• To get regular sleep, make a plan for it. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day.
• Avoid exercising at least five hours before bedtime.
• Create a relaxing bedtime ritual, like taking a hot bath with aromatherapy oils such as lavender, melissa, and clary sage.
• Get off of caffeine; it blocks the action of the brain chemical adenosine, which tells your brain to go to sleep.
• Use coffea, a homeopathic medicine derived from coffee. It can help induce sleep by calming down the nervous system when the senses seem over-stimulated. The recommended dose of coffea is three pills, with a strength of 30c, taken under the tongue.
• Take 5HTP, a compound derived from the amino acid L-tryptophan. This helps many people with insomnia by acting as a precursor to serotonin. The recommended dose is 100 milligrams one hour before bedtime.
• Take valerian root as an herbal supplement. The herb has compounds that bind to GABA receptors in the brain, exerting a calming effect. The recommended dose is 300 to 500 milligrams taken one hour before bedtime.
• If you are a woman, have your progesterone and estrogen levels checked. When women go through perimenopause, insomnia can be a sign of low progesterone, estrogen, or both. Supplemental bio-identical natural hormones can help, as well as herbal medicines that have phytoestrogenic effects, such as black cohosh, and those that have phytoprogesteronic effects, such as chaste tree berry.
• Get your adrenals tested with an Adrenal Stress Index, a saliva test that can determine what your stress hormone (cortisol) level is at different times. If your cortisol level is high at night, you won’t be able to fall asleep very well. Supplements that help regulate your sleep cycle through their actions on your adrenal glands include phosphatidylserine, a soy-based supplement that decreases cortisol at night, and Siberian ginseng, which increases your cortisol level in the morning when it should be high.
• See a practitioner of Chinese medicine to assess why you may have insomnia from an Eastern point of view. Chinese herbal medicines and acupuncture can have profound effects in the treatment of intractable insomnia.

Sleep helps you to heal and restore your body and mind. If you’ve suffered from chronic insomnia, identify and treat the underlying causes so that you can bring your body back into balance and fully experience the wonderful gift of healthy sleep.