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I’ve had a hard time falling asleep for as long as I can remember. I used to lay awake for hours as a little girl staring at the ceiling because I just couldn’t shut my brain off. And now, even when stress levels are low and I’m not consciously worried about anything, I’m still THINKING when I get in bed and it’s hard to fall asleep.
And it doesn’t matter how tired I am, I can’t stop thinking! It just takes me forever to wind down. And when I don’t sleep I’m not a very nice mom or…human being.
The Solution
When my oldest was a newborn and sleeping for 45 minute increments before waking for a half hour…all night….for months, I hit rock bottom because I rarely fell asleep again before he was awake AGAIN for the next feeding. That’s when I discovered a weird trick that really helped me fall asleep before I’d been in bed for 15 minutes: I bring my iPod and headphones to bed and listen to audiobooks. Because my brain is following a story it stops spinning, relaxes and bam! I’m dreaming.
So what do I listen to?
I’ll be honest. It’s mostly Harry Potter and Jane Austen audiobooks. But really anything I’m very familiar with will do. (If it’s a story I don’t know, I’ll be at the edge of my seat and won’t get sleepy!)
I love anything read by Jim Dale and I’ve found tons of great classics on Librivox (a free audiobook site with volunteer readers and everything in the public domain). If you haven’t heard of Librivox, get excited. It is such a great resource!
My favorite readers are Karen Savage and Elizabeth Klett. There, I just saved you hours of trying out various volunteer readers! Some of the readers aren’t as talented, bless their hearts, and some are downright unlistenable. But Savage and Klett read Austen, L.M. Montgomery, E. Nesbit, and many more. I’m currently listening to Jane Eyre. I also just love that it’s completely free. Hooray!
So that’s the BIG thing that helps me fall asleep at night or fall BACK asleep after one of the kids wakes me up (because let’s get real, it happens every night). But there’s just a few other things that have helped me, too:
- Using Magnesium Spray or Epsom Salt Baths (I also have read that magnesium deficiency is a possible cause of severe morning sickness so I’m trying to soak up as much as I can before we try to get pregnant again!)
- Spending time outside
- Staying off the caffeine in the afternoon
Anybody else have trouble sleeping? What sorts of things have helped you? Am I the only weirdo that listens to audiobooks to beat insomnia?
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I’m going to try this audiobook suggestion! I have trouble sleeping, too. (I can usually fall asleep, but I wake up in the middle of the night and feel wide awake.)
These are the things that have helped me…. saying the rosary (without the beads) and deep belly breathing (where you pause on the exhale).
I’m relieved that I’m not the only one dealing with this, although I certainly wouldn’t wish it on anyone!
I hate the wide awake feeling in the middle of the night! And yes! Praying the Rosary does help me for sure.
I have several tricks for getting to sleep and audio books will now be added to the list! I say the states in alphabetical order and only rarely make it through the M’s. I count sheep giving each one a name and personality then remembering their number. I pray every prayer I know by heart. I don’t have little ones, for me it’s chronic pain, but these all work for me.
Would I even be able to name all the states in alphabetical order? Ha! I’m impressed!
Harry Potter audiobooks are my go-to sleep aid! I can basically quote the books to you from memory, so it doesn’t matter if I fall asleep and it keeps playing. And Jim Dale is so soothing to listen to! I read somewhere that he holds the Guinness World Record for doing the most different voices from recording HP.
Yes! I can quote them all! Jim Dale is just amazing.
Yes!!!!! Audiobooks are also my go-to when I have to clean house. If I am listening to something else while scrubbing, the time just flies by!
P.S. Our library also has this great service called Overdrive. You can check out audio books right to your phone- to your computer too- if you wanted to burn CDs for in the car. Also all completely free.
I’ll have to check that out when we get set up with library cards at the Waco library!
I’ve battled insomnia since I was young as well.
My go to trick that works 99% of the time:
Start praying a rosary.
Most of the time I’m out before I can even finish the first decade.
I think it follows the same logic as you reading audio books that you already know the story to.
It’s all about stopping the brain from running in circles thinking of all the things and focusing it on one thing, a rosary, a familiar story, so that it can rest, and finally fall asleep.
The times that the rosary doesn’t work for me it’s usually because either
so that its out of my head a bit can help.
-I slept in too late or napped during the day
– caffeine in the late afternoon/evening
-a crisis/problem/anxiety of some sort is big enough to actually occupy my mind even despite of the relaxing distracting mantra of the rosary going on. In those cases, talking it out with someone (hey hubby you asleep?
Oh and no screens at bedtime. iPad, phone, TV, nada. They’re all stimulating and will keep me up forever and ever.
Yes to all of this!
Insomnia is horrible. As a young adult, I suffered with insomnia and found that praying in the Spirit (or “in tongues” as Charasmatics say) would help me fall asleep fast. Now, as a Catholic, praying the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet (and still sometimes “in tongues”), I fall asleep quickly.
