1. Try not to fixate on the time. Move your alarm clock out of your eyeline so you don’t stress over not sleeping.
2. If you haven’t managed to get to sleep after about an hour, rather than obsess over it, get up for five minutes. People often get ’stuck in a loop’ when failing to fall asleep and getting up and moving about can help break that loop.
3. Avoid intake of stimulants such as caffeine and alcohol. If possible, eliminate them from your diet entirely but certainly avoid consuming stimulants in the hours before bedtime.
4. Restrict your bedtime activities to just sleep and sex. These days many people’s bedrooms resemble the bridge of the Starship Enterprise with TVs, radios, computers etc. All these gadgets may be convenient but your mind also associates them with work and activity. Your bedroom should be sleep center rather than a nerve center.
5. Make your bedroom as dark as possible. Invest in heavier curtains and turn off any electronics that have bright displays such as VCRs.
6. Mask any external sounds that might prevent or disturb your sleep. Use a fan or tune a radio to static. Even if it’s quiet outside, white noise can assist you in falling asleep.
7. Try to keep your bedroom at a moderate temperature - your body will find it harder to relax if the room is too hot or too cold.
8. If you haven’t slept well the night before try not to nap during the day. Napping will disrupt your sleep pattern further and confuse your system, actually making it harder to fall asleep that night.
9. Drink warm milk before going to bed. Tryptophan present in the milk works as natural sedative and helps you in getting sleep.
10. Exercise regularly. This will relax your body muscles and may give you relief from sleeplessness. Exercise frequently so that your body gets tired and ready to sleep. Don’t exercises within 3 hours of bedtime, however, as your system needs time to wind down and when hyped up will keep your mind awake.
11. You can try diet control method - having heavy lunch and maintaining three hours gap between dinner and bed time.
12. Avoid mental stress, phobia, worrying while retiring to bed.
13. Cultivate habit of getting up early and retiring to bed at decided time.
14. Your sleep depends upon the relaxation your body and mind gets. Meditation may help you to get required relaxation and gain sleep.
15. Use of oils (aromatherapy) for relaxing muscles may result in restfulness and inducing sleep.

Tip! Go to sleep and wake up at the same time everyday, even during the weekends. Some insomniacs try to sleep at any time of the day to catch up on some sleep they lost at night.

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