phone display (iOS has this feature natively. It calls this "Night shift", and the setting is found under Display settings)
Android has also had this feature natively for a very long time. No need to use Twilight anymore
Hah, live and learn, I guess β just goes to show how long I've been using Twilight.
For me it needs to just be less mentally stimulating things. I can't do nothing. But if I go from playing games and talking to friends to just talking to friends, to watching boring videos then I'll finally fall asleep.
Yeah wtf am I supposed to do if I have to sit still for even one minute
Reruns and sudoku is the best Iβve been able to find.
I sleep very badly if I donβt read before so I canβt relate.