The specialist said keep regular hours of waking up and going to bed is important for those who struggle to get to sleep, including on non-work days. Most important was not going to bed until one is sleepy. There is a difference between sleepy and fatigued. Fatigued is a body issue. Sleepy is a neuro issue.

Some need energy to wake up. A glass of orange juice as soon as one wakes can make a big difference. If one does not start the wake cycle but instead is groggy, the process of a coming sleep cycle is messed up.

Night owls and early birds is a genetic condition. A night owl will struggle to wake at 6 AM. An early bird will struggle to stay up late or sleep in. So, learning to recognize and work with this rhythm is important. But, we can mess up the system by our activity patterns. Social/job pressures can strain getting good sleep without being disciplined.

Some important concepts are:
Get up at the same time each day about 14 to 16 hours before bed time.
Getting up sets the brain for when to go to sleep.
If you stay up late on a Friday night, get up at the same time anyway.
Don't get in bed until you are sleepy. You should be able to fall asleep in 5 to 10 minutes, 30 minutes max. If you toss trying to fall asleep, get up and start the sleepy process again. The anxiety of trying to fall asleep will disrupt proper sleep.
Don't engage in cognitive activity the last hour of wakefulness. Non-stimulating media/TV/music. No smart phones during this time.
Nothing more than short casual conversations in the last hour or two.
Complete any tasks an hour before bed, including getting the bedroom ready, getting ready for bed, pajamas/hygiene, turning lights down/off, writing down notes of anything that needs attention the next day,
Have everything ready so when you feel the sleepy eyes, you can climb in bed and fall asleep.
If there are going to be bedroom 'activities' start them in time to go to sleep at the targeted time.

I know I have forgotten some of what she said but these are the most important.

The challenge is people who have suffered a brain trauma have a much greater need for proper sleep stages/cycles. Without REM and slow wave sleep cycles, the brain develops a toxic environment. The compromised brain has much less tolerance for this condition.

I did not understand these concept but developed such a system because I had to be able to go to sleep when I got in bed or I would toss and turn and end up in a poor neck position and my Central Sleep Apnea would rear its ugly head. My father died from dementia caused by 40 years of Central Sleep Apnea

I start planning for sleep at 10:00 PM and target falling asleep at 1:00 AM. I am usually asleep in less than 5 minutes. I wake without an alarm at 8:00 am feeling refreshed. If I do not fall asleep quickly, I get up until I have the sleep feeling again. Even when it takes an hour to reset the sleepy feeling and fall asleep, I tend to wake at the same 8:00 AM time. It is better for me to get the quality shorter sleep than longer restless sleep. This is to be expected.

For some of us, sleep becomes a survival discipline. It is for me. Until I learned these concepts, I was fearful of sleep because I had such chronic problems with Central Sleep Apnea. One night of sleep apnea would mess up my sleep for days. A catch-22 of can't get good sleep because I was not sleeping good.

I hope this helps.