On deployment - you can try reading, talking with others, chatting on the net or writing a journal - each of these activities can help put things in perspective before going to sleep. If you have issues with accomplishing things during your day that keep you up at night then try making a list of issues or doing simple puzzles - Sudoku, crosswords, find-a-words. Anything to provide distraction and settle the mind for even a few minutes can begin the wind-down process necessary to begin to fall asleep.
If you begin to get restless don't fight it, get up and try another restful activity (re-start the wind-down.) If you want to fight it, then try doing simple math patterns with eyes closed in a relaxing position - count backward from 200 or 100 by 3, 7 or doing multiplication of simple odd numbers (3,7,13). Chuckle if you like but these activities have helped me for years in many stressful situations - courses, deployment, globe-trotting, while in hospital, university, and of course while lying beside a snoring wife.
If you begin to get restless don't fight it, get up and try another restful activity (re-start the wind-down.) If you want to fight it, then try doing simple math patterns with eyes closed in a relaxing position - count backward from 200 or 100 by 3, 7 or doing multiplication of simple odd numbers (3,7,13). Chuckle if you like but these activities have helped me for years in many stressful situations - courses, deployment, globe-trotting, while in hospital, university, and of course while lying beside a snoring wife.
vegging in bed for hours CAn make it harder to sleep if you start to associate bed with anything other than its intended uses.
