I suck at sleeping. If sleeping was a class, I would have failed it.
Because of this I do all sorts of things to try to get better sleep. I try to cover and tape over the little lights on nearly all my electronics, wall strips, chargers, and clocks keeping my room dark as possible. I have started trying to work out more often so that my body is actually tired not just my mind. I try to get outside so the sunlight hits my skin for awhile during the day, to appease my old animal instinct internal clock.
I have found that if I work right up to bedtime I am only thinking about problems and solutions and I can't sleep. I try to give my mind a break and escape from work and problems before bed. I have slowly developed this routine and I find that I quite enjoy it now. I even miss it when I can't follow it. When I am done for the day I make a glass of sleepy time tea, with a bit of honey and milk in it. I then watch a TV show so that I forget about work and I am basically thinking about nothing. Finally, while drinking some water I read until my book feels heavy and it is hard for me to keep my eyes open to read. Then I shut out my final reading light and roll over to go to sleep.
It might not be the best sleep routine, but it sure is hell beats out the time when I was all OCD like. In my OCDish sleeping stage of life (junior/senior year of college) I had to follow these 5 steps, if any where interrupted I would have to start over.
1. I needed to go pee.
2. I needed to turn my light on and off 3 times.
3. I needed check my closet for trolls (don't ask).
4. I needed to check my sheets for black widows (we found one in that appatment (not in anyone's sheets))
5. Finally I once again had to turn my light off and on 3 more times.
So what is everyone else's night time routine?
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