Was going to say my sleep mask. My partner needs a TV show on when she goes to sleep, I need pitch black. The sleep mask has made it possible to sleep in the same bed.
Yes, sleep mask for the win. I recommend the kind that is just a wide soft bit of cloth that wraps around your head. Like this. The ones with elastic straps or eye cups, gel, foam, whatever, have not been nearly as comfortable IMHO. I just want a pillowcase for my face.
I've also recently started wearing earplugs since my wife is up before me and the kitchen sounds always cause me to stir well before my alarm.
Oh wow, thanks for the recommendation! That looks a lot more comfortable than the normal sleep masks I get. It also looks like it might last longer, because often the elastic on my normal sleep masks stretch over time and start falling off my face. I should save this comment, maybe this whole thread lol.
Over the counter sleep aids didn't work for me. I did a sleep study and it turned out I have sleep apnea. I use a CPAP for the sleep apnea and was prescribed Trazodone for insomnia and it's helped significantly. Trazodone is technically an antidepressant but it works better for treating sleep disorders so that's its most common use case now.
As I understand it melatonin doesn't necessarily help you to stay asleep, so I found it to be a game changer when I switched to a time release melatonin. Now if I wake in he middle of the night I find it much easier to fall back asleep.
My doctor researched it with me during a checkup and it seems that there is no real overdose for it. Rather, extra just doesn't have an effect on you. This is to say that you could probably play around with doses to see what works--somewhere between 3mg and 12mg or so.