[blessedbreasts]

I have actually used subliminal and hypnotic sleep therapy. It helped a lot and then, I didn't have to use it anymore. I am kinda lazy sometimes, but I can sleep pretty well and actually have nice dreams. I am going to assume that you have tried the tips like relaxation, stretching, deep breathing, avoiding certain types of media, sleep/relaxation herbs, and all that. I also sleep better if I am really bundled up, no matter how hot it is. And no, having a warm body doesn't necessarily help if it is the wrong type of connection, of course.
There really is a lot that one can do to help the body rest. In fact, sometimes relaxing rest without sleep, can help. The best thing I ever did for my sleep was to stop myself from being so cranky all the time. I couldn't just keep worrying about stuff and being neurotic when it didn't do anything to help me or change my life for the better. Hahaha. That's what crazy people do. Saved! It took a lot of study and dedication and relaxation and letting go, but now, I consciously decide to be more balanced and everything else balances itself at least a little better, even if it's not just perfect all the time.
PS: I miss long spaces between periods from my youth. Sometimes, because I am so regular now, even sans BC, I feel like ugh, I just finished that! Hahaha![/u]

Very, very good tips, charr, thank you. I don't use hypnosis because it goes against my beliefs, but I have tried the other things you've mentioned. My problem is my mind, and it has been since my childhood. I've got a very ugly, evil mind that sees nothing but the bad in me and in my life and it makes me sad all the time. And it's super active (my therapist described me as "very cognitive"). So whenever I'm not distracting myself (like when it's time to go to sleep at night in a dark, quiet room), everything I've been trying to stifle all day boils up to the surface. The really frustrating thing for me is my brain has worked like this since I was really young (I have diaries from all the way back to when I was 8-years-old, and there's some heartbreaking self-hatred in them), so I can't fight it very easily. It's deeply ingrained in all my synapses. It's my natural predisposition. It's like trying not to love dogs if you've loved dogs all your life.

It doesn't help that I'm coming off of years of a very traumatizing situation that ended in my mom's death, I suppose.

Anyway, strangely, the thing that's helping me is getting to bed early and staying on my computer until right up to the moment that I feel ready to drift right off. I installed f.lux on my computer, which gets rid of blue light, and I also turn the brightness of my screen all the way down. I think staying on the computer keeps my mind distracted and then wears it down as I get sleepy so it can't produce bad thoughts (if I sleep deep enough to dream, though, it gets me then, but I hugely prefer that over lying in bed crying all night and then spending the next day bleary-eyed and shaky).

Never thought of the long space between periods as a blessing! Mine are super irregular, though, and therein lies the problem. I'll never forget the time I went to Disney World and I was expecting my period to start a few days before we left. Ha ha, nope. It decided to wait as long as possible and started promptly when we got there and literally ended when we got back home. (insert crazed laughter here) I then proceeded to not get it for 59 days. See my problem?