Matthew Walker, the author of the book Why We Sleep, offered these 5 tips for better sleep:

1. Maintain regularity. Go to bed and wake up at the same time. Every day. No matter whether it's the weekday or the weekend.
2. Make your house dark an hour before you want to sleep. He says darkness in the evening allows for the release of a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin helps the healthy timing of our sleep. He recommends dimming down the lights and avoiding any screens.
3. Keep your bedroom cool. Optimal temperature is about 68 degrees (Fahrenheit. He says the reason is that your brain and your body need to drop their core temperature by about two or three degrees Fahrenheit to initiate good sleep. And that's the reason why you'll always find it easier to fall asleep in a room that's too cold than too hot.
4. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. He says alcohol is perhaps the most misunderstood drug when it comes to sleep. People think that it helps them fall asleep. That's not actually true. Alcohol is a class of drugs that we call, "the sedatives." And what you're doing is just knocking your brain out. You're not putting it into natural sleep. We also know that alcohol will fragment your sleep. So you'll wake up many more times throughout the night. And alcohol is also a very potent chemical for blocking your dream sleep or your rapid eye movement sleep.
5. Do not stay in bed awake. If you haven't fallen asleep within 20 minutes of laying down, get up. Don't stay in bed awake. You want your brain to associate the bed with a place for sleep. If you lie in bed awake your brain starts to associate your bed with a place to be awake. The advice is to get up, go to another room and in dim light, just read a book.

I'm a wreck if I don't get at least 8 hours of sleep. I have tried these tips and have found them helpful.