I don't want to know if you take pills. Rather what do you do when sleep doesn't come.
When sleep doesn't come, have you strategies?
Does it happen to you to get up in the middle of the night to write down a musical idea in case you won't remember it 'tomorrow' when you wake up?
Gilles Deleuze: fatigue as a vital process, a creative life as a self-destruction process.
Could insomnia be the best muse? A source of inspiration or desperation?

 

I always sleep pretty well. 8-10 hours a night. I often wake up during my sleep periods with solutions to problems. I always keep a pen and notebook by the bed.
I don't usually wake with musical ideas. My solutions are usually for everyday problems, software/hardware or other technical stuff.

 

No need for pills, just a few beers, not every day, and not too many so you don't have a hangover the next day. I sleep 6 to 7 hours a night, unless I've been awake for a long time the day before, then I sleep 8 to 9 hours tops.

 

personally no. a lack of sleep doesnt help me in anyway in life - one of the worst things about touring is trying to get good sleep, i just cant create a routine for my body. at first i would try sleep aids but i have a high tolerance for everything, so i started to see that would be a problem. i was talking with another artist that had been touring way longer than me; and he taught me box breathing. its like this technique U.S. Navy Seals use to regulate their nervous system in combat, really helpful after a show when my adrenaline has me turned up

that has been the most helpful for me personally, i always do that till i fall asleep if i cant sleep normally. cause i know if i dont get enough sleep, my next day is fucked. if i get an idea while im trying to sleep i let it go, ill get more. if its good enough ill remember it when i wake up usually

 

been a irregular sleeper my whole life my cycle has always averaged 1.5 days to every 1 earth day ,these days if i cant sleep i just accept it and take my headphones and laptop or other music device to bed and write more music in bed, i find i come up with some of my best stuff whilst in this relaxed horizontal mode

 

One word: exercise.

 

Ok, exercise of what?

 

most of my music i made was during late night hours... my mind works the best at night, when its dark and quet.

 

As one of our great philosophers (Aurora) said:
If you go to bed early and get up early you are considered healthy. But it's frowned upon if you go to bed late and sleep late.

 

I sleep 8-9 hours but If i am awake for more than 20 hours non-stop, then I can sleep 10-12 hours.

I have faced some kind of insomnia in my life in the high school days.
I have found few reasons for it:
1) Lack of body movements throughout the wake hours. answer is not gym!! It's lack of basic movement!! Do walking/jogging/swimming 30 minutes to an hour & stretching throughout the day.
2) Starvation or Calorie deficit or Cutting Carbs or doing keto diets.
3) If you sit all day, make sure you do half an hour of body movements like walking, jumping, hanging on the bar, push-ups before bed.
4) Lack of Anti-Oxidants in diet, Have Pomegranates, Blueberries, Blackberries.

Study about Anti-Oxidants like Poly-phenols, Flavonoids, Quercetin etc. You will be surprised about how apples give so little anti-oxidants compared to pomegranates and berries.

I am surprised to see their is no RDA for Antioxidants!! Their is a Carb, Protein, Fats, Vitamins and Minerals RDA but nothing for Antioxidants.

Protein is a building block for muscle. Everybody knows this. But nobody talks about anti-oxidants, it's literally a magic potion for human body. It improves everything upto cellular level.


But sometimes work simply becomes too much. At that point, you should disconnect from the work and take care of you. Go for the Walks, Sunsets, Beach or Mountains, etc.

 

Haven't slept well since I moved out of the city outskirts and back into the suburbs.

Kids shoot basketballs about 50 feet from where I sleep around 7am before they get on the bus.

People here live on tiny properties (think .15 acres) and obsess over landscapes and renovating their shitty raised ranches.

Old people with just enough money to burn trying to pretend their homes are nice through constant construction. Not enough money to actually buy a decent house/property.

Been about 6 months since I've been able to sleep in for a day. Usually get about 7hrs if im lucky.

It destroys creativity. I actually quit playing piano after 2 years of dedicated practice, because it means I can try to get to bed an hour earlier.

Can't risk letting time slip away working on music or practicing piano.

The only thing I can do when I can't sleep is pray that I fall asleep, or hope that I won't wake up to basketball, leaf blowers, stone cutting, etc. the next day.

Edit: Honestly, my main goal in life is to make enough money to buy a mobile home on a piece of land large enough that I don't have to live by my neighbors noise. Too expensive to do that where I am now, so hopefully a mobile home in Tennessee, Kentucky or Georgia in the future.

 

Last edited: Aug 25, 2025 at 3:49 AM

you know..
bed acrobatics

 

In 1983 a friend's wife gave me a duped cassette tape to help me heal after a surgery. I began practicing the meditation and it was miraculous for me. I felt refreshed after doing it, and if I began to feel ill or was run down from overpartying, 90% of the time after doing this meditation I would bounce back to proper form upon completion when I opened my eyes. The point of doing Yoganidra is not to actually fall asleep but one can actually use it to completely relax body and mind and drift off into a very deep and restful, restorative sleep. Many times I would find that I hadn't moved my body at all when waking in the morning which I always thought fairly incredible, my body turned off for 8 hours or so. Healing wise, I found that I could even fight off a herpes outbreak (thanks, Lynn, ) if I felt one coming on. After a while I didn't need to listen to the tape and was able to shut down my body part by part. I haven't practiced Yoganidra in a good while, and thanks to this thread am going to ramp back into it. I need it now in a big way.

There are many different teachers guiding people, and if this doesn't suit you I'm sure you'll find one that does. There are both long and short forms.

Sleep well in the arms of Morpheus.

 

The brain doesn't like problems. If you have trouble falling asleep at night, your brain tries to solve the problem, so you get up at night and write down the solution so you can rest and then sleep. What many people don't know is that in previous centuries, people got up at night and discussed plans and problems.

Try to always go to bed at the same time; don't drink coffee after 6 p.m. Turn down the heating; sometimes it's too warm. Use a sheet instead of a blanket if it's too warm. The ideal temperature is probably 19 degrees Celsius. Adequate sleep is very important for the body and mind.

 

Nobody mention blue light from screens ?
..also you need a good hormone balance .
BTW synthetic melatonin products are very unhealthy .

 

Thanks for the blue light filter. I once had trouble sleeping for months, and the blue light filter saved me.

How did people fall asleep for 10,000 years without pharmaceutical products?
Anyone who buys melatonin is simply too stupid and is lining the manufacturers' coffers!

 

Getting older is a blessing in disguise for me - I finally and for the first time in my life get ~enough sleep.