Turn out the lights

From CNN.com:

Can you do this? How successful are you at turning out the lights and just waiting on the sleep?

One key feature stands out:  You cannot make yourself sleep and you should not try. The harder you “work” at trying to sleep, the more elusive those sweet dreams become. What you can do is try to relax.

Now, everyone knows that sleep specialists recommend removing the TV and computer from the bedroom because these things stimulate the mind and keep people from sleeping.  But we give this advice not only because it will help relax their minds but because it will also help relax their brains.  When you are watching TV at night or using the computer or walking around your house with all the lights on, you are stimulating that part of the brain that controls your sleep/wake cycle.

Light is the single strongest cue that tells your brain it is time to get up and feed the chickens — not what you want at 2 in the morning.  Because people don’t know what a powerful stimulant light is, then they don’t realize that most of the things they do late at night when they can’t sleep, like watching TV, using the computer, or reading with a bright light, all these things just keep them up later because light turns on the brain.