I've had a problem with sleep for about 2 years. My mind is always racing and "doing work" even during the night and I end up being conscious (but "asleep") for a good part of the night. I've kind of trained myself to do this, because I was lazy in high school and just figured out solutions to my homework right before going to sleep (so I could quickly write them down on the bus to school during the morning).
Now I'm in university and it's killing me. Reading before bed helped ease my mind for a while, meditation helped for a while, but now I'm still in the same position. I wake up frequently because of this weird "habit" and my mind never gets to rest. What should I do?
One possibility is that this is because you're working/programming late at night, basically up until the time you're going to bed (or within an hour or two of it).
I've found over the last 10 years that if I'm programming late (and really only programming, other types of work don't do this to me), and don't give myself 2-3 hours of down time before bed, my sleep is exactly as you described. My brain is running on work, it takes me a long time to fall asleep, and my night is spent drifting in and out of light sleep and work related thinking. It's pretty bad and can screw me up for days and weeks at a time.
Usually this happens because my focus is very high with late night programming (to keep me going longer), and I don't give my brain the time it needs to finish working through problems after I'm done coding. (You may be able to relate to thinking up a solution to a problem after closing your laptop, or waking up realizing there is a bug in your code. It's this type of thinking that your brain needs to finish.)
I'd suggest that if you are programming late at night, stopping 2-3 hours before you usually go to bed and do some reading or watch a movie. A few nights of that is all that it takes for my sleep to get back to normal.
I have overcame this by forcing myself to "dream". By this I mean put myself in a situation outside of my body so that I begin to think of this dream as the reality. My mind eventually turns off my local body receptors and falls into the dream. I also have a white noise in the background to help drown out all the sounds as any little sound change brings me back to reality. I hope this helps.
That sounds at least somewhat like anxiety - not trying to judge, just trying to help. I'd suggest reaching out to your university health people and describing your symptoms, they'll be able to help you.
Now I'm in university and it's killing me. Reading before bed helped ease my mind for a while, meditation helped for a while, but now I'm still in the same position. I wake up frequently because of this weird "habit" and my mind never gets to rest. What should I do?