I had been having a regular pattern of sleep for a long time. As long as I could remember in fact. Then slowly, almost without me noticing, at first anyway, it began to change. I did not do anything about it for a long time. I came to accept it without question, and never resorted to taking sleeping pills or drugs of any kind, to try and get more sleep.

Instead, I turned my attention to more natural solutions for getting to sleep. The subtle change in my sleep pattern I started to write about above, was that I was sleeping for less time each night.

When this kind of change happens over, say a month or so, then you know that it is probably a lasting change. As I say, I accepted what happened without question, for a time. Then I realised there might be something I could do about it, so I started to keep a sleep diary.

I read somewhere about the benefits of keeping a sleep diary so I thought I would try it. You don't have to keep writing the diary forever. Just a months worth of information will give you a lot of feedback into what the probable causes of your insomnia are.

If the concept of a sleep diary is new to you, you might not know what kind of things to write about. Here are some examples of the entries I make each day. I make a morning entry and a night time entry.

In the morning, I write down my impressions of the night's sleep that I have just had. I note down how many times I woke up during the night, and how long it took me to get back to sleep. Was I too hot in bed? I write down how long it took me to get to sleep when I first went to bed, and how I woke up this morning, that is, naturally or via the alarm clock.

Some examples for the bedtime entry in my sleep diary are: when did I last eat before going to bed, and when was my last cup of tea or coffee? I write the time down. Was I more or less tired than usual during the day, and I write down how much tea or coffee I consumed that day.

Since using a sleep diary I have gained valuable insights into my pattern of sleep, and by using some simple analysis I have been able to make some changes to my lifestyle which have definitely helped me to fall asleep faster .