LPT: If you're having trouble sleeping, get out of bed and do something else until you feel sleepy.

A lot of mental illnesses such as depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, etc, can leave you in a state of hyper arousal or in a state of "fight or flight" even when there is no actual threat, leading to a lot of trouble sleeping. I personally have both depression and OCD, and a big problem I have with it is that if I'm in a state of hyper arousal, I will stay awake no matter what I do. This is because when I'm in a hyper aroused state, I associate being in bed with being awake, and if I try to do something else in bed, I will feel guilty for not being in a sleep state, and if I do something elsewhere, I feel like I am too far away from bed to sleep (this is actually called sleep associated hyperarousal, and can be a symptom of depression) so I just stay awake. This is a problem for me because I work night shifts, so I have to sleep in the day, and it is very hard to find things to do when I am not in a work setting that does not feel too stimulating, and also are not illegal (I'm not saying I do illegal things btw).<br><br>So one night, I was in such a state, and I stumbled upon a post on a mental illness community on Chambers, and someone said "get out of bed and do something else". I was skeptical, as this seemed counter intuitive to trying to fall asleep. I thought "if I'm not in bed, I'm not going to sleep". However, I was so desperate, I tried this lady's suggestion, and it worked. I got out of bed, brushed my teeth, went to the bathroom, and then got back in bed, and it worked! I felt so much calmer and sleepy. Since then, I have been using this technique to get to sleep. Whenever I am in a hyper aroused state and I can't sleep, I get out of bed and do something else, then I get back into bed, and I find I am in a much calmer state and can sleep. This works every time! <br><br>The key thing to this is that you have to *actually* feel sleepy. Just doing something else in bed and staying there doesn't actually work, you actually need to feel calm, and actually get out of bed.