1) A good quality eye mask can help a lot with light. (It doesn’t need to stay on all night, just long enough for you to get to sleep.) The really flimsy cheap ones don’t stay in place well, but there are a number of masks in the $20-30 range that are comfortable, padded, and block light really well.

(I got mine from http://www.dreamessentials.com/ – no association other than being a satisfied customer, but regardless of if you buy from them, they include a really useful listing of how well a given model blocks light, whether it works well for side sleepers, how thick a profile it is, etc.)

2) I’m also noise sensitive, but didn’t want to risk sleeping through my alarm. I discovered the knack while married to my ex-husband (who snored) of putting in *one* foam earplug. (I sleep on my side: it went on the side facing up when I fall asleep.) I’d bury the other ear in the pillow, but still be able to hear my alarm (a CD with soft music) when it went off.

If I rolled over in the middle of the night, and got woken up by noise, it was much less of a sleep disturbance to just roll over (so the earplug was in the exposed ear again) than to bury my head under the pillow, elbow him to roll over, etc.

Post-divorce, it works really well when the cat gets it into her head to start doing noisy things at 3am. And it works well to block normal household noise from my housemates (who pretty much all go to bed after I do) as I’m going to sleep.

Finally, I’m a huge fan of a good-sized body pillow – my lower back and shoulders are both a lot happier with me (and I reduce a lot more stress and strain over night) since I got one.