I haven’t had as much success with peri-menopausal related insomnia…I just lay there and lay there wife awake. I’ll try some audio books…can’t hurt, right?
This is SO interesting to me. I have never sufferedfrom insomnia, but my oldest daughter has always had a hard time falling asleep. Its only in hindsight that ican describe it this way since she is 10 now and can describe her struggle to me. She definitely has trouble turning her brain off. Well when she was 2 and transitioning from crib to toddler bed. We would sit in her room and read aloud to herfrom chapterbooks (no pictures, we would have been reading all night) until she fell asleep. We arrived at this solution because she just would not / could not seem tofall asleep any other way! Well when baby sister arrived and i had tonurse her and get her tosleep etc i started letting my older daighter listen to an audiobook in her room (felt totally conflicted! Only two years old!). The only one we owned was a bear called paddington read by stephen fry and she listened to it over and over and over and over and if she woke up in thenight and it was off, she would come in our room and ask us toturn it back on and then she would go back to sleep. After a while i started using the word “addicted” to describe her relationship with this audiobook “she’s addicted to it! Shecan’t sleep without it! Is this healthy? Is she getting quality sleep?” Etcetc. had always planned to have the twogirls share a room but how could i putbaby sis (champion sleeper from day one) in there withthe audiobook playing? I wanted to wean her off of it and then the small speaker she usedfell off her table and broke soi used the old “oh well its broken” routine (rather than fixing or replacing) and that was that. Seven years laterthis child still has genuine trouble shutting off her brain and falling asleep and i think she would still LOVE LOVELOVE to fall asleep to familiar audiobooks but i have always had no electronics in their bedrooms thinking it washealthier etc. You havemademerethink everything! She may struggle with insomnia her whole life! Maybe this is, was, will be, and always has been her solution to it! Please forgiveme for the longest comment INHISTORY by a landslide!!! How long can these things be anyway????? Thank you!!!!!!!
My girls (who all 4 share a bedroom) listen to audiobooks every night as they’re falling asleep and will often turn the story back on in the middle of the night if they wake up. I think there are so many benefits like listening to great stories read out loud and being able to go to bed at the same time but fall asleep at their own pace. As our oldest girls have started doing occasional sleepovers, they’ve done fine without a story on those nights, so I don’t think it’s really become an unhealthy crutch in any way!
This is such a helpful thread, thank you!
Ps… Do any of your children struggle with insomnia? If so, do they listen to audiobooks and how does it work with siblings sharing rooms?
My husband and I struggle with sleep because of small children (ages 5, 3, and 1). We invented Berry Sleepy once we learned that FRUITS could put you to sleep. It’s totally healthy, plus you can take it in the middle of the night to get back to sleep if a child wakes you up and your mind starts running. You will be back to sleep in 20-30 minutes instead of laying awake going through your to do list for an hour or two! Find us on Amazon – ships Prime!
Here is a recent video I made to help with getting kids back on a sleep schedule with Back-to-School… Tricks apply to adults too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlYRFaMoKW8
i use audio books also to fall asleep and I just started Jane Eyre last night on Librivox! British voices really calm me and help me to sleep. A few years ago I found a podcast about a detective similar to Sherlock Holmes called Sebastian Thorn. The stories are ok, and not too much violence or rough language, but the guy who reads them (also the author, Andrew Evelyn) has a wonderfully soothing voice!
I like to listen to an audio recording of the rosary set to light music in the background. Helps me drop off usually after the first mystery – it’s familiar, it’s repetitive, and I can keep it fairly soft as background noise and I find it very soothing.
Thank you for the post. I have trouble sleeping, so every night before going to bed I read either Pride and Prejudice or the one of the books in the Harry Potter series. My husband always teases me about this habit, but I will direct him to your post, so he can discover I am not the only one who uses these books to redirect and quiet racing thoughts.
Oh I wish I could listen to audiobooks while trying to fall asleep! Unfortunately, I find that the sound of voices or even very soothing music will continue to keep me up if I don’t turn it off.
However, I find that writing, reading (nothing too exciting though!), or even listening to a podcast in the half hour or so before I try to sleep works. I’ll find myself thinking of whatever I just read or listened to and have drifted off to sleep before I know it.
Hands down though, like others have said before, praying the rosary will put me to sleep before I even finish a decade. Recently I have found that praying the night prayer of the Divine Office works well too. It looks long, but by the end I’m yawning and ready to sleep.
Yes, yes, and yes. I listened to audio stories as a child (even snuck one when I went to college), and now I listen to Garrison Keilor’s The News from Lake Woebegone podcast. His voice is so soothing, it really helps to put me out. I also found an app, Relaxation with Andrew Johnson to be helpful. Good luck.
