Ask someone who sleeps well what they do to get a get a good night’s kip, and they will probably say, in some confusion, “nothing”. That’s just it: sleep does not really respond to effort. Indeed, the harder you try, the harder it can be to drop off.
Instead, try this: set your alarm for 6am. This is when you will get up, every day, for the next two weeks. Start by going to bed at 1am. If you don’t sleep, rise at 6am anyway. Repeat. Don’t nap during the day. Don’t go near your bed until 1am. The bedroom is strictly for sleeping. And don’t panic. It doesn’t really matter.
It’s hardgoing and exhausting but experts like Hugh Selsick and Colin Espie believe that narrowing the window of sleep like this can reset the sleep instinct. Gradually, you will find yourself sleeping more during your five-hour window; at this point it can be widened a little more over successive nights until it looks like a more conventional sleep pattern.