I fear I will have trouble with LDing becuase It is very difficult for me to fall asleep, doing MILD may make it almost impossible to get to sleep. I imagine talking to yourself would make it harder to sleep.
So, are there any tricks to getting to sleep quick?
Doing MILD ? I understand that WILD can give you insomnias (that’s why I definitely gave up with that technique 
), but why MILD ? How do you practice it ?
If you’ve problems with techniques which require an exercice just before sleeping, you can practise RC’s instead.
sorry, I got the techniques confused I think. Ill check it out in a second. Anyway I just have trouble getting to sleep at all. I was wondering if there was some way to make getting to sleep easier, like a food or something.
i have trouble with that too
you can make your intention to use the natural brief awakenings during the night to practice MILD
WBTB+WILD works well (but can be tiring)
Hey renko, im having (or i have) that problem often.
what i do (what im doing) is to hear to a refreshing calming music like Rainforest or any kind of relaxing music, it will help you to sleep a lot faster and better.
if you want a sample i’ve made just PM.
for getting sleep… be alot outdoors, do heavy work, do sports… those tend to help alot, and another good idea might be sleeping in bit chilly room (does wonders to me)
And go to sleep at the moment you feel sleepy, may it be 9 pm… And if you have problems with sleep, do not read any intressting book before. The risk is that you get caught up with it and forget to sleep.
I agree with Rubberduck. You can also do some math, reading, studying, etc. through the day. A tired brain or a tired body both make for falling alseep easily.
Also, if you practise MILD or WILD or WBTB, you should do it in the morning after waking up before you have to get up, doing it when you first go to bed can keep you awake, plus you don’t start dreaming for aout 90 minutes, so you might as well just chill out.
Try taking one Melatonin pill before bedtime or some other sleeping pill aid.
As I’m sure you know, trying too hard to go to sleep can be completely counter-productive and lead to insomnia. Removing the pressure to fall asleep and adopting an “I’ll fall asleep when I fall asleep” kind of attitude can really help this. This method also has the added bonus of allowing you to explore hypnogogic imagery without any pressure making spontaneous WILDS much more likely.
Insomniacs who have to get up at a certain time each morning will soon benefit from this approach because they are more likely to fall asleep quickly when they feel they don’t have to.
Of course there will still be nights where it takes hours to fall asleep but if you use this approach consistently, you are more likely to sleep more easily in the long term. It’s basic reverse-psychology, but it works for me.
i have to say that i completely disagree with this, since if you start taking regulary pills to sleep it will become impossible to sleep without em, and melatonin also affects your psyche (its hormone)
I personally find that breathing deeply helps me to get to sleep easier.
I also use my breathing to ‘syncronise’ my MILD (whilst breathing in When I dream… whilst breathing out I will be aware I’m dreaming and so on).
I agree you shouldn’t take sleeping pills regularly but just when your having a particularly hard time trying to get to sleep.
Techniques:
- Drink herb tea
- Take a warm bath
- Listen to music
- Avoid Caffeine, Alcohol and Tobacco
- Exercise during the day
- If you can’t sleep, get up
- Don’t sleep in
- Don’t watch TV or read before bed (unless it’s about lucid dreaming)!
- White noise
- Try eating foods with amino acid L-tryptophan like turkey, eggs, cottage cheese, chicken, and cashews
Wow! No one’s mentioned this one.
DUUUUDE! (for emphasis) Take a cold, cold shower before hitting the sheets. Like RIGHT before, k? When you sleep your body cools down, and if you take a cold shower you’ll kick start the cooling process and fall asleep so much faster! Trust me, I’ve done this. Couple it with a chilli room (crack your window if it’s cold out, or leave it wide open if warm/cool enough) and you’ll be snoggin’ like a log! I wouldn’t resort to pills or anything. If you want to fall asleep even faster…
- Do everything you need to do before going to bed like brushing teeth, making bed, saying your prayers, etc. Take a cold shower for 5 to ten minutes. Just do it and don’t be tempted to bail in a minute.
