Further hints for sleeping.

In a recent blog (Trying to get to sleep.) I wrote about how hard it was for some, including myself to get to sleep at night. I also mentioned, Sadly for me, that this had ever been a reality and I have tried various things over the years with varying and usually not long lasting success if any. Sometimes getting up again and reading even at 2 am works. Lately I have simply been counting. Sometimes it works and other times I can be up to 7 or 800 without dropping off. I them mentioned a Missionary friend in PNG, who lies in bed counting backwards from 1000 to help the mind to stop being so active and get to sleep.
I then closed with the following comment: “So my question today is for those like me, my daughter and our friend in PNG, who suffer from sleeplessness, what works for you? Your thoughts please?”
Here are 2 comments and suggestions that I received. Plus my personal reflections on them! 1. First from West Australia. “Hi it's me again!!!! When I first go to bed, I read for a bit and then set the radio on ( usually ABC FM or a station that has nice soft music) "sleep" so that it will switch itself off when an hour passes. 99% of the time it works, but on the odd occasion nothing will get me to sleep and I lay there thinking of all the worst scenarios of things, until I start to read again.
The books I read in bed at night are "mush". Years ago I went to the doctor and said that I couldn't sleep (at the time I was clutching a mystery-thriller) and he said that if that was what I was reading in bed , no wonder I didn't sleep. The he suggested that I read Mills & Boone paper backs. So at night I read "M & B "mush" and at other times I read all the other genres of books - mainly historical and biographies. At night the other causes my brain to go "dead", and so I fall asleep. The other sort fires it up and I could read all night!!!!
I don't suggest that you read M & B stuff, but maybe something that will slow you down and so that your brain idles along, eh?? Cheers, ******”
True I don’t read M & B, but I do like Paperback westerns; But when I read westerns (or novels), I often find myself more wide-awake and determined to finish them even well into the next morn, which is rather at cross purposes to the original intent, isn't it? So I tend to read heavy books like theology. They tend to make me stop reading fairly quickly when I am tired to begin with.”
2. From South Africa: “Reading or praying can help. ****”
To which I replied, ‘Praying does work, but then I feel guilty about falling asleep when I pray!”
Well that is all I have for now, but please feel free to add to this list if you can.