My dharma brother Shinzen Young has some sage advice for sleeping here is his blog: Help for Insomnia: Yet Another use for Mindfulness.

He recommends what I call “Beditation.” If you can’t sleep than you can use the sleep window for mindfulness practice. As Shinzen points out this “rest” can be as restorative as sleep.

We simultaneously put too much and too little importance on sleep. We don’t give it the priority that it should have in our lives and yet when we do finally bed down for the night, many of us are anxious about the outcome. Sleep is the continuity of waking and if we can be mindful in our days, we can carry that attention to the process of sleep.

Your breath is always there with you in bed. Make friends with it.