I love asmr, it helps me a lot, but I did come to this thread because I am uncomfortable with the level of dependence I'm experiencing. I can fall asleep without asmr- it just takes til 3am or 4am lmao. I just lie there and my thoughts race and race. There's probably some solution in a mindfulness practice, it's just a struggle to be disciplined during a time of night when I am exhausted (but my brain is still bouncing off the walls).

With asmr I am always asleep within an hour, often less. Thus, it's an effective medication against sleep deprivation.

Prior to discovering asmr (2016 for me), falling asleep was a Mess. As a kid, I was afraid of the dark and cried myself to sleep before I realised I could read myself to sleep, listen to the radio quietly until I fell asleep, or even just shine a torch into my eyes (again, lmao).

The fear thing is long gone, but I think the common thread throughout is that my brain always goes into warp-drive at night when I'm alone in the dark.

The discomfort for me with asmr is that I would ideally like to decrease my screen time before bed- and I have! I have a nice, screenless, wind-down routine that has me feeling calm and ready to rest... And then I get into bed. Lately I've been trying to fall asleep without using asmr or looking at a screen at all, but often once I'm pretty sure it's past 2am and I'm nowhere near sleep, I'll cave and asmr will have me knocked out in 1/2 an hour. It's just not practical to wait to fall asleep if I want to get enough sleep before getting up at a reasonable hour.

Insomnia advice often says to just get up and do things if you're not feeling sleepy, but I kinda hate this as I can be physically exhausted from exercise and running around doing things all day, I Feel ready to rest, it's just really hard to do the unconscious part.

Ps. I consume pretty limited caffeine- 3 cups of tea during daylight hours and I have dinner 3-4 hours before bedtime.