- Get in your jammies and lie in your most comfortable position. Make sure limbs aren’t crossing so you don’t have any circulation cut off.
- Starting at your feet, tense the muscles in your body. Squeeze your feet (like raise the toes), take a deep breath in, hold for 5 seconds, slowly let it out while releasing your tension. Do not open your eyes once you’ve shut them. Continue doing this for your calf muscles (point your feet down), your quads, your butt, your abs, your back, chest, arms/shoulders, hands, neck, and finally I squeeze my eyes shut really hard for a good amount of time to tire them out since they always twitch when I shut them lightly.
3a) Pop your window open to cool down even more - Just you try to MILD now! For me I barely last five - ten minutes and I am out!! But MILD-ing shouldn’t be a problem now cos you should fall asleep much faster. Focus on your breathing and syncronize the inhalations/exhalations with your mantra.
Sweet dreams. 
I gotta try this 
Well melatonin isnt that bad actually.Me and few other members here use it occasionally( though its to be taken regularly for best effects) and i didnt notice any problems with falling asleep without it.Its allways better to have a pill and good night sleep than no sleeping at all when theres an important day ahead of you.
Theres a whole topic on melatonin anyways if you`re willing to check it out(shortcuts to lucidity section)
And for an advice- try sleeping regular times.Most problems with falling asleep have people who stay up long at night and then sleep through half of the day.
take care:)
I have this problem where one week where I have insomnia, then I’m fine for a couple of weeks, and finally I sleep too much. These days I’m alternating between the two extremes.
Yesterday, I finally managed to sleep at 10:55 (rather than 5 A.M), but I had to take a nap during computer class; woke up 5min after school ended.(more like knocked-out, I had strange dreams about my homework) I normally go to sleep around 8:40-9:20 so this is a serious problem.
Omega3:
Judging by the fact that you go to school and go to bed at 8:30 - 9:20, I figure you’re just a youngin’, like 15, 16? First I wouldn’t worry about sleeping too much; is there really such a thing? If you’re an adolescent or highly active, you need loads of sleep to grow and recoop. How much is too much according to you? 10 hours? I could easily sleep for that, and I know a buddy of mine who I work with who slept for 14 hours the other day. I guess the factors that exist in our cases are that we get up earllllly (myself @5:45, him around 5:00) in order to be at work on time. Since we’re scheduled irregularly, our internal clocks are haywire. Basically, if your body is telling you to sleep, sleep! If you slept for 10 hours one night, you needed that much rest. Sure you could have gone through the day on 8, maybe 6, but your BODY (not your mind) needed the rest.
Also, what state do you go to bed in? Are you pumped up on Coke before you hit the sheets? Do you stress over things while you lay there?
Please post your age, and the normal circumstances that you go to bed in, like your routine. Having insomnia for a week may not sound normal at first, but looking back I had a few instances of it, and many instances where I “overslept.” So let’s talk. 
i try to WILD and go to sleep pretty easily! unless i get kicked out of the dream and get frustrated and force my self into the dream, that’s when i become more awake!
well, nevermind.
try doing YOG NIDRA, it’s a relaxation technique it gets you pretty sleepy!
you can find instructions here meditationiseasy.com sory for the pub
I am 16 (school starts at 7 AM). I don’t eat\drink (except water) right before going to bed. I usually feel exhausted when I get ready to go to bed, but still can’t happen to sleep. I’m not thinking by the time I’m in bed I sleep between 9-13 conformably.
Some (possible) problems could be that I have noisy neighbors, I can’t regulate my room temperature ( a house without air conditioning/heating), and my mattress…It’s just better to sleep on the floor.
If I WILD it won’t make a difference on my sleeping time (from my experience so far). When I WILD I avg. go to sleep at 11PM, I guess it’s better than last night at 2:30AM. I do meditate but not any active mediation (yoga, etc).