I wake up at 3am to 4am daily as a neighbor makes noise walking their dog. This cannot be helped. Once I am awake, my mind won’t stop going over details about everything from the mundane to the critical. Often, I am able to fall asleep again after three or more hours of wakefulness, but only minutes before I have to wake for the day.

Does anyone have success with quieting the mind without substances so that they can fall back to sleep?

Edit: I want to thank you all for the helpful comments. I’m reading through them now and wioo be internalizing some of the suggestions.

To provide more context for those who asked:

I do have ADHD and OCD and Anxiety.
I sleep with a fan and a white noise track (10hrs of non-repeating noise I d/l’d with newpipe). My apartment building has a fire escape that the neighbor uses as their front door. This path means using a heavy steel door on a power hinge. (Slam!) The door is against the wall that my headboard is on. They have every right to use whichever door they like, and I don’t know them well enough yet to ask them to change for me. They are trying to be as quiet as they can, other than using the loudest path possible. They seem very nice, and their dog is quiet and well trained.
I’m in the middle of a long period of unemployment and I am beginning to worry about finances, as my savings are about half gone in a year.

Thanks again for all the suggestions! I’ll report back with my results in a few days.

  • zout@kbin.social
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    8 months ago
    1. Make sure you can’t see a clock at night. Not knowing how late it is will stop your mind from going over at least one detail, how much time you have left to sleep.
    2. Get a notebook next to your bed so you can write things down if something urgent comes up in your mind. If you’re like me, changes are you’ll never write down anything.
    3. Try to not think about anything for 10 seconds or better 10 breaths. No toughts whatsoever.
    4. If everything fails, have a book or e-reader ready, so you can relax while reading for a bit. Nothing with LCD screens though, they tend to wake you up even more.
    • Ulvain@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      These are great tricks!! I’d add one that’s always worked for me: if you can’t get your mind to go still in pt#3 above, think back of the story in a book or show you like, and let your mind wander about the characters, the story, the background, the intrigue etc. Focusing on fiction and story helps me drift back, vs focusing on real life things…