I feel a long post/lecture coming on... (skip if you like!)
I've just recovered from over 3 years of insomnia (started when dc1 was 6 weeks). Only yesterday a friend of mine told me she's started sleeping badly and here's the message I sent her:
The book I read is here
The basic thing I got from it as the reassurance that there was nothing wrong with me except I'd got into the habit of worrying about not sleeping. And even though I often wasn't thinking about it overtly, I'd be much too aware of the feeling of being about to drop off, and would notice it, which interrupted the flow and then I'd be wide awake!
The author's quite persuasive that your body and brain want to sleep, nothing's "broken", but your mind is just that bit too anxious/aware.
So that's my summary, but the notes I made when I first read it were:
The basics/sleep hygiene:
No stimulants before bed
Be comfortable in bed (and for me, an eyemask and earplugs, which I did anyway even before I had a problem)
Relax/meditate/yoga 15 mins/day + get some exercise
Don't go to bed until sleepy
No lie-ins (as if!)
No naps
The more psychological ones:
When you can't sleep get up or at least turn light on and read/write (though she says no reading in bed but I choose to ignore that bit!)
No "crutches" to help you sleep, e.g. alcohol, sleeping tablets - this is really important actually - she says that anything like this takes away from your belief in your own natural falling asleep mechanism, which you really must have faith in. (also I found I'd only get an hour or two from a sleeping tablet, then feel groggy for ages)
Don't look at the clock in the night. This took me a while, but it's a fair point, you can get quite caught up in panicking about the time, and anyway it's how you feel the next day that's important, not the number of hours you got.
No "negative sleep talk". Again this is to restore faith in your ability to sleep normally.She says "the story you tell about your sleep comes true", so no saying you're an insomniac/dreadful sleeper, etc. Instead, affirmations like "I often sleep really well" (even if it's not true, it helps it to become true)
Also related to the last one, make no compromises for it, like refusing to stay the night away from home in case your sleep's even worse.
Stop searching for other cures, or it becomes self-perpetuating, like a part of your identity (or something like that)
Use a safety thought, like I said I'd think something like [dc1]'s at preschool for 3 hours tomorrow so that takes the pressure off, or [dh]'s at home tomorrow, or I never feel as rubbish the next day as I fear I will.
Best of luck!