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You go to sleep too early. Ninety percent of insomniacs hit the hay too soon, estimates Breus. It sounds counterintuitive, but staying up later signals to your body�s homeostatic system that you need more sleep, so when you do finally go to bed, you�ll conk out sooner. In cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), sleep doctors often start with your wakeup time, then count backward about six to seven hours. A 6:30 a.m. wakeup, for example, might mean bed at midnight instead 10:30 p.m. Restricting your time in bed sends a message to your body that you are more active and need the sleep when you try for it, says Colleen Carney, PhD, director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada and author of Goodnight Mind: Turn Off Your Noisy Thoughts and Get a Good Night�s Sleep. You have no set bedtime. It may be decades since you had a stories-and-warm-milk routine, but �we never really outgrow a wind-down period,� says Carney. Breus has long recommended patients start a �power-down hour�: Set an alarm for 60 minutes before you plan to go to sleep. Spend the first 20 minutes finishing up any must-dos (walking the dog, firing off a few last emails) and the next 20 minutes on sleep hygiene (showering, brushing teeth, pajamas). For the final 20 minutes, do something relaxing like meditation, gentle yoga, or reading a book. Then lights out. You underestimate how much caffeine you're getting. It�s no secret that caffeine can keep you awake, but many people mistakenly think the stimulant drug has no effect on them, says Breus. In fact, caffeine has a half-life of eight to 10 hours (meaning that eight hours after your last grande latte, half of the caffeine is still in your system), so drinking too much too late in the day may inadvertently be arresting your sleep. What�s more, caffeine metabolism slows as we get older. Your body can�t process caffeine as efficiently in your forties as it did in your twenties, so the same amount that didn�t bother you then could have an effect now. You get out of bed in the middle of the night. Even sleep experts debate whether you should get out or stay in bed when you can�t sleep. Breus makes this helpful distinction: �Don�t worry about the difference between resting and sleeping.� If you�re awake in bed, but feel relaxed and peaceful, it�s perfectly fine to lie there and wait to fall back asleep. He recommends counting backward from 300 by 3s to bring on drowsiness. This may be better than automatically jumping out of bed the minute you find yourself awake, which only arouses you more. You overstimulate in the middle of the night. If you�re in bed, anxious, and your mind is running a million miles a minute, you�re better off getting out of bed. But what you do next is key to ultimately falling back asleep. Stay away from anything too stimulating, like checking email or social media, says Carney. Pick an activity you look forward to�like knitting, or reading a novel you�re into�to help minimize the anxiety that many people feel during episodes of insomnia.