Restless at night and irritated when there's nothing to do.

[Minami]

I can't really fall asleep at night , I'm just not tired and my mind is constantly filled with a lot of thoughts and random feeling most of the time. I can't pin point the exact feeling but I think it might be anxiety because I tend to worry and over think on life. I have a issue with boredom too , the irritation would build up and I would be so restless if I were to just lay down or sit down not having anything to do . Any tips? Because sometime it drives me insane like I would just fidget around when that happens.

[agu]

My tip would be, actually get tired before trying to sleep. Exercise and keep yourself busy so you can see bedtime as time to rest, but if you aren't tired then your mind will wander off and make you feel bad

[Riddley Walker]

Yes, exercise. You are not physically tired enough to sleep. Aerobic exercise every day.

[Minami]

Aguker님이 먼저 게시:

My tip would be, actually get tired before trying to sleep. Exercise and keep yourself busy so you can see bedtime as time to rest, but if you aren't tired then your mind will wander off and make you feel bad

I did try exercising but that doesn't really help , my body would just feel sore and I still won't get sleepy.

[Riddley Walker]

Also no phone and PC in the hours before sleep. Blue light, and light in general is no good for melatonin.

[Irene ❤]

Get work done and responsibility fulfilled.

[Minami]

Riddley Walker님이 먼저 게시:

Also no phone and PC in the hours before sleep. Blue light, and light in general is no good for melatonin.

Noted but I probably need something that can replace that and keep my mind away from thinking .

[Minami]

Irene ❤님이 먼저 게시:

Get work done and responsibility fulfilled.

Yeah I do tend to get my work done asap usually.

[Vince ✟]

melatonin , brown noise @ 432 Hz , the right mattress, the right pillow, the right temperature, then repeat until body becomes adjusted to the schedule.

[Riddley Walker]

Stay busy, don't have too much free time for anxiety. Other than that, meditation, coping techniques, Cognitive behavior therapy, treating OCD, etc. Talk to your family or doctor about sleep problems.

And go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.

[Minami]

SOWER님이 먼저 게시:

melatonin , brown noise @ 432 Hz , the right mattress, the right pillow, the right temperature, then repeat until body becomes adjusted to the schedule.

those are some good tips I could probably use a better pillow and crank up the Aircon with fan blowing at me so that it would make me sleepy hopefully.

[Minami]

Riddley Walker님이 먼저 게시:

Stay busy, don't have too much free time for anxiety. Other than that, meditation, coping techniques, Cognitive behavior therapy, treating OCD, etc. Talk to your family or doctor about sleep problems.

And go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.

I'll try that and I'm currently waiting for my doctor appointment around the fifth of January next year. Hopefully some meds will help me too. Thanks 😊

[Morkonan]

B.R.O.K.E.N님이 먼저 게시:

Aguker님이 먼저 게시:

My tip would be, actually get tired before trying to sleep. Exercise and keep yourself busy so you can see bedtime as time to rest, but if you aren't tired then your mind will wander off and make you feel bad

I did try exercising but that doesn't really help , my body would just feel sore and I still won't get sleepy.

Note: If you're having issues, contacting your physician is always the best choice. It's certainly better to do that than to rely on some random dude's advice on the Steam Forums. ;)

TLDR: There is no TLDR for this, sorry. :) It's as full a helpful response as I can give right now, so take that for what it is worth.


In an effort to be of assistance:

Don't exercise at night.

The exercise is not intended to make you "tired." It's basically a sort of body-reset that can help. A little bit of exercise, even just going for a walk in the afternoon if possible, is enough to be of benefit. Exercising at night, anytime near bedtime/dinner, is going to have a detrimental effect. Don't exercise any less than four hours from bedtime. You core body temps increase, naturally causing your body to think it's time to stay awake, not time to go to sleep. You need downtime for this to adjust properly.


Prepare to sleep:

Stop drinking caffeine by the mid-afternoon at the latest. I know it's tough, but it's a stimulant. You don't want to have to deal with all of this and fight off the effects of stimulants, too.

Avoid consuming a lot of liquids before bedtime. Use the restroom, always, before going to bed. A full bladder signals your body, immediately, to wake up and empty it... You don't want that. (It was a technique used by Roman soldiers to drink a canteen full of water before taking a nap in order to wake up for their watch. :))

Keep a schedule and stick to it. Wake up at the same time every day if you can. If you miss some sleep due to trying to achieve this, don't take a nap during the day unless there's a risk of you nodding off while driving or something. Stick to that schedule even on days where you aren't working/attending school.

Refrain from eating close to bedtime. That will also increase core temps and it puts your body into overdrive - Everything "wakes up" to start digesting it... That increased activity also does what? Makes you a bit sleepy for a very short while. It's illusive, though, and the effect is likely to wear off pretty quickly. Also - Digestive issues are often the cause for waking in the middle of the night. Yes, you can fart yourself awake. :) Or, have some "gas" that doesn't like you laying down at that particular moment. If you absolutely must have a late-night snack, make it something very light. No heavy proteins, no tough veggies, stay away from "acidic" foods as well in that case, too.

Stop engaging in excitation/anxiety inducing behavior. So, no dramatic video games, no pulse-pounding action or horror movies, etc.. You want things to start winding down, not speeding up. Up to an hour of avoiding these things might help, but usually half an hour or so could be sufficient. Take a shower or something.

What can you do during that time that is relaxing? Do you read real books? The paper ones? :) It might help to read one a bit, but do so in a room other than your bedroom. Maybe fold your laundry, pack a lunch for the next day, walk the dog, something?

