I went to my doctor once because I couldn’t sleep. She told me that I need to establish sleeping patterns; I need to follow simple sleep etiquette rules (who even knew those existed?).

-Establish a general time of going to bed. Usually, it’s between 10 and 11 for me.
-Establish a general wake up time. Seven AM on the weekdays. Weekends do not get wake up rules.
-Do not exercise or do vigorous activity 1 hour before bed time.
-Destress with something that I find relaxing and calming (i.e. Sudoku puzzles, music, writing, etc.). Try to avoid using the TV as “destresser.”
-Make the bed every day. It’s a psychological trick of relaxation to pull back the covers when entering the bed at night.
-Do not have a TV in the bedroom. It ends up mindlessly engaging your brain, which is a preventative sleeping measure, making me tired, but unable to sleep.
-Follow a nightly routine. Brush teeth, wash face, use restroom, check the front door lock, etc. It’s like training a cat to use the litter box. My mind will automatically start preparing to go rest when I have trained it to notice the nightly habits.
-Once in bed, give myself an average of 30 minutes. I should be asleep by that time. It should not take longer than that.
-If I am still tossing and turning after 30 minutes, turn on the light, and do some more relaxing things. Read a book, for example. If I continue tossing and turning, I will only make myself more frustrated, thus preventing myself from sleeping.
-If all else fails, take some sleeping pills…

Tonight, all else is failing… Man, this is frustrating.