I must have noise to go along with going to sleep. Usually thats an audio book or long-form video essay type YouTube videos. I wear one earbud to bed if I’m sleeping at night with my girlfriend or just blare it from the TV if I’m sleeping alone during the day (rotating shift). I feel like when I don’t have engaging audio and I’m trying to sleep I can’t quiet my mind enough to sleep. A fan or random ambient noise isn’t enough for me.
Never, but I like conversing with my internal monologue in my head. I’m not quite neurotypical, but I have been pretty good (trained?) to rein in any out of control thoughts if they ever wander by using bait I know my brain can chill with.
When I was a teen, it was sexy stuff. Young adult, plot points for a novel setting I’ll probably never write. Lately, it’s just plans for the day (I sleep so much faster now than I used to, though, since I changed my sleep habits after having kids).
Plus, my own monologue makes sense of how I’m feeling and gives me pep talks! That’s probably a product of coping with abuse, but it’s nice none the less.
You planfor the day and fall asleep? If I start planning I start stressingand worrying and I stay up all night
Especially when it spirals into panic about not having fallen asleep yet which keeps me awake even longer which makes me panic because I have stuff to do tomorrow! Which keeps me awake, on and on
Hell, I plan for the week, even. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t tend to write things down so it helps me organize my thoughts. I used to do it with homework assignments but now it’s like “kid needs to see her speech therapist on Thursday.”
If it helps, I recall reading something that suggested that even if you’re not asleep, laying there with your eyes closed will still help you feel somewhat rested. But, admittedly, knowing I have to get up at 6am or something still sucks regardless.