Your bedroom is for sleeping - Don't game, read, play, watch TV, etc in your bedroom. In fact, if you wake during the night and can't go to sleep, get up and leave your bedroom until you're ready to go back to sleep. Your bedroom needs to become a place where you are not anxious just even entering it, let alone being challenged to sleep in it. If you can't sleep, get up, go read, relax somewhere else, etc.

Your room should be dark and cool. That's the best conditions for sleeping. It should also be as quiet as possible. Though, "white noise" can help and many, including myself, use a fan to not only help keep things cool, but to generate that drone of random "white noise." Music? Absolutely not. Leave a TV on? No. The dialogue will prompt your mind to action at the very least.

Anxiety/overthinking/catastrophism/etc - These things happen. Everyone worries about something from time to time. The key is whether or not this is preventing you from doing what you need to do in everyday life. If you're finding yourself confronted with high-anxiety most of the time, you may benefit from getting some professional help in dealing with that. Talk to your physician and seek out therapy to deal with anxiety-related issues. (That includes things like "night terrors" where you become unreasonably terrified when trying to sleep.)

Quick anxiety reduction techniques these days typically focus on reducing catastrophic thinking and inducing a bit of calm. (Catastrophic Thinking - Where you overthink something that's causing you anxiety to the point where you've thought yourself into even worse possible outcomes than are realistically possible.) A typical "Mindfulness Meditation" exercise can help immediately reduce anxiety and, coupled with slow, paced, measured breathing exercises, can reduce physiologically induced stress too. (Body and Mind are connected...whodathunkit? :))

https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/mindfulness-exercises/art-20046356

You can practice this just about anywhere, but probably not while driving a vehicle.


An easy meditative technique:

Before heading off to bed, sit someplace safe and comfortable, no disturbing noises, music, or broadcasts. Preferably in an easy, open, sitting posture that's not constricting.

Relax, get into a comfy position. Close your eyes.

When you're ready to relax further, start a simple breathing exercise. Breath in through your nose for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, breath out through your mouth for four seconds. Do this four times. You'll probably feel the effects fairly quickly. Do another 4x4x4 cycle if needed, but no more than that. (Keep breathing, tho...)

Then, without moving too much or opening your eyes, focus on your body and start at your feet. Focus on what you can physically feel, there. Lightly move your feet/toes a little, note how that feels, then move up to each shin, left and right, and a light flex of the calf muscle. Continue on until you reach your head, don't skip the arms.

What outside of your body can you hear or smell? What it is? Where is it coming from and how was it generated? Think on that for a moment and focus on "the now" of the thing you're thinking about. Feel the texture of the material around you. What is it? Picture it. What does it do? What does it feel like it's made of?

Open your eyes and slowly examine your surroundings. Note what is there, what it's made of, who made it, and how does it all feel, do you think, since you're not actually touching all of it right now?

Now isn't the time to focus on things that may induce anxiety or be associated with anxiety, so if something like that is there, focus on "what it is" not "what it may represent" to you. Don't stare at your phone or computer and start imagining playing games or interacting on social media, either.

Relax again, close your eyes, focus only on the physical feelings and pressure on various parts of your body as you sit, go through another breathing exercise.

<Done with a quickie session>


If even thinking about these anxiety-issues causes further uncontrolled anxiety at this point, then avoid that during the exercise. Just focus on the physicality of the exercise, the body mindfulness, the fixing of placing of your real self in your current real environment and the physiological exercise of measured, quite, relaxing breathing exercise. (AKA - Four Second Breathing exercise.)

In doing these sorts of things, you're fixing your mind to think in the true reality of "the here and now." It is here, not in some terrible place, and now in this moment in time and not in some catastrophic future. You are telling your mind that it is not in the future or in the anxiety-inducing situation it may be reacting to right now.

The problems you may face, are they really what you think they are? They may normally have pretty predictable results and requirements that aren't really that anxiety-inducing, right? Sure, you may find them so right now, but in the here-and-now reality of... everything, they're probably not as terrible as you are making them out to be. Some things are truly anxiety inducing, but humans can handle a bit of that. The problems come when we begin to fail to control normal levels of anxiety as most of our anxiety these days doesn't include being chased by lions or being afraid of thurnder-storms.... We used to be able to avoid a lot of anxiety just by being able to avoid lions. :)

If you can successfully revisit these anxieties during a relaxing session, you can help your mind retrain itself to think about them in realistic ways in the "here and now" and not in the anxiety-inducing future you may be imagining. If not, then the results cab still be beneficial.


Drugs:

Avoid "sleep aids." Certainly, obey your physician, but avoid purchasing over-the-counter sleep-aids if you can. These are helpful only in the very short, immediate, term. It's also possible to become so conditioned to using that they become necessary. That's bad.

Possible sleep-aids with fewer side-effects and long-term issues are those that use Melatonin as the active ingredient. This is sometimes coupled with L-Theanine to help act to reduce anxiety as well. Popular brands include these ingredients in a pleasant tasting gummy." Always check with your physician and also obey the contraindications for any medication you're currently taking.


Added Note: If your anxiety is primarily driven by things you need to get done, it can help to make a list of what you want to accomplish the next day. Just a list, nothing serious. Try to include something easy you can accomplish pretty quickly and check that off the list when completed the next day. The idea here is that not only are you getting a little reward, you're showing yourself that you have the notion of taking care of necessary things already started by creating that list - You're already working on it, so it has already begun to get easier to get done. Making that simple list can help a good bit to get you on the right track to avoiding anxiety due to feeling overloaded.

[Yew Nough]

Wake up earlier, and you'll end up sleeping earlier.

If your mind is running at 10000RPM: Play an audiobook and lower the sound so that you're forced to focus on the words. You'll eventually drift off in the process (especially if it's boring).

[Masque]

I was up until four in the morning playing with this:

https://mynoise.net/