Natural sleep remedies

It might be worth your while to contact a sleep clinic to find out what is the underlying reason for your insomnia.  It could be your mattress/pillow is to blame, could be too cold/warm in your room, could be too noisy, could be you're hungry or thirsty.  Treating the cause rather than the symptoms is not the solution.

Sometimes insomnia is due to an active mind.  In other words, the body wants to rest but the mind won't shut up. (e.g. worrying about future activities, rehashing the days events).  If this is the situation, meditation may help.  What you want to meditate on is up to you.  Something calming, soothing, relaxing...  A waterfall, some clouds, a garden ... 

Personally, I meditate on letters.  I start with a base pair of letters and then see how many words I can make form them by placing each letter of the alphabet in front of them.  For example, base letters = "ar".  So a+ar = not a word (0),  b+ar = bar (1 word ), c+ar = car (2 words ), d+ar = not a word (0), e+ar = ear (3 words) ... and so forth.  When you get to "z", make up another base pair and do it again.  I usually only get half way through 3 base pairs before I'm asleep.

Meditate on whatever makes you feel the most relaxed.  As you do you the world around you will fade away ... clocks, sounds, heat/cold... your cares will disappear.  When stray thoughts will come into your mind, simply let them pass through and focus on your mediation.   If you wake back up in the middle of the night, just do your mediation again.  Calm, relaxed ... easy ... soft... 

It takes practice - especially learning how to let stray thoughts simply "pass through", but it can be done. 

There, you just got a free sleep therapy session

In addition to the above suggestions ... if melatonin doesn't work, you may want to try tryptophan.

Going along with Shuhak's meditation suggestion (taking your mind off your every day problems by thinking of something else) ... 

i heard the less you take the better you sleep

Eat a half cup of warm white rice right before you go to bed.

Stop watching TV, laptop and mobile phone at least a couple of hours before you sleep, as the screens are so bright they wake you up.

Bananas and turkey contain a chemical that help you sleep, which is why people often dose after Christmas dinner.

Try a mug of cocoa, or warm milk.

try writing down anything you feel you need to get out of your head, if you need to write a "to do list" in order to let go of the day then do that.

try a warm wheat or rice bag around or neck.

Check for any tension or pain in your jaw, some people suffer TMS from teeth grinding at night and this tension can keep you awake, massage your temples as well.

Read a book that helps you let go, and put's relaxing thoughts in your head.

Failing that there may be a medical reason why you cannot sleep and a sleep clinic may help this.

Warm milk and calcium pills at bed time. Tums = calcium pills

If you haven't been getting much sun, consider taking a vitamin D supplement. This post was edited by Not Sure at August 5, 2018 7:55 AM MDT

Take a long walk after dinner.

An orgasm works for me. I'm not being prurient, the "little death" that men tend to experience unless we deliberately push through it beats every other method I've ever discovered.