How to calm everyone down at night?

BeccaBee wrote:there are 2 other physiological tricks you can play on yourself. a drop in body temp and decline in blood sugar. I don't have to do these every night anymore, but they make good aces up my sleeve now.

take a hot shower about 30-45 minutes before target sleep time. make sure to get your entire face well several times to really activate the mammalian dive response. the hot bath or shower will raise your body temp so you can take advantage of the drop later. when you get out of the shower or bath. eat/drink a little bit of some thing to raise your blood sugar. then in like twenty minutes when your body temp and blood sugar drop you will have a tiny window of drowsiness to leverage.

Thank you very much, the way you explain this makes me 'get it'. I have this very otften; the feeling that I finally 'get' what I already know or is common sense that I... only understood as an abstract 'common sense'? Something like that

Wow that is a lot of really great advice, BeccaBee. Thank you so much!

Yea, it's been a very stressful couple of weeks. I don't think the stress will end anytime soon though. Thank you also for the compassion and encouragement.

I have a closet, a kitchen/livingroom with a bed, and a bathroom, so keeping it separated is difficult... or impossible, really. I do keep a rifle and hammer next to my bed, and I also sleep with a knife; I'd like to get a pistol or shotgun eventually. I think I'm only gonna be able to bring my knife with me, I may look into getting a baseball bat, as that seems less conspicuous than a hammer. I also live in a rural area, but there seems to be a lot of meth addicts and criminals around. I've been debating getting a stuffie for about a year... when I'm on my own again I might finally do so. I generally manage to only check the clock once every hour or so. Posting on here is my only glow-screen late-night sin.

I actually had a great schedule. Then I lost my job and everything went to $#%^. I'll have to force myself back onto a schedule immediately though. I read a loooooot. Sometimes it helps; mostly it just helps pass the time. No TV. I'm scared to journal but I know I should probably work on that more.

The herbal suggestions are great! I have a feeling I will start trying them out very soon.

Thank you for sharing your experience with Prazosin. I normally (what a funny word...) don't have an issue with nightmares, and I hate taking pills, but I will keep this in mind. I am really glad that it's helped you so much though That gives me hope.

Thank you for your wonderfully helpful wall of text I'm actually thinking about printing it out for reference

With the OCD fantasy, well that's been getting interrupted a lot lately, but it's definitely something I try to do.

And yes, Birdsong's advice was great, succinct, right on point. I really feel like you all seem to know what I'm going through, I'm very grateful for everyone here.

Also great advice regarding the shower and blood pressure. Trying that one now

I feel like my response is inadequate, and I'm really sorry about that. I'll have to try again when I'm not so exhausted

I'll definitely have to come back to read this all over again. Thanks again!