Mental ways of beating insomnia

1. Your body likes routine so aim to go to bed at the same time nightly. Begin winding down about an hour before you go to bed.
2. Avoid caffeine, especially from late afternoon onwards, as it has a stimulating effect for up to 6 hours.
3. Avoid using alcohol to sleep - it produces a shallow, un-restful quality of sleep.
4. Decide bed is for nothing other than sleeping (and making love) - so avoid eating, watching television, telephoning, knitting, having serious discussions, etc.
5. Keep clocks out of sight! Many people create a mini-neurosis through lying awake and checking the clock every few minutes to calculate how much sleep they are missing!
6. Never stay awake in bed for more than about 30 minutes. Have a list of boring/unpleasant tasks beside your bed. Get up and do something from this list if necessary. The idea here is to break the association between being in bed had experiencing insomnia.
7. Avoid rewarding middle-of-the-night waking with food, drink, cigarettes, etc.
8. To get better continuous sleep you may need to temporarily deprive yourself of sleep, at first. Get up a little earlier each day - till you are sleeping as you would like. Then gradually extend the length time you are in bed, once again. (For example, you might begin by getting up 15 minutes earlier every three days - while still going to bed at the same time - until eventually your mind-body "allows you" to get to sleep more quickly at night. Generally this process takes a few weeks to produce results.)
9. Avoid day-time naps. Sleep requirements vary so if you don't need a lot of sleep why not use the time constructively - study, hobby, voluntary work, etc.
10. Use your relaxation skills - before sleep or if you wake.