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Ways in Better Sleep

A good night's sleep isn't always easy to come by, and here are a few other ways to promote better sleep.

Practice good "sleep hygiene." This does not mean making sure your bedding is clean! It means following good sleep habits, especially ensuring the bedroom environment is conducive to sleep. Among experts' recommendations: Use the bedroom only for sleep and sex; keep regular sleep and wake times; eliminate afternoon caffeine; banish pets (and snoring partners) from the bedroom; ensure the bedroom is a dark, cool, quiet place; and get computers and TVs out of the sleep environment, because they stimulate the brain and their light tells the body "it's daytime," disrupting the internal clock.

Break the rules when necessary. While experts' common-sense recommendations about sleep hygiene should be the first line of defense against insomnia, selectively breaking them can sometimes help, too. TV isn't recommended, for example, but a DVD or show (make it a boring one) may put some people to sleep

Develop a pre-bed relaxation ritual. To develop a nonstimulating evening ritual, you might recall what your parents did when you were young to get you in sleep mode. Or try taking a hot bath or sipping a warm cup of chamomile tea; either will raise your core body temperature, which leads to a drowsy feeling as you cool down.

Try not to self-medicate. There are antihistamines, like Benadryl, which have a sedative side effect. (The ingredient that causes drowsiness is also found in products like Tylenol PM and Advil PM.) But those medications can induce next-day grogginess—what some patients call "sleep hangovers"—and they can actually have an alerting or a disorienting effect on the elderly. Other OTC options include melatonin supplements and valerian extracts, although evidence of the effectiveness of either is slim.

Don't drink to sleep. Sure, sloshing down a little Pinot Noir will put you to sleep, but as the alcohol is metabolized by the body, it fragments sleep, which tends to cause nighttime awakenings and next-day tiredness. The misconception that alcohol helps - It doesn't.

Create a barrier between work and sleep. You want to have some sort of break from the day's stress before sleep. If you know you're going to bed at 10:30, stop your day at 10:15, or sooner if you can. Shortchanging that break can be a recipe for insomnia. Write down all the things you need to worry about on a piece of paper, and do your best to leave them behind. Whether asleep or awake, there's likely nothing you can do about them until tomorrow, anyway.

Don't "catastrophize." People who can't sleep tend to compound the problem by fretting about the consequences of their sleeplessness, like the possibility that they'll do a bad job at work and get fired.