Nice list! Some other ideas:
on 10: Consider Magnesium. (Citrate as opposed to Oxide. Avoid supplements that also have vitamin D) I’ve found it to relax me before bed. I take it in addition to some melatonin.
re 7, 20, 41, the general idea of having a mental routine in bed: A mental habit I have before bed is to go over my day. Usually twice, once at a high level and then again trying to remember all the details (instead of thinking, “then I read some things on lw” try to remember all the posts in detail).
I also highly recommend blue blight blocking glasses. I know a lot of people have flux but I think they’re really overestimating its effectiveness. Look around your room. If you can perceive blue objects as blue then in my opinion there’s too much blue light. Ideally they should appear black.
I’ve done these 3 things for about the last year and subjectively I’ve been sleeping a bit better. But I never collected any data and I never had a serious problem sleeping either. Good luck solving your problem!
Problem: I’m often having trouble falling asleep.
Experiment with different doses Melatonin and document results
Experiment with taking Melatonin at times other than 30 minutes before going to bed
Establish a rule not to stare into a screen for some time before going to bed
Reinstall the app that makes the screen look all red and sleepy
Remove the blue lights from the exterior of my PC
Practice some kind of meditation technique
Actually try counting seriously
Take regular walks through the city before falling asleep
As above but use the bike
Research for other supplements
Visit a doctor
Ask on LessWrong
Ask everyone I know IRL
Ask on r/sleep if that’s a thing
After completing the list, see if I can reverse any recommendation
Get drunk before falling asleep
Choose an earlier point to wake up every day to make myself more tired
Track my yawns throughout the day and try to notice patterns
Start a diary to find useful information
Do a babble challenge every time I’m in bed
Find new complicated music to listen to when in bed before trying to sleep
Get lots of plants into my room even though I have no evidence for lack of oxygen
Leave window wide open to make it really cold
Always work out directly before going to bed
Be more strict about the go-to-bed timing
Find a difficult problem and implement rule that I can’t think about anything but that when trying to sleep
Hypnotize myself into being tired
Donate 10$ to a terrible cause every time I fail to go to sleep or stand up on time
Same idea but use Beeminder instead
Experiment with using different pillows or blankets
Change sheets more often
Try listening to podcasts instead of music to fall asleep
Try watching soothing movies instead
Force myself to read sth whenever I go to sleep, until I’m tired
Go back to a polyphasic sleep rythm
Read a book about sleep
Do other research on sleep
Find a list of all TED talks relating to sleep and listen to all of them in one sitting
Screw all research and personally crack the code and find the one true solution
Try the drumming technique I’ve once heard about more seriously
Pick a fictional setting and intently visualize the setting every time when trying to fall asleep
Pick the worst book on sleep out there and try to invert every advice
Try not eating anything for a long time before going to bed
Try eating a lot directly before going to bed, but have it be low-fat
Try not drinking anything for several hours before going to bed
See what the guy who wrote the Minihabit book has to say on mini habits about sleep
Abandon the regular schedule and stay awake until I’m dead tired every day like I used to do
Change my nutrition in general, somehow
Implement a rule that avoids important news up to 2 hours before going to bed
Implement a rule that says I have to do one undivided activity in the 2 hours before going to bed
Nice list! Some other ideas: on 10: Consider Magnesium. (Citrate as opposed to Oxide. Avoid supplements that also have vitamin D) I’ve found it to relax me before bed. I take it in addition to some melatonin. re 7, 20, 41, the general idea of having a mental routine in bed: A mental habit I have before bed is to go over my day. Usually twice, once at a high level and then again trying to remember all the details (instead of thinking, “then I read some things on lw” try to remember all the posts in detail). I also highly recommend blue blight blocking glasses. I know a lot of people have flux but I think they’re really overestimating its effectiveness. Look around your room. If you can perceive blue objects as blue then in my opinion there’s too much blue light. Ideally they should appear black.
I’ve done these 3 things for about the last year and subjectively I’ve been sleeping a bit better. But I never collected any data and I never had a serious problem sleeping either. Good luck solving your problem!