Ask Lemmy

If you can't sleep. Get up. Get out of your bed for a while.

Staying awake while laying in bed often changes the association of sleep with the bed. Removing sleep conditioning effects.

Also as someone who has had insomnia since I was a child. I can tell you if I lay in bed. Unable to sleep. And Stay there. Rolling around. I won't ever fall asleep.

But if I force myself to get up. Maybe have something to drink. Walk around a bit. Stare out the window for a bit. Then go back , I'm more likely to fall asleep.

And if I'm having really bad insomnia. I go for a walk. At this point I'm my life I can tell if it's going to require a walk or just getting up and moving around the apartment/house for a bit.

Even a 15-20 min walk can do wonders. But I typically do 30 to 1 hour walk. It depends on how I'm feeling.

You would think exercising in the middle of the night would wake you up more. But nope.

9/10 times I go for a short walk. I get back and fall to sleep almost immediately.

It's hard to force yourself to get up when you are exhausted and just want to sleep. But it's do the walk or not sleep at all.

Also. Going out at 2 or 3 am on a week day is kinda of an interesting experience. Depending where you live, you might be the only person around.

It's eirie and surreal. Subliminal spaces.

I quite like it. That also helps motivate me to do the insomnia walk. (Sometimes I ride my bike instead which is really nice as there are minimum cars. -make sure you are in light clothes and have lights and reflectors on your bike).

If you feel like you are about to sneeze, but you don't want to (maybe you are on a video call, or trying to be quiet, whatever), tickle the roof of your mouth with your tongue. It works surprisingly well.

Staying warm actually does ward off illness. Specifically, you need to keep your nose warm or else its local immune response becomes surprisingly ineffective.

If you're clumsy, do a grappling martial art like wrestling or Jiu-Jitsu. After 6 months even if you still suck at that martial art (e.g., me) your nerves and muscles will know how to move shockingly efficiently.

I flip around when I can’t sleep as well. It only works sometimes for me.

This probably isn’t very useful to most but you’d be surprised how much info you can get from paying attention to the smells around you. I use odor for navigating places like malls.

In a financial negotiation, avoid saying a number first, even if it seems like you're being rude, just say stuff like "what's your budget" instead. This trick sounds really stupid but somehow it is extremely effective.

When you sprain your ankle, DON'T MOVE. I used to try and walk it off because that's what everyone does and even coaches recommend it, but that's when the actual damage is done.

Spraining is usually just your tendons/ligaments going into emergency mode (getting very short/tight). So if you try to walk while they are still tight, they will actually tear, doing damage that takes weeks to heal. If you instead just keep that ankle perfectly still for like 30 seconds to 2 min, the ankle will be completely fine.

Trick is, you have to overcome the social pressure to hurry it along (i.e. on a hike at work, or on a sport field).

If you have a song stuck in your head, and it's driving you a bit mad: listen to it. Something about your mind trying to fill things in (it's been many years since I've read this bit of advice, and unsure entirely on why).

You are the first person I have ever met (other than my mom, who I learned it from) who does the "sleep upside down" thing. It totally works!

In your head, change the name of a food you wish to avoid. I've done this with McD's.

In my head, it's been called McDicks since high school. I, personally, don't enjoy eating dicks. So, when I see the sign, and I feel like a Big Mac would go down easy, I say to myself, "I don't eat dicks."

It works.

For those who enjoy eating dicks, well, you'll have to choose another association. Also, I didn't think the phrase "feel like a Big Mac would go down easy" would be so overtly sexual.

If you're stuck on a creative project or out of ideas on how to approach a problem, and you feel a little fatigued mentally, have a cup of coffee or something with caffeine and lie down for a short nap.

It'll take some time for the caffeine to kick in, so you might even drift off, and this way it seems to stimulate the mind in a way that produces insights and ideas more than just keeping you from feeling tired.

Don't be a cunt.

Simple advice that works. More people should try it.