13 Ways I Deal With Insomnia

I waddle my way to my bedroom, lazily put on a pair of pajamas and shuffle into bed. I am exhausted. The day is done. I am ready for sleep.

On some nights, however, such as this one, sleep eludes me. Here are just some of the things I do when I can't sleep:

Things I Don't Recommend to Fellow Insomniacs

• I grab my iPhone.
• I check out the WebMD APP to try to figure out what is wrong with me. This never helps me sleep, it simply causes me to jump into the rabbit hole called "Google" on a quest to define the twenty or so ailments I have come up with based on the symptom checker.
• I jump into the rabbit hole called "Google" to search something that is on my mind. This leads to another thing, then another, and so on. Then the sun rises and I wonder what happened. I decide, of course, to google "What happened?" and then I am slammed with the most recent news stories which engulf me.
• I get out of bed and start blogging.
• I go on Twitter.
• I go on Facebook (discovery: all my Facebook friends go quiet from 4:30am to 5:00am, like clockwork, but my Twitter never sleeps).
• I think about all the spiders that just woke up and may be planning to build a web over my head in the darkness.
• I get a drink of water. This only leads to a need to go to the bathroom just when I am about to fall asleep again.

Things That Kind-of Work

• I read a book. I just remembered that I have one to read right now. (Wow, I might rest yet!)
• I go on StumbleUpon. While this probably does keep me up a bit later than it should, I tend to exhaust myself with SU.
• I watch an episode of something I never saw before on NetFlix. (I stick to half hour shows and watch no more than two per night.) I have now seen all of the Arrested Developments this way and I am working my way through Better Off Ted. Both shows are hilarious.
• I listen to a book. This is awesome because my eyes get to rest, however, I do tend to fall asleep and have no idea where to pick up the book the next time I am listening.
• I have a cup of Sleepytime tea or Calming tea. These both tend to knock me out.

 Well, so it goes, perhaps getting out of bed to start blogging is not such a bad idea after all - it seems I have lulled myself into quiet a sleepy state. I only hope I've done th same for you if you need to sleep as desperately as I do!

How do you deal with insomnia?