Sometimes not being able to sleep is organic in nature. Something in your body could be preventing it. It could be a food that is a stimulant or it could be a lack of sleep chemicals that your body makes.
At other times, it could be psychological and or physical. If you have sleep apnea, your sleep may not be as good as it could be. If you have stress and worries, these could prevent you from sleeping.
Here are three tips to help if the lack of sleep is not for biological reasons.
Relaxation. This comes from Dr. Alex Merklinger back in the 1970′s. Start by imagining that your relaxing your feet. Think about your feet and that for the rest of your sleep time they will be resting. (Think about it using the same words here.)
Then relax your legs. Imagine them laying on the beach or what ever relaxing thing they might do. Next imagine like a wave, the relaxation is taking over your torso. Slowly it works its way up and over flowing down the arms and to the hands. Finally, as the relaxation gets up to your head, you feel each part starting to relax. Mouth, nose, eyes, brain, even your hair starts to relax.
As you do this, like counting sheep, your focus is on relaxation and your letting go of the things in your brain.
Z Tracking Eye Movement. Hop over to Speechmastery.com and on the Stress Reducers for Public Speakers page…Scroll down to the Z Track Eye Movement / EMI subheading.
Once you use this technique, (note: please do it sitting down, preferably alone so people do not think your losing your mind) do this just prior to going to sleep.
On completion (you may feel a bit of a buzz or a bit dizzy) then start imagining going into a real sleep.
Try it, it really works.
Sweet Sleep Word Focus. Think of a word or phrase that you would associate with sweet sleep. It could be a thing like “teddy bears” or it could be a place like “the beach” or it could be a phrase “sitting on the dock on the bay.”
Once you have the word or phrase, lightly pinch the index finger against the thumb on both hands. (I learned this from Dr. Merklinger too.) Take a deep breath and as you exhale, say the word or phrase. As you say the word, imagine being there. As you imagine your body being there, imagine all of your troubles are behind you and you only have that word or place to look forward to.
Good health to you, sleep tight, good night.