I have some very unusual habits when it comes to me falling a sleep. It's kinda like a routine; the only way I can fall asleep without doing this routine is that I have gone without sleep for far too long and I have no choice but to fall asleep at that point. I use a combination of things to help me fall asleep every night, missing any of them when going to sleep will not affect me much for the others together can still put me to sleep but they work better when I use them all at the same time. Your probably wondering what the hell are these things and how many are there and most of all, why do I have so much difficulty falling a sleep. I can explain easily.

When I was a child, my parents decided to move to Puerto Rico. Whole new world for an 8 year old. As oppose to tall buildings, noisy traffic, all the conveniences of a large city (Jersey City) and weather that changed with the seasons, I have a small town with wide open spaces, the tallest building in town was the local Catholic Church, traffic depended on who could afford a car as most people walked since it was a small town anyways and everything was close, conveniences, well, the closest fast foods or Walmarts were at least 30 minutes away by car and the weather was tropical all year around, during winter it would get could from time to time but nothing like Florida or no where near New Jersey. But the one thing I never got use to was that I lived half a block away from the local cemetery. See, I am afraid of cemeteries (not afraid to admit it) and I had some really bad experiences near and inside of them (maybe I'll share in another article) and I started getting nightmares almost every night for many, many years. Every night a similar dream involving spirits, darkness, cemeteries and all of a sudden not being able to run away from it all because I would slow down as if running thru water or mud that was up to my hip. When I got sick with high fevers, the dreams would become worse as I would hallucinate and panic. After a while I hard a hard time going to sleep early and had to wait till I was totally exhausted to be ale to fall asleep instantly. There were times I would be up on the roof of my house (when I was 9 or 10) at 1:00 AM just watching the 2 or 3 cars that would pass by at that time and the people who would wander the town during that time.

I eventually tried to look for ways to relax myself to be able to sleep. One thing that has always worked for me was a fan. Since we did not have A/C, everyone used fans at night to keep the rooms cool. The sound of the fan was like a relaxing hum and the breeze like a caressing feel. But there was one thing that could put me to sleep faster than anything I tried before. When ever it would rain, It was like forgetting about all the woes of the world. I especially loved lightning storms, the thunder with the rain were the perfect sleeping aide combination. Many times I wanted to try to record the rian sounds but recorders back then were not that good and the sound was not realistic enough. I eventually stumbled upon tapes of relaxing rain. Then I switched to CDs and MP3's. Been using the same sounds for that past 12 years now. So here I am having to have a fan and either a CD or now my coputer playing rain sounds all night to sleep. Of course I keep the sound just loud enough for me but not too loud that it can be heard by neighbors.

When I started living with my childrens mom, I was able to get her to give me head massages at night which put me to sleep like a baby too, but that didn't last long (shame). I did however picked up another habit thanks to my older son. You see, the trick was to get my mind relaxed from such a long day or work and headaches from what seemed like the end of the world everyday. The only way I could get my older son to go to bed at night was to put a cartoon on the VCR or DVD and he would fall sleep watching it. I found myself many times by his side as he wanted me or his mom to lay down with him most of the time and I eventually ended up get hooked on this concept. Now I have to watch a relaxing movie every night before bed.

So to recap, here is how my daily sleeping routine begins:

1) I make sure the A/C is set between 65 and 70 Degree (everyone likes that tamp at home).

2) I turn the fan on high, usually pointing only at me since my wife doesn't always like the fan hitting her, but sometimes I let it turn. Oddly enough some fans make better sounds than others so picking a fan is like choosing the right cell phone or computer for me. It's a task sometimes and sometimes am willing to pay extra for the good ones.

3) I put a movie on my computer, usually a cartoon like Disney's Cars, Monsters Inc or Marry Poppins. I must have seen all these movies about 1000 times by now. I watch it till I start getting too tired to keep my eyes open, usually about 30 minute in to the movie.

4) I stop the movie and turn on my preset thunder storm MP3 playlist and set it to continuos reply since it only last about 30 minutes.

5) I make sure the alarm clock is set, unless it's Saturday night which I then make sure it's not on so as not to wake up early on Sundays.

6) I set my pillows up just right. I have a firm slightly thick one I put at the bottom and a thin soft one I put on top. I also set up my blanket so that not too much of the cold air gets under it yet at the same time I keep one foot out towards the fan. As strange as this may sound, it allows my body to balance the temps between the heat of my blanket and the could of the room.

7) Then I do my best to ignore any sounds I hear besides the rain and the fan, otherwise they will keep me awake even with the rain and fan sounds.

Man, even NASA doesn't have a check list this big before every launch (well, they probably do, but just not as picky maybe). So there you have it. This is my daily routine to be able to sleep at night and amazingly, I stopped having these nightmares years ago. If I can get my wife to give me a head massage or back rub while in bed, it's like winning the lottery to me. To bad I can't be more like her and my kids. They can fall asleep within minutes or seconds of closing their eyes. I don't know how they do it. However, if I ever find myself not having the rain, the fan, a movie or my pillows (I this has happened to me a few times already) I simply revert to back when I was small and simply have to wait till I'm too tired to stay away that I fall asleep regardless, except it usually happens between 2:00 and 3:00 AM.

So, what do you do to fall asleep? Do you have a routine? Is it as complicated as mine? I would like to know.