A while back I went through a rough patch re sleep, what I did was put ear phones in my iPhone and listen to bird songs, on a continuous eight hour play, I stopped trying to battle with sleeping and found I was asleep very quickly and would wake up with the birds still tweeting.
Also interestingly, the birds would always wake me up and drive me crazy, with there lovely Dawn chorus, but I think I must have been desensitised by the recordings as they have so far not woken me up, and the window is wide open.
Also audio books are good for sending you off too sleep, just need to make sure the author has a calming voice.