Anxiety/Panic disorder interfearing with sleep

Hi all. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am new here to this forum and have a slew of questions on various medical conditions I have. My one for this category is...I cannot fall asleep. I have some bipolar issues, or so I was told that interfear with sleep but my anxiety and panic attacks happen mostly at night time when I know its getting close for time to go to bed. I also panic while trying to fall asleep about "silly" things. Like for example, the house catching on fire, a break-in, my brother coming to abuse me (he lives in California and I am in Massachusetts), over sleeping and missing things the next day, not waking up, etc. Do you guys have ideas on how to help this? Thanks.

Thanks for the good tips. I do need to get more exercise. I do want to lose the weight the previous psych meds helped me gain (yeah I ate the hunger with junk) and it sounds like it will help me sleep too. I do use the computer before bed to online read about medical things. Maybe I can get a book from the library instead on the topic to read. I also all summer long am most of the day in my room except when I go out because thats where the ac is and those are my quarters I rent from my parents. But I have a large room and there is a chair and coffee table that I use as my living area thats away from my bed. Its like a small studio apartment I have that is on the side of the width of the house in length and about 25 feet wide. I share a living/famil room, kitchen (except small fridge in my room for my medications that need to be in there), and bathrooms. I dont know if that is interfering or not. I only use my bed for sleep. Computer use is at the desk and tv/reading is on the over sized chair.

My anxiety effects my sleep patterns big time. For me I think as I'm going off to sleep is when all the outside, day to day distractions are gone and my mind finds all those annoying anxiety thoughts I'd pushed aside. I also often wake up during the nights from anxiety dreams. luckily it doesn't take me long to get back to sleep but it's still a broken sleep.
I found guided meditation just before I go to bed helps. I use a cd that I've put on my ipod. Your local library might have some relaxation cds. Also some meditation/relaxtion books have cds included. I found a nice relaxation cd that was meant for babies but it was great. It might take a little while to find on you like. some can be a bit annoying :)
I cut down on my caffeine too. I used to have a strong cup of tea with lots of sugar before I went to bed. Cutting it out helped me sleep better and helped me loss some weight by removing that extra sugar and the chocolate biscuits it used to have with the tea. win win!
best of luck :)