Need advice on sorting out my sleep pattern

Hi there!

My sleeping pattern got rather messed up last year, and I'm looking to put it back on track and keep it consistent.

For a while (but I can't remember how), I was sleeping around 12am on the dot and having three dreams in one night. Things have got rather bad again and now I'm getting rather desperate to fix it.

I'm always in bed at 11/12am, ready to sleep. However, most nights I don't fall asleep until 3am/4am. If it's a really bad night, then I could be dealing with night terrors, breathing problems brought on my acid reflux or just lying there awake until 5am/6am. I take the Kalms for the night terrors and medication for my acid reflux, but sometimes they still bother me.

I don't want to take sleeping pills, but things are starting to get rather ridiculous - so much so that, when I was at friends and had to do an all-nighter, I didn't start feeling the need to sleep until 7am. :(

Research the topic of "sleep hygiene". Basically, you want to take a comprehensive look at all the things that influence your sleep and address them all. Sound, light, diet, caffeine, sugar, exercise, habits, schedule, etc. You'll find a lot on the internet on that subject, but let me suggest a one unusual thing that seems counter-intuitive at first:

If you can't sleep, don't lay in bed. If 20 minutes pass and you haven't fallen asleep, get up and do something else, like reading. The reason is that laying awake in bed reinforces a bad habit. You want your bed to be associated with sleep and only sleep. Don't eat in bed. Don't watch TV in bed. Don't read in bed. The bed is for sleep only and if you can't sleep then move somewhere else.