New ways to sleep so it counts

With recent research linking lack of sleep to health problem from hypertension to weight gain, there's more reason more ever to make over your sleep habit. But how? Here, expert offer some snooze tips you may not have heard before:

Let go out your worries.
Anxieties often seem magnified in the still of the night. Dealing with them can help you sleep. Just writing down worries, deadlines or to-dos before hitting the pillow can make them feel more manageable. Do whatever helps you relax.Ask your partner to give you massage. Or have sensual, not-too-athletic sex. Deep-breathing exercise, in which you focus on taking long, deep abdominal breaths, may help relieve pent-up tension (and the yawns).

Redo your bedroom
Make your bedroom more sleep-friendly. If noise from an adjacent room keeps you up, move your bed to another wall. Replace a sagging mattress and deflated pillows. And adjust the thermostat: The best sleeping temperature for most people is comfortably coll but not cold. Micheal Breus, PhD, author's 4-weeks Program to Better Sleep and Better Health, recommends 20 to 22 degree celcius.

Cut the light at nigh
Avoid bright light, which signals the brain to be alert, within two to three hours of bedtime or if you wake up during the night. Breus suggest aiming for no more than 45 to 60 watts of the light in the room when winding down before bedtime, and no more than 30 to 40 watts of indirect light when you're trying to sleep.

Follow the 20-minutes rule
If you can't fall asleep in about 20 minutes, whether at bedtime or after awakening in the night, go into another room and do something else until you get drowsy. Avoid thing required concentration such as video games, stimulation activities like cleaning. Try light reading or listening to music.