Part 3

Serotonin encourages sleep. Eating particular foods can have the same effect. Foods like, rice, pasta or potato.

Or some people have to try to sleep in a noisy environment. Wearing earplugs can help. People put them into their ears to block out noise.

Students often find it difficult to sleep when they are studying hard. It can be the same for people starting a new job - or for people who have an especially difficult job. Or it may be that someone you love is very sick. You may worry every day about how you are going to feed your family. Sometimes it does not seem possible to stop thinking about this worry or that concern. And at the end of the day, we can often take all our worries to bed with us. And then they keep us awake.

Some people do not have any of these problems. But they still cannot sleep. Doctors sometimes give drugs to help these kind of sufferers. These can help people to get through difficult times. But they are not usually a permanent answer. If possible, it is best to discover the cause of the problem and to solve it.

Here are some suggestions that can help people to sleep.

Do something quiet and restful before going to bed.

Try not to do anything at the end of the day that involves a lot of thinking.

And try not to argue with anyone!

Try and be as calm as possible before lying down to sleep. When you lie down, let every part of your body rest completely on the bed.