If your insomnia is anything like mine, it has to do with an inability to stop thinking. My brain just keeps going...all night long. About a year ago, I found the perfect cure for my brand of sleeplessness:

• Watch something you've seen a number of times. Watching that Simpsons episode for the 10th time will engage your mind enough to keep you from thinking about other things. Yet, you won't try to stay awake until the ends. You already know how it ends. I find that I now drop off to sleep after about 15 minutes instead of laying awake for hours on end. Of course, this works best with something like the Simpsons, which is still engaging after repeated viewings and has a large library to choose from.

As for waking up, I have a strong dislike of the alarm in the morning. I find the beeping to be way to loud and the inane banter/bad music of the radio to be irritating. The answer:

• I tune the alarm clock's radio to static and turn the volume very low. The quite noise is gentle, rather than jarring, and lets me wake up gradually. You may need to spend a few days trying to find the right volume setting to wake you up, but it does work. I set the loud beeping alarm as a backup to punish me for not heeding the much calmer first attempt to wake me up.

previously on wtg:

• usb is everywhere. use it!
• userscript: show flickr licenses
• visual task tips: useful, free
• ana voog's aiptek tricks
• smartclose
  

Filed in: hacks misc