Trouble with sleeping at other people's houses.

[Jeena]

I have trouble sleeping at other people's houses/hotels when I need to spend the night. Do you have this predicament? If so how do you overcome this struggle if you do? I usually stay up way late (1-3 in the morning) at other's houses and I do not want to do that. At home I usually go to bed at 11:30 or earlier. I am just sick of doing nothing for hours, just laying there trying to sleep. It doesn't come up often, but I loathe it when it does.

[Lovrina]

Is it because you feel uncomfortable sleeping in places that aren't your home? I don't usually have that problem, but... sometimes I just can't sleep because my brain hates me and decides to whip up a tornado of thoughts for no reason at like 2 in the morning. So my advice would be:

- drink something warm and soothing, like hot tea

- try not to use your phone or computer right before bed

- if you don't feel yourself drifting off within 30 minutes, get up and do something. A small activity, like clean something up, walk a lap around the house (if you can do so without disturbing other people), get your stuff ready for the next day. Just something that will waste a bit of energy and make you feel like you accomplished something. Then try to go to sleep again.

- if you can't sleep 'cause you have something on your mind, then grab a piece of paper and a pencil, and start writing! Just empty your mind onto the paper.

Other than that, have you tried sleeping medicine? A lot of people take melatonin for sleep. Also, you could try to tucker yourself out during the day so you just crash into bed at night.

I hope this helps. (◕ヮ◕)

[jack616]

I have ocd and can't usually sleep anywhere other than my own bed :( or even if other people stay overy, grr.

Wind down things sometimes help, no screens for your eyes a couple hours before sleep. Read, do something with your hands (origami, some people like knitting, or doodling.

Make sure you're able to just lie back and doze off too. I've missed many sleep trains by being about to doze off then having to get up and put things away before I could sleep. (Predicament of having a reading arrangement vs. Sleeping arrangement lol)

Hope that helps x

[Oddball-Meo]

I have the same problem. Unfortunately, almost nothing helps me. I have to spend enough time there first, before I'm able to sleep there comfortably. The only thing that helps a little is thinking about stuff completely unrelated to the unknown place while having something familiar with you (like a pillow that smells like you).

[SpiffyParadox]

I have the same problem too, especially when i'm sleeping over at a friend's or anywhere else for the first time. I either won't sleep at all or i'll keep waking up every hour on the dot. It seems to me in my situation is how Lovrina described it: sleeping in uncomfortable places that aren't home. Or maybe it was because of how I was raised; having hyper-awareness.

Usually i'll listen to my MP3. Sometimes it doesn't work but for the most part it makes time fly by when i'm composing scenarios in my head.

Or i'll watch a little bit of TV.

Going on a long walk helps a bit too.

Honestly, I always had trouble sleeping (I still do). It's like i'm living on a 48-hour period instead of the usual 24-hours xD

Anyways, it sucks not being able to sleep, especially when you're sleeping over at a friend's house. Waiting for them to wake up can feel like an eternity. I hope you find a way to sleep in those situations!

[Kire]

Dude! I feel you! I hate sleeping over at people's places particularly because I prefer to sleep in my own bed. I had to sleep overnight in a hotel room with three other students (who i did not know that well) during Frosh week and when everyone was asleep, I moved my pillow and blankets and fell asleep on the floor because I was so uncomfortable.

I don't know why I'm uncomfortable.. If I had to take a guess, I would say that sleep-time is me-time, and when I'm with other people, I have to be presentable-to-the-public-Kayla instead of im-going-to-hog-all-of-my-blankets-and-maybe-sleep-sideways-tonight-Kayla? That is my BEST guess... <.< Not sure if I explained that right, but bottom line is I hate sleeping in the same room as other people and if you ever discover a way to get over this, please hit me up, thank you and good luck :)

[Qwerty321]

I only have that problem if it's noisy there, otherwise I don't. If I'm in a separate room, I don't care, but I don't like to sleep when there are people in my room, no matter if it's other people's home or my own home. I also have a problem with sleeping in trains. If it's a long travel, it takes 1 or even 2 nights to get use to it.

[Mulan]

First question: Why'd you wanna sleep at other's houses? :p

My own solutions to sleep at hotels are:

Ask for a comfy pillow... Just like the one you use at home.

Try deep breathing. Breathe in... and breathe out! Do that till you get tired and sleepy :p

Camomile tea surely helps... avoid drinking coffee after late afternoon (for a good night's sleep).

[Grumpy Alien]

Yeah, it's hard for me to get comfortable if it's not home

[binary suns]

yeah I certainly do find it harder to sleep in the presence of others, but I find it hard to sleep in general and in the past had a lot of trouble with sleep so I sorta have ways to deal with it or it doesn't really bother me... in the end, I guess my body doesn't need as much sleep as usual or something? I'm not really sure.

but some things I've done are, finding "calm" music to listen to as I try to sleep. or really, the music feels hypnotic I guess. I know "hypnotic" is a type of music but I've never listened to it. but this one song I used to listen to, it was a 12 minute song and the tempo was like a 12 beat I believe and it had a lot of guitar lines that repeated a few times and so that repetition and length would get my brain goin in a cycle and distracted from active thoughts and that really helped me out. right now I have an "explosions in the sky" station (that's an artist) on Pandora Radio, they're instrumental and slow-paced and calming sound. both on my old phone and on pandora i have an option to have it automatically stop playing after 15 minutes or a half hour or hour, and that helps me play music set it to a low volume and the set it down and not have to fiddle with the phone anymore.

this doesn't work for everyone, but some video games/ game apps help me out. but only games that "aren't activating". when I was younger this was pokemon, right now it's this app called "2048" that is just moving blocks into each other prettymuch. it's kind of a methodical game and there aren't any flashy moments, and I can just put it down and pick it up later. that's pretty much the key, some game that doesn't have a fast pace or any exciting moments in it yet still captures my attention, and that has a higher level of repetition or methodical play. and most importantly, I can just turn it off at basically any moment and not feel bad, to pick up where I left off later, that I neither feel compelled to play to a certain point nor do I lose progress if I turn it off at any point.

I guess in general, for me the issue has always been switching my brain away from activity or anxiety and into this state that feels kinda sluggish and tired, and once I get to that state I can if I'm lucky fall asleep in the expected 7 minutes or sometimes it's longer but I'm drifting in and out of consiousness and that's good for me. so it's a matter of just getting my brain to slow down. IDK. for me it took a long time to figure it out, but I've noticed patterns in the way my consiousness feels and can isolate what I need to do to prepare myself for sleep. hopefully you find something faster than that tho xD

I tried a sleep pill once and it was bad :/ it hugely increased my blood pressure... but sleeping pills do help some people.

most recently I was at a hotel with 3 friends, and I just couldn't get to sleep. I ended up stealing a blanket and finding a second in the closet, and curling up under the littel table/platform thing next to the bathroom xD I woke up feeling like I was catching something though, and my back hurt from poor positioning... but it got me to sleep