Needing some sort of Sensory input to even get to Bed?

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I like to have a clock that ticks loud. They say counting helps, and I never believed it until I got a clock what ticks loud, and when I count the ticks in my head (or do easy timetables counting the ticks, ect) I fall asleep. I go to sleep quickly anyway, but counting makes it even quicker.

I've figured out that I need some type of 'sensory input' (i.e. primarily some form of white noise) for bedtime when I live in a city. I can go without it while living in the country...and usually get better sleep (even 'aidless') in a 'country' setting. The best location I'd experienced in a city was at the end of a cul-de-sac.

I've actually been thinking about this in conjunction with a lot of the thoughts I've been having and pondering over and over regarding stimming.

For me, I need input of some type whether thats TV, a movie, music, white noise, fan, or water sounds for audio input, the pressure of blankets or other things for touch, or what I've turned to in the past few years, mental stimming is what I tend to think of it as.

As someone touched on above with their trick of counting and using the loud clock ticks, and running through times tables etc. this is incredibly similar to something I've done as long as I can remember.

All I can say is for me its something I do during the day; usually when busy doing something rote and repetitive, and as I said its become a big part of me getting to bed each night.

For most of my life I used primarily audio, with pressure when I was really desparate especially as a kid I can remember climbing between the matress and the box springs or wedging myself into a crack I made between the wall, the matress, with the box spring under me. Nightly when young I had to have an ocean sounds record playing or I just could not stop my racing thoughts.

As for the "mental stimming" when I'm laying down in bed and closing my eyes, I used to use audio mainly but found I to often got wound up and interested in what was on tv, the movie, or the radio, and even music could get my mind to racing. The mental stimming came into my routine a few years back, I believe when I was working rotating 12 hour night shifts, and 8 hour swing and grave shifts at my hospital job, which actually really helped me get control of my sleep habits. They are far from perfect now, but compared to my first 23 years they are amazing.

What I do is run things through my head, usually things I've been perserverating on, related to my current special interests. Plans I have made and going over data, and it is just so oddly soothing, reminds me of what TheBicyclingGuitarist describes in his posts about the feeling he gets from doing his namesake activity. As mentioned, the poster who mentioned the numbers and times tables I could definitely relate to, though I tend to go into a lot more abstract thoughts.

On top of this I do have to say that for a few years I had a fish tank in my bedroom with a hang on the back filter and the sound of the water from that while sleeping was just amazingly condusive to really great sleep. Makes me want to go out and grab a 10 gallon tank setup with some cheap fish to get that feeling again... but then I'm sure I'll run off the deep end with fish as my special interest again... lol.

Anyways, sorry for the long ramble, just have been thinking about this often enough of late, and thought I'd add my thoughts and perspective.

Blanket of some kind is always required, and physical movement is sometimes needed. When I was younger, I needed a decent bit of movement to fall asleep, but managed to grow out of it. Now it only helps me relax. The movement thing is not the same thing as restless leg syndrome in case anyone was curious.

I have used radio talk shows to get to sleep for many years. I have found National Public Radio or the BBC (as mentioned in this thread) to be the best. Otherwise, the commercials are likely to wake me. I use the timer on the clock radio to shut off after a given amount of time.

Podcasts would probably be even better. Or what might be the most effective would be audio books read by someone with a soothing voice. If the book has already been heard or read, this might be the most helpful to sleep for those of us who need the human voice to go to sleep. I haven't tried these, as I haven't thought of them until I read this thread. Thanks for starting it!