The sleep trick is something I do with my hobby projects all the time, without really deliberately coming up with it as a strategy.
By the time I get the kids in bed at night, I'm often out of steam. Sometimes I try to make some progress on a project, but I usually don't have the willpower to push through a stumbling block. After many many nights of staying up late and losing sleep trying to power through but not actually getting anything working, I finally realized it's better to just go to bed.
But I also feel sad if I go to bed early without making progress on something I'm excited about. So I started tricking myself by telling myself, "Well, you can just think about the project as you fall asleep." That's usually enough to get me in bed early.
And, lo and behold, quite often, I figure something out as I'm drifting off. Then when I wake up the next morning, I can get it implemented while I have my morning coffee. It's a really pleasant routine.
Hah! I have the same experience. When my children manage to sleep I'm too tired to do anything, so I program and think in computer problems as I fall asleep. I have to get up very early to work, so I don't have the chance to put them into practice the next morning (unless I thought of something related to work), but at least it helps a bit to cope with frustration and sadness ;)
Notebook by the bed helps. If I have an idea while drifting off, there's sometimes a concern that it'll disappear by the morning and that stops me falling asleep. So I write it down.
By the time I get the kids in bed at night, I'm often out of steam. Sometimes I try to make some progress on a project, but I usually don't have the willpower to push through a stumbling block. After many many nights of staying up late and losing sleep trying to power through but not actually getting anything working, I finally realized it's better to just go to bed.
But I also feel sad if I go to bed early without making progress on something I'm excited about. So I started tricking myself by telling myself, "Well, you can just think about the project as you fall asleep." That's usually enough to get me in bed early.
And, lo and behold, quite often, I figure something out as I'm drifting off. Then when I wake up the next morning, I can get it implemented while I have my morning coffee. It's a really pleasant routine.