Losing sleep over it

The bad news first: even with treatment, poor sleepers and true insomniacs very seldom become the 'hit the sack and I'm out' type. Fortunately, today there is a vast amount of research, some of it at very specialized sleep clinics, on the causes of insomnia and how to deal with it. The tradition view is that worry about daily problems keeps people from enjoying a good night. More recent refinement on that says that what really keeps you up is worrying about not being able to sleep, worry so potent that just entering the bedroom sets off the alarm that says, I know I won't sleep tonight! Perhaps it's in your genes: it is now known that insomniacs tend to have higher heart rates and body temperatures than regular sleepers, so they are always 'on' and hard to turn off. What about sleeping pills? Sure, the results are quicker, but studies show that longer-lasting changes in sleep patterns happen more often with behavior modification therapy. Steps in the process: don't compensate for lost sleep by napping or turning in early; don't use the bedroom for anything else (well, almost anything else); get up and out of the room if you can't sleep, thus keeping the bedroom as your 'sleep only' domain.

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