What's the secret to going to bed without using your phone to wind down? Without something mildly stimulating to use up that extra brain energy, my thoughts are way too noisy to fall asleep.

It's a vicious cycle. Playing a quiet YouTube video on my nightstand (specifically one that's mostly conversational, like a podcast or an interview) is the only way I've been able to calm my racing thoughts and eventually go to sleep. There are a number of problems with that.

I've always struggled with waking up in the middle of the night, and I'm usually able to fall back asleep if I'm tired enough (this has been an issue for as long as I can remember, before smartphones were even a thing). But if I'm even slightly more awake than usual, having my phone right next to my bed is enough of a temptation that I might pull it up and start doom scrolling until I feel tired enough to fall back asleep, which is gonna take a lot longer once I start looking at that phone.

Once that screen is on, it's pretty much game over.

The other problem is waking up in the morning. Once my alarm goes off, if I don't snooze it or dismiss it, I'm probably just gonna stare at my phone for waaaay too long before I actually get out of bed and start my day.

The phone has got to go, I can't keep using it as part of my bedtime routine. But if I don't use it to wind down, my thoughts run wild and it's almost impossible to fall asleep. Melatonin is great for knocking myself out, but without fail, I wake up in the middle of the night every time I take it.

How do you all handle this? It's been 28 years, at this point I've just kinda gotten used to a constant struggle with sleep, but SURELY there's a better way to deal with this.