I go to bed at the same time every night, but can't get to sleep

Go on a sleep diet. If you’re worried about not getting enough sleep, limiting the amount of time you spend in bed sounds counterintuitive. But sleep experts believe that one of the worst things you can do if you suffer from insomnia is to reinforce your associations between the bedroom and sleeplessness.

Try going to bed an hour later, when you may be tireder, and if that doesn’t work, an hour after that. Lack of sleep won’t kill you in the short term, and it could break the distressing pattern that you have established.

Check that your room is actually suited to sleep. Is it dark enough? The body responds to light and regards it as a stimulus for wakefulness, not rest.

And try hopping into a hot bath an hour before hopping into bed. According to Professor Jim Horne, sleep expert at Loughborough University, take a warm bath an hour before bed. Your body temperature drops at night, to conserve energy, which is why being too hot can keep you awake. Getting out of the warm water tricks the body into cooling down fast and makes you feel sleepy.

I always wake up in the early hours of the morning and can’t get back to sleep

If you’ve been lying awake for 15 minutes, get up. Then do a jigsaw. It’s exactly the right kind of systematic, unstimulating activity to relax your brain rather than to stimulate it. If you don’t have any jigsaws, try an online jigsaw site such as www.jigsawland.com or www.puzzlehouse.com, but an actual jigsaw is better because the act of looking downwards can make the eyelids feel heavier. If you have a lifelong phobia of jigsaws, then do the ironing or stack the dishwasher. Just don’t read a book, do a crossword or watch television.

As soon as I’m in bed, I can’t help thinking about all the things I’ve got to do, and that keeps me awake

Create a worry zone some time during the day, when you write down all the things that are niggling you, all the jobs that you have to do, and jot down an action plan for addressing them. Even if you don’t end up addressing them, this first step will help to improve your state of mind as you go to bed.

If I wake in the night, I panic that I’m not going to get back to sleep again

Repeat the word “the” to yourself. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Researchers at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Glasgow University, have examined mental strategies to help people to deal with intrusive thoughts when in a drowsy state. They have found that occupying the short term memory with a meaningless phrase blocks out competing thoughts very effectively. They recommend repeating “the” every few seconds, until you nod off again.

Listening to a bland and repetitive background noise — an electric fan, the hum of a computer, boring conversation on the radio—is a technique that works on a similar principle. It is something that your brain can focus on, without being able to get a troublesome “grip” on.

I’ve tried counting sheep, but it doesn’t work

No, studies suggest that counting sheep is too boring, allowing your mind to wander to other worries. Instead, try imagining a restful landscape, with lots of beautiful features such as waterfalls and beaches.

This takes up much more brain space than the same manky old sheep passing by, according to researchers at Oxford University.

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