Cant sleep what should i do..

[Whisper]

Yeah I learned a lot about proper sleeping in that 18 month period, mostly that I wasnt doing it correctly.

As an example: You need your conscious and subconscious to associate your bed with sleep and nothing else. Always go to bed at the same time, regardless of whether you are ready to sleep or not. Eventually your brain will make you sleep at that time.
Dont do anything in bed except sleep. Dont eat, drink, read, nef, or watch TV. Even sex should be done someplace else, like the floor or bathroom or something. If your brain associates bed with an exciting activity then it will expect such activity whether its actually gonna happen that night or not.
Try a white noise generator.
Try watching TV BEFORE you go to bed. It numbs the brain and gets you ready for sleep.
Turn off the phone.
Make a big deal of closing the blinds, putting your clothes in the hamper, and turning down the bed. Get your brain to associate an evening routine with sleep and you will be tired by the time you actually crawl in.

While I won't get into my personal thoughts regarding the conscious/subconscious concept, pretty much everything else you've said is spot-on. Many sleep hygiene experts will say that sex can be ok in bed, but other than that, yep--all you should be doing there is sleeping.

I will still say that TV right before bed for many people can actually be a bad thing. The light, as another poster above mentioned, can "fool" your brain into thinking it should stay awake. And beyond that, if an interesting show happens to come on, that in and of itself could wake you up. Reading or other light activities are great, though.

Also, as you've said, getting a routine in place for the 30-60 minutes before sleep is a great idea. You want to be in bed the same time every night, and be out of bed the same time every morning (regardless of how much sleep you've gotten). If you spend more than 15-20 minutes lying in bed trying to get to sleep and are unable to, get up and out of bed and go back to a light activity until you feel tired again. Avoid napping during the day as much as possible. If you absolutely MUST nap, don't sleep for more than 15-20 minutes.

 

[zerocool84]

I appreciate everyone who has contributed to this thread. I've been having sleep problems for the past year. I've been exercising for the past month every other day intensively and taking a shower a few hours before bed. Even changed my mattress because my previous one was giving me back pains every morning because it sunk-in in the center of the mattress. I'm going to turn off my tv an hour before I have to go to bed and maybe even buy a sleeping aid.

 

[Woosta]

Just take melatonin. You don't become addicted to it - just take it every once in awhile to whip you into a schedule.

 

[Bertram]

So cant ever sleep and exercise like crazy, any ideas? I usually get 5 hours max of sleep and need to get at least 7 or 8.

These ideas are so out there that you'll be sure I'm trolling, but I'm not. Some things that work are:

- don't eat breakfast

- stand on one foot until your leg hurts daily.

They were discovered by a researcher (and insomniac) named Seth Roberts:

Seth Roberts' posts about Sleeplessness