I don’t think alcohol is the answer.
I go through periods of time where my sleeping goes all out of shape. A couple of things I now do: meditation (zen), more exercise, eat better and change my routine.
You have to get in to a routine for every night of the week though, not just the days you have to get up.
Conicidentily, my sleeping is getting a bit out of shape now, I’m better at catching it early on and making a change now.
It was definitely worse as a student, I only just graduated in the summer.
i was never good with alcohol so i never drink it,some people get their life better when they drunk S) mean while some of them don’t 0:)
I feel for ya, Slim. I usually get pretty good sleep, but it has somewhat worsened as the years go by. I also get weird dreams from the melatonin and it takes a while to work anyway. But studies show that anymore than 3 beers actually works against good sleep. But up to that point, I’m a Puerto Rican rum man (with a little diet 7up), or maybe Sam Adams Boston Lager. It can “take the edge off” in very small amounts.
I sometimes have sleeping problems, and I usually hate any kind of noise.
But strangely enough ASMR videos on Youtube helped me a lot.
Here are some examples, try them out with headphones or earplugs. Won’t work with speakers.(At first maybe just the half hour before going to bed with eyes closes for relaxation. I actually hear them with earplugs in bed.)
It’s not for everyone, some people freaks it out. 
But for me it helped a lot.
[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv1qmHjYPKw]
[video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXbWHC6g9es]
I don’t want to spam videos, but since they helped me so much I at least want to show a little selection so you have an alternative if the first one annoys you.
Good luck!
I think a (good!) whisky is nothing one should drink regularly (every day). Especially not to get tired.
I recently started buying some better but still cheap whiskies and drink a glass only if I`m chilled, not stressed etc.
MEDITATION you mean. LOL!
Alcohol is not the perfect panacea to insomnia altho I do imbibe vodka sometimes to help me sleep.
The best sleep I found is through practicing this routine of a hypno-therapic video for relaxation :
I suppose it depends on what is keeping you up! But yes that is what I meant.
I think you’ve identified the Root Cause, even if you don’t have it fully in your grasp yet.
I’m guessing you feel like you’re drowning in these classes, and you may also have some obligation to make some score/grade or another in order to keep (e.g.) funding or status or approval…
If I’m “ringing any bells” here, then your answer is: “NO”.
The secret isn’t to change your routine or your meds. The secret is to change your MIND.
No brag, just “been there, done that”… When I was in college working on a double major of Electronics and Computer Programming, plus tutoring and working in the computer lab to pay for food and gas, for 5 days a week I’d get up before 06:00, make and eat breakfast, get to school before 08:00, receive instruction until 15:00-ish, then work until midnight, when the lab closed. I drank coffee and Mountain Dew and Jolt Cola constantly, for the caffeine. I’d get home by 01:30-ish and have to work “Jumbles” (word puzzles), crosswords, Chinese Wire Puzzles, anything to “unwind” a little before crashing, sometimes literally with my head on the kitchen table, drooling into the Jumble I couldn’t finish. I didn’t need an alarm clock, because I could not wait to get back to class the next day!
That went on for years.
As for me, I think the fact that I was passionately interested in the knowledge I was receiving made all the difference.
Skip to Now… Perhaps you could try this:
First, start telling yourself (because your internal dialog becomes your external reality) how useful the knowledge will be, as soon as you get all of it in your head. Begin visualizing yourself solving problems and fixing things, winning the hearts and minds of your friends and neighbors with the vast treasure-trove of Very Interesting Things you’ll be learning as soon as you can get them to let you back into those classes! Keep focused on how much you want that knowledge and how you’ll do anything to get it, that’s how important it is, and besides, you’ve paid for it already so it’s YOURS. Take it and use it, by force if that’s what it takes! Change your seat in class so you can be near or at the front of the class and participate in the process with gusto and a deep, abiding curiosity and thirst. Demand (really) that the knowledge be fully transferred into your head, meaning ask questions (and answer the ones you can) and participate.
