It's interesting to hear of the different things others have tried to overcome their sleeping problems. It appears that I'm not the only one to have the problem. I can kind of pin-point the beginning of my sleep problems to a particularly stressful period in my employment, During my sleep I began to dream about problems or relive difficult situations which occurred during my working day. My dreaming wakes me constantly during the night. Sometimes I can go back to sleep after 10 minutes or so, sometimes I'm awake for a few hours. Listening to talkback radio helps me - must be the constant drone of voices which distracts my thought processes. Other times I have to put the TV on and let that drown out my thoughts. Sometimes I have to get up and have a hot chocolate drink and then return to bed. Like others have mentioned - it's not the going to sleep that's the problem - it's being able to stay asleep. However, even the slightest noise or movement in the first 1/2 and hour of going to bed can mean a very difficult night. To overcome this I've moved rooms as my husband likes to go to bed later than I and then reads for a while and I found this made it almost impossible for me to continue to sleep. It would be wonderful to have a full night of sleep and wake up feeling revitalised.

It's strange how one particular period in a person's life can have such an impact even 7 or more years later. I have found that there can be triggers that begin a particularly bad sleep pattern. If you can identify the triggers I think that would be the answer. Keeping pen and paper on the bedside table to write down things that pop up in your mind and going to bed when you first begin to feel tired helps, as does a regular bed time. I've also identified being too hot seems to mean lots of dreaming, so I try to keep bedding light.

Recently I attended a sleep and hydration training session (for work) and I am trying to drink lots of water to see if that helps.