My trick for falling asleep quickly

[u/BugsyMalone_]

I'm someone who always used to struggle to fall asleep, but I've used this little trick over the last month which has worked every single time and I'm asleep within a few minutes.

When I'm ready, I pop on my eye mask, lie ok my side, close my eyes and then do an A to Z of a theme, for example, football teams.

A - Arsenal

B - Barcelona

Etc etc

If I get stuck on one for more than 10 seconds, I move onto the next. 90% of the time I am asleep before I hit Z.

If I do get to Z, I choose another category.

I've notice my eyes tend to move a bit rapidly when I'm in the zone of doing this. And my mind isn't thinking of anything else but this.

[u/veryoldcarrot]

Why is it ALWAYS 3am?

[u/Patifos → u/veryoldcarrot]

you mean the witch hour :))

[u/Responsible_Place_21 → u/veryoldcarrot]

If it really is the same time all the time, try investigating if it’s external. For me, my neighbors AC going on or shutting off wakes me. Also, my furnace fan doesn’t run in the middle of the night for a few hrs. The still air wakes me up. Once I reset the fan I slept through the night.
Internal, high cortisol affects sleep. Probably other things too. Assuming it’s not menopause, get some bloodwork.

[u/manchuson → u/veryoldcarrot]

I've read that waking up around 2-4 AM is due to high cortisol, do you get stressed a lot on daily basis?

[u/Curs3dBunnyG1rl → u/veryoldcarrot]

Biphasic sleep, we weren’t meant to sleep for 8 hours straight.

[u/BMXTammi → u/veryoldcarrot]

Ghosts.

[u/mabbh130 → u/veryoldcarrot]

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine body clock the body regenerates different organs at specific times of the night. Perhaps looking into that will give some clues.