Share your methods and systems, created or adopted by you, for overcoming your insomnia. As a Dream Walker, having insomnia is likened to a “fate worse than death.” Being unable to fall into sleep at will is, for us, the equivalent to being a singer with a lost voice; an athlete with crippled limbs. It’s Hell.
Fortunately, as human beings we are blessed with resourcefulness and the ability to overcome our trials. Insomniacs therefore have the capacity for creativity in attaining desired sleep, the birthplace of our nocturnal lucidity.
I myself turned, and still do turn to sleep aids in the form of pills and capsules. However this is not enough on its own, and necessarily not to be solely relied upon. I admittedly still struggle with easily falling asleep, with the occasional (once rare but now increasing) exception. As I continue to build and refine my methods, I am seeing gradual but consistent fruits of my labor.
My current system in refinement is that of extensive physical activity during the day so as to wear my physical body out as much as motivation allows followed by a nocturnal preparation of sleep aids at the proper time before sleep, followed then by a nightly ritual (designed to set the mind up for dreaming and lucidity more so than for attaining physical sleep), and lastly climbing into bed.
I’m currently contemplating a way to integrate some sort of “shut down” before bed, either directly before or after my ritual.
Constructing and adhering to and refining this system has helped me considerably in my path to overcoming the demon of insomnia.
What are your methods of doing this? Be they simple or complex, I encourage you to share for the benefit of all.
the thing that helps me out most is using natural sleeping supplements, such as the bach flower drops, (known as ‘rescue remedy’) mongolia bark capsules,
and most importantly and effectively, magnesium spray rubbed into the skin before bed.
The three links to vendors removed
these really help to relax both the mind and body, and are all natural, so not harmful to you even if you are relying on them night after night (especially magnesium, which also helps to clear up your skin and improve your overall health)
hope this helps 
I don’t have insomnia but i have tried several “polyphasic sleep schedules” which are pretty strict on when i have to sleep. Doing so, I’ve learned a lot about “light” and teas/herbs for sleep. Another word that came up in my research is “Circadian rhythm”. Body temperature, light, and hormones released such as melatonin all play a factor in sleep and your bodies sleep rhythm. Do some research on those key words and hopefully it’ll help you.
Results may vary but this is what I did in order to sleep on que when I needed to.
-
I dimmed all the lights in the house around 7pm ((got a few plug in lights with a brownish hue…not blue which is similar to the light on the computer screen)). If you’re using your computer at night, turn the brightness down as much as possible. Even when I went to the bathroom, I would use plug-in lights after 7pm. I can’t remember the whole article but I read something about how light triggers the brain to be on alert, especially “blue” hued light. Blue hued lights are usually those energy efficient lights and they tend to look almost blueish.
-
I made tea with relaxing herbs such as: Chamomile, lavender, Valerian, Kava Kava, St. Johns Wart. All of these not only helped me with sleep, they also made my dreams more vivid.
-
Stick to your sleep schedule. if your sleep time is around 10pm I suggest starting the teas and dimming of the lights around 7 or 8pm. Even if you can’t sleep until 12am, stick to trying to go to bed at 10pm. Some nights i also meditated for 15 minutes before bed and it helped a lot.
I hope these tips will help you and many others in the future.
Peace and Sweet Dreams 
So, I ended up looking up Magnesium sprays and ended up buying some. I am looking forward to exploring its use. Thank you for the suggestion!
Also I thank you for reminding me of tea. I used to be a tea fanatic; it’s hard to believe it didn’t occur to me to implement its use before bed. And I heartily support the dim light system you mention, as I have found it to be helpful as well. The brown lighting is interesting, and I’ll have to look into that, as it sounds ideal for dim light now that I think about it. I’ve tried using “soothing blues” but as multiple people on this forum have stated, it’s too similar to the light produced by electronics generally.