I used to have tremendous trouble falling and staying asleep. About 7 years ago, I participated in a sleep study at the Univ. of Florida. Learned some strategies, specific to me, that have helped immensely. If there is any kind of program like that in your area, I highly recommend it.
It's worth looking into. Good luck.

i prefer the sound of a fan best, but somekind of white noise is nice usually. i can sleep in a moment's notice.

I generally fall asleep pretty quickly, but I don't seem to sleep well through the night. I'm rarely rested by the next morning. I'd do better to get to bed earlier and to get more exercise, I'm sure, but nothing really seems to help a significant amount. My deepest sleep seems to come closer to morning, after daylight, but that's when I need to be up and at 'em. I was told years ago that natural sleep cycles tend to shift backward as people get older, but it hasn't happened for me (and, if anything, it's been the reverse).

I wake up with back pain and need to change positions.
I had a sleep study done this last Tuesday, I have severe Sleep Apnea.
I don't how much my sleep will improve wearing a CPAP mask.

I lose alot of sleep due to stress, my brother has been battling cancer for a year now, after having won my own battle with it. It's a major trigger for me, and due to this being his last chance to survive, it's also been heart breaking..my sleep hasn't been restful at all.

Sleep? WTF is that? I'm a light sleeper and wake up often. I usually sleep about 4 hours.

I have erratic sleep. Often I'm awake again after 2 hours or at least after 4 hours. I get up and pee coz I have to. It's not just a feeling. My doc is offering me a sedation drug. Sorry. I could not stand to be sedated. The saving grace for me is that I fall to sleep very quickly.

I have to listen to podcasts or something, stand up. If I’m absolutely exhausted I can fall asleep texting my girlfriend.

Can usually get to sleep. Staying asleep is my problem. 3 to 4 hours in I wake up with crap running ninety miles an hour through my head. Takes a while to get back to sleep.

I don't sleep a lot..wish i could..

I completely clear my head by concentrating on nothing but my breathing. Slow breath in. Slow breath out. I take a Benadryl at bedtime. And keep the room cool and the bed warm.

It's both. Some days I'll sleep for... well... days. Other days I can't sleep at all and struggle to keep my mind from running away with me. I'm to the point where I want to drink a gallon of NyQuil just so I can get some sleep.

I'm lucky, I guess. I sleep fairly easily, especially when I've managed to get enough movement during the day. I try to up the likelihood by not consuming cafeine after about 2pm and by getting off my computer (or any screen) at least a couple of hours before I go to bed. (This forum has made me worse at that than I've been in a coupla years).

My sleep isn't always on a tight schedule, but I can always sleep. Typically, the quieter the room, the better, but I can sleep well with a party going on around me if I need to.

I get about 6 hours of sleep a night, I focus on my position so I don’t wake up hurting. I think I get enough sleep to function, but I’ve had times of insomnia. I keep an air filter on for white noise and make sure I tie up lose ends before going to bed.

You may think your circadian clock means you have to sleep 8 hours in a row every night or something is wrong. You don't. The problem is you are forced to be awake when your brain wants to sleep. Now that I'm retired I take 1/2 to three hour naps whenever I want to and feel great all the time. Basically society is forcing you into what it wants you to do. Thank the pharma industry there's a pill for that.

I need the TV on to fall asleep. I need something to focus on to quite my mind enough.

I've been told that within minutes of my head hitting my pillow I'm out like the lights. I don't really have any advice because it comes naturally for me that I sleep well.

I have little trouble sleeping, I make sure I have a coffee after dinner, and read for an hour in bed, then I drop.

Dark, cool, quiet, try to not think about stressful things (like some of the things on this site - which I am guilty of submitting). I found an interesting trick; try to remember a dream an then concentrate on it and sleep seems to come quicker.

Sleep is not a habit for me I consider it a luxury epically when I feel rested after I wake. It is an absolute absurd part of life if it were possible I would invent an off switch so as my chemical make could be shut off for a period of time. I never stop thinking from wake to wake. I have had several surgeries one in particular I remember the anesthesia flowing up my arm as like the mirror in the movie The Matrix I long to have that feeling every sleepless night I have.

I sleep erratically too, but I fall asleep within minutes of getting in bed.

I use to have problems, especially, if I knew I needed to get up and do something within a specific timeline. But a few weeks ago, I started taking fast dissolving Melatonin about 20 min before I go to bed. I'm asleep within 10-15 mins. When it could have taken 30-90 minutes before, and if I woke up in the night, another 30-60 minutes to fall back to sleep. Now, no problems. It's the only thing I've changed, so it must be working.

I don't tend to get sleepy until late, but then fall right asleep. I almost always wake back up as I fall asleep due to a nasty hallucination side effect of my migraine meds. Under the best circumstances, I'll then deep sleep 4-6 hours. After that, I cat nap, dreaming a lot, until rising.

Being required to get up early for work is hugely painful. My productive time is late afternoon into night. Sleeping between 1-3AM and 10AM is most natural for me.

I've had trouble sleeping ever since puberty, so I can relate. My personal bedtime routine isn't always that routine since I'm in grad school and working full-time right now, but one thing that DOES help me is the sleep podcast I listen to. Sleep With Me (hosted by Drew Ackerman) has really helped me quiet down my racing thoughts and postpone my worrying. Plus, it's just super cute and entertaining. I definitely recommend it to anyone who has sleep issues.