I clear my desk off and place every article of clothing I can into the hamper. Remove any food, plates, bowls, utensils, paper towels, garbage lining in your wastebin that may or may not have a week or two old clif bar wrapper inside of it. Anything food related in my sleeping space, even if Iāve not eaten & my stomach is totally empty and has been for hours or for the whole day or days on endā will inevitably signal to my digestive system that there is work to be done & that digestion must happen. I canāt sleep if Iām digesting. I also to sit on my couch with a pen & notebook & vomit or diarrhea whatever thoughts have been haranguing me over the evening onto page. If Iām digesting things in my brain especially I find it impossible to sleep.
Open a window, as many as possible to allow fresh air in. Turn on your fans: ceiling, desk, windowsill-mounted box fan, whatever you have. Circulate the air as much as possible. I cannot sleep in a stale bedroom. Have a glass of water at your bedside. If your situation is really hopeless, maybe even fashion a receptacle to urinate into so you donāt have to walk into the bathroom all bleary eyed in the middle of the night. Iāll admit that this is something that I myself donāt have the courage to do yet, but one day when Iām older & even less continent I doubt courage will have very little to do with it & I will piss right by my bedside before yawning & curling up back under my two duvets. Tao Lin recommends this.
Have a bedtime & even if itās hopeless & youre prone to tossing & turning all the way from 11 PM to 11 AM, stick to it. If I really canāt sleep, I resign myself to about an hour of wordy reading. Iāve been reading the first chapter of Freudās Interpretation of Dreams for the better part of 3 months now. That helps too.
I am a total stiff & stretching is a total ordeal for me (trying to stretch my hamstrings makes me as red in the face as running a 5K [this is probably cope on my end, and my reluctance to stretch is likely a testament to a deeper, psychological inflexibility that Iām not willing to tackle at this time]) , so much like urinating into a bedside jar, glass, or other such receptacle I canāt personally recommend it based off my āāāexperienceāāā but Iāve read that stretching does go a long way before bed.
Iāve heard good things about magnesium. I take glycine because it gives me wild dreams.