Is the sleep thing hormonal? I get terrible nights when ovulating and before period (i.e twice a month for about a week at a time), waking 3-4 times inteh ngiht, hot and sweaty and thoughts whirring in my head which makes it hard to sleep.
Relaxation techniques DO help. But you ahve to actaully do them, not sit in front of the TV or read etc, You need to lie down for 30 minutes on top of quilt before you get ready for bed, and do some of the clenching whole body, one bit at a time and then relaxing it thing. This is very good. I found it helps a lot and also good for restless legs after exrecise. Stress/thoughts in head are really terrible for sleep as once you are awake in the night you cant get back to sleep until you clear the thoughts from your head. Dont spend time in the night worrying about problems. Putting them on paper till next day is better - you cant do anything about them in the middle of the night and you are a lot more use the next day if you get some sleep! This is harder than physical relaxation but writing your thoughts (even if it's just shopping lists etc) on paper then leaving them in a safe place to look at tomorrow can really help. Before you go to bed, you can even try making a list of things that stress you, and on one side put things you can do something about, and on the other all the things you cant. The ones you can resolve you can start doing them one by one. You can even pay instalments on bills with some companies especially if you do it by Direct Debit where you often save money as well. Try the Citizen's Advice Bureau for help with paying creditors/bills if you are really struggling. They are very helpful on financial problems.
Poor diet and caffiene will certanly not help. Avoid sugar, starchy foods like potatoes and white bread and pasta and caffeine as much as humanly possible. Eat lots of high quality lean protein (eggs and fish v good) and have long chain carbs like wholemeal versions of pasta, rice (brown rice) and bread and plenty of vegetables. If you are stressed your endocrine system needs all teh help it cvan get, any other stressors such as poor diet or intense/prolonged exercise will make things worse and you'll also end up with lowered immune system and getting frequent viruses and infections.
Go for a walk somewhere green if you can. Or even go and feed the ducks/birds or animals at a farm (on your own, not with kids - arrange for ex to have them whilst you go out). This is very helpful for clearing your head and making everything feel a lot more positive and can help you to start being proactive about changing the things that you can, and not just worrying about things that you can't