If you have found yourself lying awake at 3am, unable to sleep, then you will empathise with the actor Kim Cattrall, who has spoken of her struggle with chronic insomnia.

The former Sex and the City star told the new issue of Radio Times that her sleep difficulties became so bad that she was forced out of a starring role on the London stage, after spending 48 hours awake.

She has tried cognitive behavioural therapy to cope. “It’s like putting on a pair of sneakers and going into your past to get a new perspective. And I was gentle with myself. So last Christmas wasn’t about friends and relations; it was a monastic experience of trying to delve.”

Many struggle with sleep. Statistics from the Great British Bedtime Report found a third of the population now get by on five to six hours sleep a night compared with 27% in 2010. And the majority of people (70%) sleep for seven hours or less. The Great British Sleep Survey in 2012 found that 25% of insomnia sufferers had lived with the condition for more than 11 years.

So what do you do if you can’t sleep? Have you developed any techniques that help you doze off? Have you consulted a doctor about the problem – and if so, did they offer any useful advice, medication or therapy? How has insomnia affected your daily life? Is it possible to function at work and at home while enduring a prolonged bout of sleeplessness? We want to hear about your experiences of insomnia, and how you beat it. Share your thoughts via the form below.