[Starting Today!] Recommended Ways to Kill Time on Sleepless Nights
“I can’t sleep because I’m anxious about work tomorrow,” “I can’t sleep because I’m excited for the field trip,” “I can’t sleep for no particular reason.”
There are many people who struggle to fall asleep at night for all sorts of reasons.
In this article, we’ll introduce some ways to pass the time that we recommend for those sleepless nights.
We’ve gathered a variety of ideas—from things you can do in bed, to activities while you’re up, to tricks that can help lull you to sleep.
If you’re thinking, “I want to sleep but I just can’t,” or “I want to make good use of this time when I can’t sleep,” we hope you’ll find this helpful!
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- Brain-teasing game roundup
- [For Adults] Make the Most of Your Free Time! Ideas to Kill Time
- Games and activities everyone can enjoy together. A collection of fun play ideas.
- Perfect for killing time! Fun games you can easily play on LINE
- Recommended ways for girls to spend their free time
- [Killing Time] A Roundup of Fun Without Spending Money [Saving Money]
- Recommended time-killing websites to enjoy your free time
- [Play Right Away!] Exciting Recreation Games Recommended for Elementary School Students
- Recommended for upper elementary grades! Exciting indoor recreation and games
- [For Kids] Today's Recommended Recreation Idea Collection
[Starting Today!] Recommended Ways to Kill Time on Sleepless Nights (11–20)
to clean
Once you get started, cleaning is one of those things you’ll want to do thoroughly—and it’s a great way to make use of sleepless hours.
Tackling the chores you tend to put off in daily life can lift your spirits and refresh your space by changing how your room looks.
There’s a classic decluttering pitfall where you get sidetracked rereading old manga or flipping through photo albums you haven’t seen in a while, but even that can make your sleepless time enjoyable.
By the time you finish cleaning, you might even feel sleepy.
It’s a recommended way to pass the time.
Do a live stream
This is a way to spend time that’s unique to an era where social media is widespread and anyone can easily live stream from home.
Since viewers are also awake at the same time, you can probably share a meaningful experience together.
Also, if you really want to sleep but can’t, it might help to ask viewers for their recommended methods for getting better sleep.
However, keep in mind that nighttime can feel liberating, so be careful not to let the conversation heat up and make it even harder to sleep or lead to trouble.
Practice writing characters
Many people probably start wanting to improve their handwriting as adults, even if they didn’t think much about it as children.
If you often have to write by hand for work, or if you send handwritten New Year’s cards every year, it’s only natural to be concerned about how your writing looks.
Precisely because it’s hard to find time to practice in your daily routine, using sleepless moments to focus on practice can be a meaningful way to spend your time.
If you can feel yourself improving day by day, it will help you feel calmer and may even lead to better sleep, so give it a try.
Take a relaxing bath
Taking a slow, relaxing bath may be a shortcut to a good night’s sleep, especially in the colder seasons.
It promotes circulation and helps you unwind, offering many benefits, so I recommend it.
Setting aside a calming time not only aids better sleep but also helps relieve daily stress, and it’s nice that it’s easy to do at home.
However, be careful not to bring in your smartphone and stay in the bath too long, as it can make you feel unwell or drowsy in the bathroom, which can be dangerous.
Write a blog
For those who are caught up in daily life with school or work and find it hard to reflect each day, blogging is highly recommended.
If you’re exhausted from being busy yet can’t sleep, putting your situation into words can help organize your thoughts and refresh your mind.
And with feedback from readers, you might even enjoy it as a kind of lifelong activity.
If stress or anxiety is keeping you up, viewing your feelings objectively as text may help you recognize the cause—so this is a pastime idea I’d love for you to try.
Retrieval practice
Retrieval practice is a learning method in which you strengthen memory by repeatedly recalling information.
By cycling through tasks like saying a word while looking at it, recalling it without looking, recalling it again after a few seconds, and recalling it again 30 seconds later without looking, you transfer the information from short-term memory—which is quickly forgotten—to long-term memory, which you can retain for a longer period.
It’s challenging to sharpen your focus on a noisy train, but if you practice retrieval in that environment, your memory should improve significantly.
Start by trying it with simple words.
Let’s go to the imaginary city!
“Let’s Go to Imaginary Cities!” is a site where you can enjoy information about fictional cities on a map.
Each city comes with detailed settings, including place names, history, and industries, so you can experience it as if it truly existed.
These non-existent cities are richly developed, letting you explore while stimulating your imagination.
As you take in cities with cultures and developmental histories different from real ones, you’ll feel the thrill of journeying across the map.
This site, which makes you feel like you’re traveling through a fictional world, is recommended for map enthusiasts and those interested in urban development.
Utakata
Utakata is a platform where users can post and share their original tanka poems.
Users are free to compose tanka and publish them.
Posted tanka can receive likes, fostering interaction with other users and boosting motivation to create.
You can also check follower/following counts and the number of posts, helping you discover favorite authors and enjoy the response to your own tanka.
It’s appealing not only to people who already love tanka but also to those who’ve never had the chance to engage with it, allowing anyone to enjoy it casually.
By turning everyday feelings and scenes into tanka, posting them, and sharing empathy with other users, you can discover a new joy in creativity on this site.
NHK High School Course
This is a convenient site where you can learn high school subjects through archived streaming.
You can watch classes on a wide range of school subjects for free, structured to cover everything from the basics to advanced topics.
Because the lessons are in video format, they’re easy to understand and feel close to actual classroom instruction.
It’s great for review, overcoming weak areas, and studying for certification exams.
It’s suitable not only for students but also for adults looking to relearn, and you can casually study fields that interest you.
It’s a site where you can enjoy educational content when you want to deepen your knowledge or spend your free time productively.
National Land Price Map
A convenient nationwide land price map that lets you easily look up land prices across Japan.
It’s enjoyable not only for people considering real estate investment or buying a home, but also when you have some free time to explore.
Because you can compare land prices on the map, you can learn the price in your own area and the going rates in cities.
You can also check price fluctuations by comparing with past data.
For example, you can look at the price gap between Tokyo and regional cities or try predicting areas likely to increase in value in the future.
Just click on an area of interest and detailed land price information appears, letting you lose track of time as you explore.
Look up land prices in your hometown or travel destinations and enjoy making new discoveries.
In conclusion
I introduced some recommended ways to pass the time on sleepless nights—what did you think? They’re all things you can do right away, so if you feel like you can’t sleep tonight, give them a try. Just be careful not to get so caught up in them that you end up sleep-deprived!