Are you worried about getting sleep tonight? Perhaps you’ve not slept well for days or even weeks. If so, you may be desperate to get a good night sleep. If this is the case, you might find yourself trying hard to get to sleep.

What this will inevitably lead to is more difficulty in falling asleep. In fact studies have shown that it takes a person 3 times longer to get to sleep if they ‘try’ to fall asleep. So what can you do to improve your chances of getting sleep tonight? Well for starters, simply don’t try to sleep.

To be more precise, don’t worry about not sleeping. By consciously thinking ‘I need to sleep’ you’re only making it more difficult to do so. It’s impossible to ‘try’ or force yourself to sleep using the conscious mind. You have a better chance of sleeping if your mind is relaxed and uncluttered.

Of course this sounds a lot easier said than done. It does feel at times impossible to clear thoughts, especially if you have something on your mind that’s troubling you. The point is not to clear your thoughts, but to let them go.

By letting go of thoughts when they come, you’re not getting yourself involved with them. This won’t guarantee undisturbed sleep tonight, but it will certainly make it easy for sleep to come.

You need to prime yourself mentally and physically to increase your chances of decent sleep tonight. Your mind and body are connected. If you feel mentally tense and restless, your body will feel the same and vice versa. Imagine trying to go to sleep straight after a 100 meter dash, or watching a frightening horror movie. It would be impossible right?

Stress and anxiety are huge triggers for adrenaline, keeping you awake and restless. This only touches on the basics of why we can’t sleep, but it is often the cause for a sleepless night.

If you want to sleep tonight and sleep well for nights to come, it’s important to pay attention to your stress levels. It’s also important to pay attention to your sleep hygiene and work on regaining your natural ability to sleep by tapping into the subconscious mind. Sleeping disorders affect millions of people. But you don't have to be one of them.