[erictd]

I don't want to give up caffeine, but I have my two shots before 7 or 8am and that's it for caffeine. You didn't mention alcohol, maybe you aren't a drinker? Giving up alcohol for ~4 days definitely improves my sleep - no 2am wakeups, more dreams - but then it's the weekend again, whoops. If I can't fall back asleep after around 15-30 minutes, I get up and read for an hour; that always works. I try to think in terms of sleep cycles - did I get enough? can I get one more? I'm surprised a sleep mask doesn't improve sleep onset. I am addicted to my scarf eye cover's total darkness.

[lacoolj]

haha I should have scrolled before commenting. I brought up the alcohol thing too. totally agree.

the sleep mask/something over the eyes was a huge thing for me about 5 years ago (that lasted about 5 years prior) and even now I have blackout curtains, though they don't fully block light on the edges. but if you're like me, you'll eventually ween off the eye covering without noticing why.