Insomnia

So, ever since last week I've been having some really odd insomnia.  I'm over-anxious by nature, but this has been ridiculous.  After over a year of living alone, and being so proud of myself for it, how come NOW I'm having so much trouble sleeping through the night when I'm alone overnight?

Last week, I figured it had something to do with time-of-the-month-female-stuff.  I could hardly sleep on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night but was better by the weekend.  Then, it happened again to me last night.  I couldn't fall asleep until nearly 1:30 am, then I woke up very anxious and awake ... glanced at the clock and saw it was only just after 3:00 am.  I was tossing and turning and unable to fall asleep again until close to 4 am. Then, I woke up again from a nightmare... and it was only 5:15 am.

I gave up on my bedroom, and turned on my TV and laid on the couch with a blanket and my pillow.  I decided to try not to fret over it, which only makes it worse after all, and I ended up falling back asleep -- but close to 6 am.  Next thing you know, my alarm was going off at 7.  I was finally feeling "sleepy"... so I stayed in bed for as much time as I could without making myself late for work (though I arrived later than I do other mornings, that's for sure).

It's time now for me to try to go to sleep, and I'm already anxious over the possibility I will sleep poorly again.  That is so not going to help the situation!  I feel like I'm getting into a self-fulfilling prophecy here.  The only thing going for me is how tired I am over the loss of sleep from last night... I hope that will make a difference.

I might just cut my losses and stay on my couch all night tonight, rather than even trying my room.  I can leave the TV on quietly or put it on a sleep timer and see if it helps.  I'm just so sick of waking up in an anxious, chest-tightness, fearful, sweating state just an hour or so after I finally fall asleep.  I'm also over the night terrors I'm having.  I'm a grown up, how come living alone makes me so anxious?!  I should be able to handle this better.

I don't have caffeine at night, and other than tonight I've been trying to limit "computer time" before bed because I know they say that makes it harder to sleep (though I'm not sure that's true for me, but I've been trying it).  I've tried getting in to bed earlier and reading, but the silence is too much and I get too anxious so I usually have to put on a DVD of Friends or something, and try to settle into bed earlier.


So, I need some insomnia tips... do you ever have trouble sleeping?  How do you deal with it?  And what could possibly be the cause of this random insomnia I'm struggling with right now?!