I never had problems with insomnia until fairly recently. The only thing that helps is saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet. I guess it functions the same way to shut my brain off. Some nights, I don’t even know how many chapters I must say! Usually, it helps my brain shut off within minutes of starting the repetitive “for the sake of the sorrowful passion” though, at least enough that if I’m awake, I’m not anxious or restless, so my body is resting.
I’d like to try the familiar audiobook suggestion. My “trick” was learned when my eldest daughter was suffering from colic and woke me many times in the night. I’d say: “Oh, no! It’s 2 a.m. I’ll *never* be able to get through tomorrow.”
My trick is simple: I never, never look at a clock when I wake in the night. I found that if I don’t *know* how little sleep I’ve gotten then I do better…at least do things with better grace. I have no idea how this works but it does well after my three daughters are grown.
Plagued with insomnia here! I’ll listen to tv series I’ve seen before to crash out, and that helps. When I’m really overwhelmed with thoughts sometimes I get a spiral and a pen and write down everything that’s swirling in my head in one big list. I think it helps me relax if I know the list will be there in the morning and I won’t forget anything my mind is trying to work out.
Great post! I have major insomnia too and like you it seems to be a self perpetuating cycle – when I don’t sleep I don’t eat well and when I don’t eat well I don’t sleep.
I’m sure there will be some push back on this, but I use the rosary to fall asleep. I focus on the prayers and some specific intentions and pray. I almost always fall asleep before I’m done.
I’ve heard criticisms of praying this way, and the concern that it will affect other aspects of prayer life (e.g., getting sleepy when praying the rosary at other times), but it doesn’t seem to affect my other prayers.
I also listen to audiobooks at night. I’ve been doing it for 15 years but never heard of LibriVox. Thanks for sharing this great resource. I also pray the rosary if I am troubled about something. Mother Mary soothes me. The prayers help me keep my anxieties and worries in perspective. Her support reassures me that I manage the current difficulty with god’s grace and support of my community.
I went to a counselor for my insomnia, and he told me the very same thing. For those of us who have trouble turning off our thoughts, at night, he said the key is to engage your mind “just enough”. We need to engage our minds just enough to turn off all the noise in our head, but not engage it enough to be so interested we don’t fall asleep. I watch reruns of TV shows on my iPad. It works like a charm.
I have always struggled with insomnia, too! Glad I’m obviously not the only one. My hubby and I listen to Adventures in Odyssey to fall asleep. (He’s usually out in the first 5 minutes….insomnia is not even on his radar.) We joke about how we might as well still be 10 years old, but it does the trick! Thanks for the librivox tip. I just downloaded it!
Laughing out loud at the irony of reading and commenting on this at 1:33 AM. Insomnia wins again.
I always have the worst time falling asleep so I tried this last night. Let’s just say I’m now looking for a book without dialogue. I was in that half-asleep, half-awake phase when I was jolted totally awake by a strange voice saying, “Hello? Is someone there?” I thought I was going to have a heart attack
Librivox is the best! However, I often use it for the exact opposite purpose – staying awake and focused while driving on long road trips. Have used it a few times to wind down at night. My mom always read to us in the evenings when we were little, and I still love listening to stories. So relaxing.
Oh my goodness! What a wonderful book nerd moment. We share the same favorite audio book narrator
I’ll have to check out Karen Savage. I recommend you listen to some by Alex Foster. He’s excellent.
Have you tried taking melatonin? I don’t think I have insomnia, but it does take me a very long time to go to sleep, and I often wake up many times during the night. Taking melatonin about 30 minutes before bed helps immensely. I relax much sooner and don’t wake up so often. So, I actually feel rested in the morning. Your body makes melatonin naturally, but sometimes a little extra helps.
Along with many other people here, I also say the Rosary. I worried that this was “using” the prayer wrong, but then I read a quote from St. Bernadette: “In the evening, when you go to sleep, hold your beads. Doze off reciting them. Do like those babes who go to sleep mumbling, ‘Mama, mama.'” Who better than our sweet mother to lull us to sleep?
Awesome tips for insomnia! It’s true that magnesium does help with sleep and is a gentle muscle relaxer. Have you ever tried the product CALM? It’s great for winding down at night. definitely recommend it!
What a great idea! I’ve never been a great sleeper, but find that when I’m restless before bed, any one of the following usually work for me:
– Journaling . . . there’s something about getting all those thoughts running around in my head down on paper that is both soothing and sleep inducing.
– Toe Wiggling . . . sounds crazy, but I read recently where if you wiggle just your toes while trying to fall asleep, you’ll shut off your brain and drift off quite quickly.
– White Noise . . . the rain and thunderstorms are soothing to me personally, so I have an app on my phone with lots of different options, but the rainstorm is my all time favourite!