A few minutes later you are lying there staring at the ceiling, listening to your partners breathing and the clock down the hall ticking away. This is what you have been waiting for the whole day, the peaceful quietness of the house and it's all yours to enjoy.



30 minutes later and you are still lying there. You no longer care about the peacefulness throughout the house, you have forgotten about the click ticking and your partners breathing, your mind is too busy and just wont seem to slow down. There's a school excursion tomorrow; better not forget to post that letter and pay the bills; the dog is due for vaccinations; did I lock the front door before coming to bed...

WHY CAN'T I SLEEP???

You toss and turn but you just cannot get to sleep. You're partners breathing is just becoming annoying now, why can't he be awake and feel your frustrations. You start thinking about how you are going to manage all those things you have to do tomorrow when you know you are going to be exhausted. These thoughts and the tossing and turning may continue long into the night. Does that sound familiar?

Even though your partner may be blissfully unaware of how you are feeling, be assured you are not alone. It is estimated that 25 million Americans suffer from chronic insomnia.

Some causes of insomnia are:

* Depression/stress/anxiety

* Change in lifestyle

* An upcoming event

* Health issues

* Alcohol and drug abuse

* Habit

The first thing you should do is head down to your GP for a visit and have a complete physical to rule out any health related problems that may be causing your insomnia. Once you know that there is no medical problem, then you will need to take a long good look at your lifestyle and try to establish where they problem may lie.

If you are able to point out any likely triggers, then work on them to try and resolve the problem.

Once you have suffered from insomnia for a short period, it then tends to become habit. Your mind is controlling your body and if your mind is thinking that you are not going to be able to sleep, then you won't be able to.

By taking home herbal medication for a short period you should be able to start sleeping and break this habit and you should find that when you stop the medication you will still be sleeping normally.

Try to reduce the amount of stress in your life and if there are certain situations that are stressful right now then try to be strict on yourself and tell yourself that you are only allow to worry during the day. Give your mind a rest leading up to bed time. I know this is very hard to do, but it can be done. Don't do anything stimulating before bedtime - no coffee, no loud music; avoid smoking and no exercise before bed.

By getting into a good exercise routine can help to regulate your sleep cycles but just be very careful to make sure you don't exercise within two hours of bed time.

Play some relaxing music and give yourself time to 'wind down' before going to bed. Forget about what needs to happen the following day, you can deal with that in the morning. Go to bed, relax and have sweat dreams.