At first, on the nights before “the big day”, decide what time you’ll need to get to sleep, and set aside at least two hours before that to begin preparations. Stop looking at the clock and prep yourself for sleep by wearing the last joule of energy out of your body. Run, have sex, pump iron, run through all the karate Katas you know, whatever gets you physically tired and sweaty; then cool down, clean up, eat something “rib-sticking” so you won’t wake up hungry. Don’t think about anything but what you are doing Right Now. There is no “tomorrow”, just “I’m tired and I’m going to sleep now”. And at the appointed time (give or take any number of minutes), just lie down, get comfortable and be still. Set your environment the way you like (I need a radio or TV in the background to drown out the Tinnitus screaming in my ears) and just lie there. Breathe calmly and deeply. Don’t think. If you find yourself thinking/worrying about anything at all, read a book or newspaper (anything irrelevant but wordy) to lead that “internal dialog” elsewhere. If you have to have an internal dialog, just keep telling yourself how you’re just lying there, tired, and there’s nothing left to do but sleep. If you worry about ‘why’ you need to sleep, you’ll let the bugs back in the program. Just focus on “right here and right now, I’ve earned this sleep and I’m damned-well going to enjoy it, now!”…
The next day (it will work if you work it), try to focus on how interesting and useful the information you’re buying is, and how you will use it to its fullest extent as soon as you learn it, and if there were any justice there would be some way to learn more of it faster!
The tests are not to put you down, but to help you understand what you haven’t finished learning yet. I suspect that “test anxiety” may be a contributory Cause as well. Please try to remember that the tests don’t “make” you, they inform you what you need to learn better, no more, no less.
You may notice that I’m repeating myself a lot and putting sentences in odd ways. That’s to use the psychology I’ve learned to help hammer these ideas into the corners of your mind. I can only testify that “it worked for me”, as I went from “I’m a prisoner of the publick skewel systum” to “I’m on the Dean’s List”, and that my attitude toward the process was the only difference.
That’s what I think, but you know me, I’m just…
Dim
I’ve had the good results with 3mg of melatonin which takes about an hour to start working. It slows my mind down so I’m not thinking about everything under the sun and can drift off to sleep. I only take it when I really need it. If 3mg is good then 6mg ought to be great right? WRONG! This stuff can give you some pretty wild dreams, especially when you first start taking it. There is another sleep aid that I used pretty often when I was younger, but we don’t need to talk about that here.
Clear your mind, practice relaxation and do not THINK! Listen to a ceiling fan, a clock ticking, the house settling, but do NOT think! Peace and quiet in the mind will lead to a deep relaxing sleep. Dimbo is right you know, having an eagerness underlying it all to get going the next day will be an internal clock to wake you up.
Or is that the back ache that does that? Hmmm….
I find reading some threads on blf works like a sledgehammer. ………
just kidding, I agree with dimbo, you need to value what your doing rather than dred it, that seems to be whats keeping you awake.
As for alcohol, I’m English, we don’t have hang ups about beer, we take it like we take fresh air, tbf, if its beyond 8.30pm gords meab time I can guarantee you I’ll have had a couple, does it affect sleep? no, I have two toddlers in the house for that, and they have honed me into a master of surviving on next to bugger all sleep.
If your not keen on alcohol, I really dont think it’ll help, what will help is finding a way to relieve the anxieties about the coming day, I’m an engineer, when I need to relax, I head off into the gords cave to do something, be it mess with a light, mess with my ecigs, do something for the house, whatever holds my interest.
books are good, if you can find something that grabs you without stimulating yourself too much.
What he said. ^
crazy sex ...lots of it
Just joshing! But it’s also true that mediation (vs litigation) is about seeking peace so nobody sleeps in angst. “When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down.” Eph4:26(AMP)
There you go. Problem solved.
Just get some pot
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and make some tea 
maybe we should do a thread on favorite alcohol…
it seems that a lot of people want you to meditate or wear blue blockers…hahahahaaa…it may work for some but you want to know if a shot or two will help you get to sleep…the short answer is yes…the long answer is we need to know a few things…
do you like to drink…
what do you like to drink…
do you have time to experiment…
are you capable of moderation…
do you like a good cigar…
it may take some time for you to find what works for you…
alcohol does not have to be expensive to be good…,
everybody has different chemistry…i normally drink a fifth of tequila or vodka or rum over the course of a weekend almost every weekend without ever missing a beat…and smoke one good cigar while i drink…one cigar on fri/sat/sun…if i want to go to sleep quick however i fill a 16 oz glass with ice and top it off with a red sangria…the sugars in the wine go straight into the blood stream making the wine a much more potent tool for relaxation than the straight hard stuff…
right now i am drinking fris vodka…on sale at my buddies store for 9 dollars a fifth…
