Get a diagnosis

Work out what’s wrong with your sleep, and if necessary, see a doctor or even a sleep clinic.  Some sleep problems such as sleep apnoea are actually quite dangerous and warrant early investigation.  Note that in the UK at least, sleep clinic waiting lists are long, and if you’re paying for your healthcare then a sleep study is expensive, but it’s generally worth telling your GP what is going on at the very least.  Keeping a sleep diary for a while (a week, a month) can be very useful.  You will want to note down when you sleep, when you doze, when you get up, when you take any meds or treatments that can affect sleep or alertness, and optionally when you eat and get exercise.  If you have sleeping partners, ask what they’ve noticed (e.g. stopping breathing during sleep, waking up with amnesia).  I’m generally going to be talking about circadian rhythm disorders, such as Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (when you’re an extreme night owl, e.g. you can’t get to sleep earlier than 4 am no matter how hard you try) and Non-24 Sleep Wake Disorder (when your body clock is running on a 25 hour or 26 hour schedule, so that you will fall asleep an hour or so later every day, which is like living with permanent jet lag), as well as general insomnia and poor sleep quality.  If you have ME, chances are that your sleep will be poor no matter what you do, but it may be possible to improve it to quite an extent.