The first thing this writer should do is uninstall the health app on their phone that asks them every morning how well they slept. It is probably causing anticipation anxiety.

I remember hearing a sleep researcher on the radio a few years ago talking about "alarm anticipation anxiety" - where setting your alarm and then not quickly falling asleep can cause a person to get more & more worried that they won't get a full night's sleep before the alarm goes off. They will keep checking the bedside clock to see how long they have until the alarm is due to go off, get more & more stressed as dawn rapidly approaches, and thus they end up getting very little or poor quality, interrupted sleep. #sleep #SleepDeprivation #SleepAids #tired

White noise, green lights and a silk mask: Sleeping is more exhausting than ever - https://www.smh.com.au/national/white-noise-green-lights-and-a-silk-mask-sleeping-is-more-exhausting-than-ever-20230428-p5d43o.html

@smollestbunny
My top #OTC #sleepAids:

• #Magnesium, oral - my favorite brand is Natural Vitality Calm, which dissolves best in very hot/boiling water. (caution: too oral Mg much will give you diarrhea - not dangerous, but not conducive to good sleep)

• #Potassium, oral - I get potassium bicarbonate from a wine making supply and mix it with either lemon juice or ascorbic acid and water, which makes a fizzy drink. (Start off slow. Unless their kidneys are in bad shape, an adult can handle several grams of potassium over the course of a day, but too much at once can make you weak and nauseous and can potentially be dangerous. If you overdo it, consuming plenty of water and sodium chloride salt helps.)

• Pure #licorice - my favorite is Amarelli spezzatina/rombetti (from licoriceinternational.com). Licorice can go either way for me - if I'm not sleeping because I'm too wound up, it may even make it worse, but if the real problem is that I'm too weak (which oddly sometimes feels like being too wound up) licorice helps.

• Magnesium, transdermal - Epsom salts. Dissolve several pounds in a bath, submerge yourself as much as you can and soak. (note: it cools the water as it dissolves so start with the water extra hot)

• Magnesium, transdermal - magnesium chloride. Sold as nigari for making tofu. Make a concentrated solution by adding a small amount of water, stir, wait a bit, add a little more and repeat - it takes surprisingly little water. Stored in a sealed, non-metal container it will keep indefinitely. Spray or rub it on all over after a hot bath or shower. It feels kind of like oil going on but dries tacky, like sea water.
(it's hard to overdo transdermal magnesium, but if you start feeling too rubbery/weak, rinse off with cool water)

• Sublingual B-complex vitamins. (they're energizing to most people, but since my #MECFS #exhaustion got severe, they make me sleepy)

• Heating pad where it hurts.

• Vibrating massage tool were it hurts.

• Purple ™️ mattress and power base. (technically OTC, but not cheap) (don't leave a hot heating pad on a Purple mattress - the elastomer they're made of is amazing but it's not very heat proof)

🤗😴