I must have noise to go along with going to sleep. Usually thats an audio book or long-form video essay type YouTube videos. I wear one earbud to bed if I’m sleeping at night with my girlfriend or just blare it from the TV if I’m sleeping alone during the day (rotating shift). I feel like when I don’t have engaging audio and I’m trying to sleep I can’t quiet my mind enough to sleep. A fan or random ambient noise isn’t enough for me.
Whatever it takes to quiet the thoughts. Plus, adding a base layer of familiar sound helps drown out the odd sounds that makes your brain assess the danger. I don’t often use sound, but for a while I did key myself into playing a particular Deadmau5 album to knock me out for a lunch nap.
The thoughts can be a problem. You can’t stop thinking about how to fix something from earlier. My favorite mental game is picking a category and going through the alphabet, naming an item for each letter. It’s OK to skip a letter, come back later. You’re still thinking creatively, but the speed is much slower. The “problem” is no longer something threatening you (bills, arguments, chores), it’s just finding a one-word response at a time. Cities, towns but not real cities, desserts, bodies of water, car models, zoo animals, construction materials, colors…