Trying to LD is Killing My Sleep

[Tygar]

Hello all. I'm looking for suggestions for my problem. I have had trouble falling asleep and staying asleep for much of my adult life. In the past few years I have found techniques to help me fall asleep quicker (but it still takes roughly 30 - 60 minutes unless I am completely exhausted). I haven't found the solution for waking up in the night. If I wake up very briefly, don't see light, and don't activate my mind I can usually doze off pretty quickly. However, if I start thinking or see a bright light source, I could spend another 30 - 60 min trying fall back to sleep or I may not be able to fall back to sleep at all. (I've made it a habit to stop drinking an fluids 2 hours before I plan to lay down.) Dream recall and micro WBTB have been an issue for me since I started back to pursuing LDs. My typical night sleep is only about 7 hours (this is natural, I sleep approximately the same amount on the weekend...even when I really want to sleep more). Loosing even 1 hour of sleep is tough, doing this multiple nights in a row is horrible. So, waking up after a dream requires me to attempt to recall the dream. This definitely activates my mind which impacts my ability to fall back to sleep. This week I've had multiple nights where I've awoken between 3:30 am and 4:00 am and could not fall back to sleep (I wake up at 5 am). Currently I am completely exhausted. To add to this issue, waking up after my dreams is becoming a habit. So now if I wake up after any dream my mind just starts a recall attempt right away. I just can help it. This problem is the #1 reason why I stopped pursing LDing in the past. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.