BB,

I know you from your WP blog. As I have said before, you spend too much time analyzing and blogging about your days. Sleep is a discipline for many of us. Cognitive stimulation is counter to getting good sleep. You NP may be contributing to your over-analyzing of everything. Life goes on. We need to learn to live with ourselves without professionals trying to tweak every little itch.

I do not go to sleep until late either. I like the lack of ambient city sounds late at night. I also need to be falling asleep before I get in bed. I need to fall back asleep flat on my back or my central sleep apnea will act up. I watch movies that do not over-stimulate so I can relax and shut down. I also need gabapentin to help by brain let go of every little sensation.
btw. I can go to sleep at 1-2 am and wake up after 6 hours without an alarm. The quality of sleep makes a big difference. I do spend the 2 hours before going to sleep preparing to sleep deeply, if I can.

The Vitamins sticky at the top also list foods to avoid. Others will add to that list. An injured brain on sleep deprivation will be an order of magnitude more symptomatic that an injured brain with good sleep. Think of getting good sleep as the best way to live a day symptom free or at least with less symptoms.

Like many with TBI or mTBI/PCS, the OCD behavior of over-analyzing can be controlling and disruptive to our lives. We can make changes. I take L-Tryptophan to help me avoid getting caught in repetitive thought processes. I can let go of ideas and take them up again later. Making BRIEF notes as placeholders to the previous day's thoughts and activities also helps me settle to sleep.

As I said, sleep takes discipline for many of us but that discipline is well worth it.

My best to you.