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During my 20s I developed a severe insomnia, probably due to not knowing how to handle stress. It was so bad that I had to go to the ER because I haven't had any sleep in days and didn't know what else to do. They gave me ambien and it helped at the time, but I knew that it was not something to take long term. I then started to experiment with various methods to help me fall asleep and sleep hygene such as hot/cold showers, warm baths, relaxing exercises and meditation, lowering the room temperature, removing sources of light (especially those blue LEDs). In my 40s now and am happy to report that I no longer have any insomniac episodes and I rarely have a hard time falling asleep. Out of all the techniques I found that forcefully yawning for a couple of minutes is the most efficent way for me to induce sleep.


Would be interesting to know why yawning induces sleep at all.


My psych pointed out that yawning is a tension release mechanism, so it’s likely just punting a bunch of cortisol from your nervous system


I use forced yawning to wet my eyes when they become dry, works better than any drops.


I do this as well. It is probably both a symptom and an initiator of certain sleep-associated changes in the body.




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