With many cities under curfews, violence in the news, uncertainty about the future,

you might find yourself lying awake at night struggling to fall asleep.

Or maybe a month-long quarantine has led you to adopt a completely new sleep schedule.

Many of us are having a hard time right now getting to sleep.

After we turn off our devices, get ready for bed, climb in,

the actual act of falling asleep can feel tricky, kind of like landing a plane.

You've just got to gradually bring the brain and the body down, sort of from that altitude of wakefulness onto the hard safe landing pad of sleep at night.

That's Matthew Walker. He's a sleep researcher at UC Berkeley and the author of why we sleep.

And I told him about this little technique I used to wind down at night.

I think of it as like channeling my inner Carl Sagan.

I say to myself, Allison, you are just recycled star dust and an ever-expanding universe.

Staring at a blue dot, yeah.

Exactly.

And in a weird way, it calms me down.

I'm floating, I'm completely detached, but my way isn't the only way.

Hi, so I have a less existentially big conflicting way of getting to sleep and Allison does.

That's our producer Megan Kane.

She has a different approach.

It's so silly but I just have this little stick and it's infused with lavender and every night

I just put like a little dab on my temples and a little

under my neck and I swear to God it makes me fall asleep like instantly.

The essential oil trick. I know it's probably in my head I think it's just telling me it's time to go to bed.

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