The Five D’s for Those Who Can’t Sleep

I just decided to keep track of all the ways I've learned to fall asleep without medication

Distract - I’m not saying play white noise or anything. Maybe try to turn on the tv, read a little bit of a book and daydream about it, or have a nice convo before bed. The point is to do whatever you like until you’re relaxed.

Detach - when you lie down (with the tv on or whatever) you might still hear the sound. That’s ok. Just make yourself as comfortable as possible. I try to focus on my other senses when I go to bed. I have a soft blanket, a couple of pillows and something to hold on to (pillow). I always think about the sound before I fall asleep. I can’t mask mine at all so I just acknowledge it with all I can until I get bored and fall asleep.

Delay - if you can’t get bored of the sound or you cannot stop worrying, do not get upset about it. I’ve had the most success when I convince myself that I will worry about my tinnitus tomorrow. I mean, most of us will anyway so what’s the harm?

Determination - I've had nights where I’m just pissed. I get mad at myself and my tinnitus to the point where my biggest fuck you is going to sleep. My thought process is usually “I'm tired as shit and at this point I’m pissed the fuck off. Ringing or not, I’ve always loved sleeping. If I can sleep through a family reunion, a super bowl party, and a football game...then I can sure as hell get through tonight.”

Direction - there is nothing wrong with getting up and trying again. Tons of people on this Earth have sleeping problems. If you need to walk around your house and get some water, then just do it. If you need to cry for a little while longer, then just do it. Sometimes I just have to change the room where I fall asleep to find better success.

If you've done it all and reached the Direction suggestion, then you just have to start over. Turn on the tv in a different room. Move your stuff around. Clean up something to get yourself tired then do it again.

I’m not sure if this will helped everyone, but it helps me and my tinnitus is loud af. Louder than my pool, shower, and tv on at the same time. I figure that if I can sleep, then so can you.

 

A "D" for me is to put in the most strenuous workout I can early in the evening. I'm talking about a workout that really wears me down. Then I'm tired enough to sleep.

That kind of workout also gives me such a euphoric feeling that it reduces my anxiety and stress, which also helps deal with the T.

 

That’s a wonderful strategy man. I’m not athletic at all but if that works for you, then it should help others.

 

You forgot Drugs.

Who am I kidding. I’m yet to find something that helps me sleep through the night.

 

Your delay is something I'll try! For me it's Michael sealey's hypnosis through something called 'cozy phones' I ordered, sleep headphones $20. I can't actually get hypnotized, but deep !meditation, visualization that overrides the noise and then finally to sleep

 

My parents don’t believe in medicine so I’m not allowed to take anything. If you need a night light to focus on or really anything, it helps.

 

I’ll just add Disney on here. Old tv shows and cartoons do the trick. I swear they are made to literally hypnotize people lol.

 

I can pass out no problem, it’s staying asleep through the noise that is impossible. I start to hear it while I’m asleep, gets painfully loud and wakes me. I keep all kinds of noise on for distraction, helps a little. I can sleep up to around an hour (first hour) and then it’s ten min at a time for the rest of the night. I was a pro with my old very noisy tinnitus, this new tinnitus is just painful, hurts the ears/brain.

 

@Telis thats usually when I decide to get up and get a new direction. It’s rough man. But I always find a way to go back to sleep.

 

Well that’s good. I can sleep over and over, just can’t get more than 10 minute at a time, tinnitus wakes me up at almost the 10 min mark every time, except for the first hour when I’m so tired I fall asleep almost as I get into bed. I get max 3 hours and it’s all split up.

Hard to fight through the noise when I haven’t really slept in over two months now. My eyes are heavy, even when I’m out walking, I feel like I could pass out standing. Five years of severe tinnitus, now with the new tinnitus, it’s just is a entirely different world, I’ve handed out sleep advise here before, none of it works for me anymore.

I’m now facing the fact that I’m not going to really get any deep sleep ever again, it’s like a alarm clock built into my brain. Oh well, have to get used to it, just tough, I never knew what it was like to be tired before. Maybe get behind a few days, then catch up, this kind of tired makes me delirious at times.

 

@Telis, in my first couple of weeks or so, I couldn't sleep more than 5 min. at a time, and would then wake up to screeching tinnitus about 3x louder. Maybe got 30 min. on average a day during this time. The first thing that worked for me was taking Tylenol 4. I feel quite certain it was the codeine in it that finally allowed me to sleep. Even though I only take 1/4 tablet, I was able to get several hours of sleep that first night.

I've since discovered mHBOT helps immensely as well. I think I shared this with you in another post, but thought I'd mention it again, as I seem to recall you expressed some interest in it. I have to think that some kind of combination of things might help you a lot with your sleep, and if you can start getting good sleep again, it could help you break out of your current really difficult cycle. -- Wishing you the best in making that happen!
-
BTW, when I first got into an HBOT chamber two months after tinnitus onset, I almost cried at about the 30 minute mark when my body and psyche were somehow able to "let go". At the time, I feared whether I would ever be able to relax again., but in that HBOT session, I experienced a degree of relaxation I hadn't been able to come even close to in those first two months.

 

My 16 year old daughter has insomnia unless Disney or a Barbie movie (made for 6-year-olds) are playing. She says it's trance for her too. Not her exact words, but it's trance. I used to club to trance and house music in the early 90s, so I have a great appreciation for the term. Soooo surprised I didn't get tinnitus from that, my favorite spots were in front of huge speakers or the DJ

 

Funny that you say that. Talk Radio is my trance. The deep bassy voices, the conversation topics distract me, and the hiss and crackle of the radio mimics my tinnitus a bit so I can almost convince myself the noise in my brain is actually the radio (I occasionally turn off the radio to double check which hiss is the radio, which is my T).

 

My trance is Michael Sealey's sleep hypnosis from YouTube. He has like 20 to choose from.
Lately I've been turning it off and letting the tinnitus trance me out. It feels great when I can do that... Like twice a week.