Sleep Troubles?

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I have had sleeping problems off and on my whole life. Right now I am having sleeping troubles and have been for the past few years now. I will stay up and get over tired and have a hard time getting to sleep and my my thoughts keep me up. I tried going to bed earlier last night but it took me a few hours to get to sleep because my brain wanted to stay up while my eyes were sore.

I'm OK with sleeping. It's a god-send really, because it's a good chance to escape all my worries and just rest for some hours a night.

But I've found I can sleep better when:-

-I have the window open just slightly, so it lets in a cool breeze, and I remember to switch my radiator off in the winter by about 6.30 in the evening so my room can cool down. I find I can sleep much better in a cool room, rather than a hot stuffy room.

-I have milk or cheese before I go to bed. I find it relaxes me.

-I watch a DVD before I go to sleep, because I find that getting to bed and trying to go straight to sleep doesn't work on me. I need to wind down first, otherwise I find myself falling asleep quicker than normal then waking up as quick as I fell asleep, which seems to confuse my body clock and keeps me wide awake for hours after that.

-I play games in my head when comfortable in bed, like thinking of a nursery rhyme and counting all the A's in it, then all the B's, then all the C's, and so on. Or I count things in places what I know well, like all the bus stops on my bus route or all the bells in my school I went to, etc. It often relaxes my mind and keeps out all the bad thoughts. I fall asleep much easier then.

Not sure if any of these tips would work on anyone else, but they work on me. Sometimes I get a night when I can't sleep whatever I do, but generally I follow these tips and it helps me to sleep.

Once I fall asleep I sleep like a hibernating bear. The only problem I have is actually wanting to go to bed. I don't usually get tired until 1-3 am, but I have to get up at 6 am on weekdays. Going to bed that late wouldn't be healthy because I want more than 3-5 hours of sleep per night. I also sleep less when I'm stressed or excited about something.

A little side note depression and sleep deprived go hand and hand.
Same goes for pain and sleep deprivation.
They are vicious circles.

Nope. Can't sleep well.

Actually, I'm up right now with insomnia. Have been really acting weird. Tried doing some algebra problems to make my mind tired...instead of making my mind tired, it calmed me down. I find the pattern in algebra soothing. So now, I think I can go to sleep.

Maybe.

I have had difficulties with sleep for most of my adult life, and at least part of my childhood. It takes me several hours to be ready to go to sleep even on the rare occasion that I am not stressing out about something. Usually I need to relax after work and do research on something in order to put my mind at rest. It doesn't help that I don't get home until 1am many nights either. Tonight I will probably not fall asleep until between 5 and 7am.