Can't sleep

I have curtains with blackout lining and a blackout blind behind that. In the summer I still wake with the dawn, but usually putting on a sleep mask works. Also have a noise machine which pumps out white noise, otherwise I wake up at any external sound and cant get back to sleep. I have a layer system of bedding, a sheet, a honeycomb cotton blanket and the lightest weight of quilt (2.5 I think). I can then throw off layers when I am too hot and put them back on when I get cold again. If things are starting to look hopeless I take Kalms Night which is fairly high strength Valerian and then try to concentrate on breathing slow and deep and emptying my mind of anything except keeping up slow and even breathing. After a run of bad nights I take melatonin, which I think is only on prescription in the UK, but can be bought at any health food store in the US where my son lives. I only take the melatonin for a couple of nights but it breaks the poor sleep pattern.

Almost always I fall straight asleep after reading for a while. Then when I wake up I think it must be time to get up - and find I've been asleep for only one hour! Sometimes I go back to sleep again, other times it takes ages. I regularly wake at either 3am or 4am, then at 5.30 after which I doze until about 6am when I make a cup of tea. I reckon I rarely get more than 4 hours continuous sleep. I moved into my own bedroom some time ago because DH sleeps heavily and used to wake me up snoring or tossing around. So there's nothing to disturb me. Some nights I hardly sleep at all. It's very wearing.

I "cheat" by putting on my "sleep bracelet" if I cannot get to sleep.

It has a crystal inside which is meant to stimulate melatonin.
It seems to work well but is very expensive to buy.

I got mine with free vouchers on a long haul flight. The duty free catalogue showed items that the vouchers could be used for. The sleep bracelet was the only item in the catalogue that I liked.

Someone told me that if your brain won't switch off then relax and just think of one word and say it over and over again, bit like the 'om' when meditating, it takes a bit of practice but it does work. I usually say THE and off i go, Zzzzzz

Lexisgranny, like me you know and understand you can choose what you think about. Some of the replies here seem to mean many people are unaware they can choose what to think about, that their thoughts are under their control.

The dark of the night when vitality is low is a period when we do react to troubling thoughts that arise unbidden. The antidote is to do what you and I do , not 'empty the mind' (whatever that means) , but deliberately concentrate our thinking on something that will not make us unhappy.

I also found counting backwards from 100 in 2s or 3s helped until I got too good at it.
I will eventually get up and have a glass of milk and some bread and butter, this usually works but not good for the expanding waistline.
I've finally found that Bee rested by Unbeelievable (available from Holland and Barrett does the trick, though it takes a couple of weeks to kick in. I now have it delivered every 3 weeks, works out much cheaper that way. When I ran out after lockdown I soon found that I couldn't get to sleep again.

Go on YouTube and search Paul McKenna sleep hypnosis, works

Beloved recommends Protea Wellness Enlightened from Amazon.

They are even suitable for vegans.