After a couple of weeks and months of brutally unhealthy sleep, I began to take some of your suggestions about how to make my bedtime less horrifying. I’ve incorporated a couple of new things sporadically: ASMR, a sleep mask, and a face-washing routine with lotions and shit before I climb into bed. I also jacked my Gabapentin to 600mg usually on the earlier side, either 7 or 8 p.m. 

The first couple ASMR nights, I’ve been using this 8-hour marathon mix from Gibi who is a YouTuber with more than 5 million subscribers, which I guess makes her like the Mr. Beast of ASMR whisperers. (But if you have your own favorites, email me.) 

What was interesting about the week was that every time I fell asleep before 10, I’d routinely pop up at 12:40-ish, wander out to the kitchen like a confused bear with my sleep mask half off, and demolish some of the kids’ camp snacks. Then I’d go back to bed, fire up Gibi to start the process all over again. An encouraging sign: I fell into a solid four or five hours of 100-fathoms-deep sleep. The routine still needs tinkering because I would still pop up at 7 a.m., leaving me sluggish and drowsy by 3 p.m.

I stuck to this throughout most of the week, save a couple nights where I ripped the mask off, made myself a bowl of Froot Loops, smushed myself onto the small chaise couch, and tried to fall asleep while watching The Neon Demon. (Say what you will about Nicolas Winding Refn’s dream-murder directing style, his work is actually relaxing to fall asleep to, almost like drifting off during the soundcheck at an Air concert held inside a laser tag room, then at some point Air gets decapitated by a pair of giant scissors and those are kind of ideal wind-down conditions for me most nights.) 

Overall—decent progress. I feel like I’m landing somewhere safely and may enjoy "having a bedtime” to get some rest. Below, we have some sleep suggestions from our readers who’ve had to make drastic changes to their sleep routines after getting sober.

It’s paywalled, but in addition to all the usual hardcore recovery recs and recaps, I will also promise to be your best friend. Come through. You’ll love it. — AJD