Sleep

[SSSdave]

Formula for not sleeping well out backpacking and $$$ what to do about it.

1) Being a creature of irregular going to sleep time and waking time over days to weeks before a trip. $$$ Before a trip make an effort to rise and wake at the same hours you will be using out backpacking.
2) Habitual everyday self medication lifestyle. Caffeinated drinks like coffee, tea, cola, in morning and alcohol, pills, weed or whatever in evenings to get to sleep. $$$ Not a few people live like this for years while never knowing how their body just might feel a whole lot better including sleeping by returning to natural rhythms going totally clean for a couple weeks.
3) Lack of physical conditioning before a trip then over strenuous day on a trail/route carrying an unfamiliar heavy weight on one's back, leaving muscles all over with much micro tears and strains. Also the unfamiliar over exertion over several hours can throw a body into all manner of chemical imbalances that one's body is not used to recovering from. Thus at night the usual mind spinning around compulsively thinking. And even a conditioned person can suffer so if they have an over exerting day. $$$ Get fit, including respiratory aerobically. Walk at least a couple miles once or twice during week before hike. Don't plan an overly strenuous itinerary.
4) Sleep researches have proven our brains are aware of sounds while sleeping but it does not wake one up unless it is something loud enough and novel. If one is used to sleeping in quiet conditions such night sounds are likely to make going to sleep more difficult. $$$ Thus stay away from camping near stream cascades. Foam ear plugs can make a significant difference in that annoyance.
5) If one is used to always sleeping on very comfortable beds in set ways like always on your back or on your side, sleeping in a sleeping bag on a pad out in the backcountry is likely to be make one think about every uncomfortable facet of the experience. $$$ On the other hand if one familiarizes sleeping in odd places (like not in a comfy bed), on less comfortable surfaces, in awkward positions like partially sitting up, your body will adapt more easily. Thus I will suggest before a trip trying to sleep on the floor of your home with that sleeping bag and pad. And I'll bet you will learn something.
6) Sleeping within hearing range of someone that snores. $$$ In a group of strangers, always ask about who snores and then do not tent near them.
7) Sharing a tent with someone other than your significant other. $$$ Decades ago as a twentysomething, learned the common strategy for reducing carrying weight in groups by sharing tents was a certain bad experience for any light sleepers like this person. Thus since on group trips, everyone brings their own tents.
8) After drinking all that water in the evening, upon waking up hours later in the wee hours, wiggling squirming laying there feeling that urge down below of nature calling. $$$ It will be better to just get up in the chilly night, grab your flashlight, unzip the tent door, slip on those boots, and donate a salty something the local marmots and deer will enjoy.
9) You ate something for dinner that your digestive track now in the wee hours cannot stop talking about and is still processing. $$$ Have a full water bottle right at hand, and drink some every time you momentarily awake that will help move it along down your plumbing system.

[Gazelle]

1/2 muscle relaxer after probably about 5000 elevation gain loss day ...no problem sleeping!

[bobby49]

In addition to SSSdave's suggestions, I would add one more. Immediately prior to leaving home for backpacking, I sleep on a firm carpeted floor for at least a couple of nights, just to adapt to a firm sleeping pad or whatever else gets used on the trip.