The first comment I received on my article on sleeplessness and snoring in the February edition of the Seaside Gazette came from my uncle Kiss.

He said that he wasn’t very impressed, as there was nothing but everyday knowledge in the article. This may well be true for him and for many more of you, but I think there is always something to be learnt, or to be reminded of, when we read about something very familiar and common to us.

Maybe all we need is a little extra knowledge at times so that we can advise somebody if they happen to mention that they, for example, are troubled with snoring.

Back to sleep! As many as 10 – 20 % of the population suffer from sleeplessness nightly. Many take a sleeping tablet, even though that should be the last thing you should do. I do not say this to make you feel bad, but I do think it is best to try to find the reason for the sleeplessness.

Sleeping tablets should ideally only be used in a crisis and for a short period of time. It is like painkillers, some people need them constantly, but more often we need them until the pain has been taken away by other methods.

Scientists have not yet been able to prove that we get sick from lack of sleep. But it is still a very dangerous situation, because of what can happen when you are tired. We are not as alert as normal and one of the most common reasons for car accidents is tired drivers falling asleep behind the wheel.

What keeps us awake at night and what can we do about it? It is very common and normal that we are unable to stop thinking of what has happened during the day, and what tasks and problems we will have the following day.

If this is familiar to you, you can try to sit down for some time before you go to bed and think about how the day has been, you can write it down and when you then go to bed, you can tell your thoughts that they should stop troubling you because you have already dealt with them.

This may take some practice, but it is absolutely possible to guide your thoughts in many more ways than we normally are aware of. Very often we are kept awake by pain, or other illnesses such as asthma, heart problems, the need to go to the toilet, anxiety or depression. In these cases treatment should be directed towards the reason.

But for us all there are some rules to follow if we want to improve our sleep pattern:

• don’t oversleep, get out of bed when you feel awake
• try to get up at the same time every day
• exercise a little every day, but not just before you go to bed, unless they are certain exercises that make you sleepy, such as yoga exercises
• stay away from coffee, tea and Coca Cola for four hours before you go to bed
• don’t go to bed hungry
• don’t use alcohol as a sleeping tablet
• sleep in a room that is quiet and with not too much light
• avoid sleeping tablets on a regular basis
• get out of bed and do something else, have a glass of water or warm milk if you cannot sleep
• don’t take problems to bed with you

From my own practice I know that reflexology and massage can improve sleep. I mentioned yoga as something one can do.

Other relaxing methods such as soft music can also be tried. Hot baths, certain foods such as bananas, cheese, nuts, milk, tuna and turkey can also help you sleep. Camomile tea has been used for a long time and the herb valeriana can be bought in tablets.