Difficulty sleeping - advice?

[Hannnnnnnxo]

My sleeping pattern is awful - I don’t feel sleepy until 6am. From the hours of 11pm onwards I’m wide awake. I’m v tired when I start the morning, or on the odd day that I lie in i get up at 1pm!

I have had the last week off of work, so my schedule has been all over the place with Christmas. Before this, I was falling asleep at like 2am, waking up at 6am and then having a late evening nap after work.

Was hoping I would return to a normal sleeping pattern this week but it’s actually worse! So far I have tried taking Nytol herbal tablets, wearing a eye mask, wearing comfy pjs, pillow sprays, getting ready for bed at 10pm, turning all lights/devices off. I have also tried playing sleep music on YouTube. I just lie awake feeling hot and thinking about random things

Have you tried anything consistently for a couple of weeks? Do you set an alarm to make sure you get up at the same time every day? Tried melatonin?

There was a program on the BBC recently. They were talking to a nobel prize winning sleep expert. According to him you reset your body clock by mimicking the effect that sunlight has. So to get to sleep earlier you have to trick your brain into thinking the sun is setting and to get up earlier trick it into thinking it's sunrise.

So in the evening or from mid afternoon you have to cut out all blue light. You can get orange/yellow glasses that do this. Then in the morning get as much blue light as you can. Get out in the sun or use a daylight lamp.

My advice is to force yourself to loose the late evening nap. Do not allow yourself to go to bed until say 11:00pm, then try to read a book for an hour. Hopefully it will be too hard and you will drop off :) Also set an alarm.

Plus have blackout blinds, a coolish bedroom and a comfortable bed.