It's been really difficult for me to get enough sleep lately, and the problem has mostly been going to bed at a decent time. What do you do to ensure that you go to sleep on time?

I stay up late quite a lot, but I have an opportunity to take a nap during daytime, it helps a lot. Sometimes I go without it for a while, but then comes a point where my body just crashes - I have to get some sleep, or I am unable to go on. Be careful, do not deprive yourself of sleep for too long!

A lot of times, I also end up taking naps, and some of them happen at night. I'll go to sleep, then wake up early in the morning so I can go through my before bed routine. It really throws off my schedule.

You need to make a concerted effort to get to bed at a reasonable hour. If you need a little relaxation try taking a hot bath and drinking a cup of chammomile tes about half an hour before you go to bed.

I know this sounds lame, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone because I know it's not the right way of dealing with it, but I will stay up all night and then I'll be exhausted and it fixes my sleeping schedule. However, I know an easier way to deal would be to not drink coffee and to not sleep as long as I do when I finally do sleep. I also am not active enough.

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-Brittany Brydahl

These past few days, I have been staying up late reading, and there are times that I just don't want to put the book down. I end up going to bed late, and the next morning, even though I want to get up early, I just can't. I desperately want to break this bad habit before January ends.

Lack of sleep has negative effects on your body. (I speak from experience) If can effect your ability to maintain a healthy weight and it can effect your ability to think and react; these are just a couple of negative effects. A doctor told me that you cannot just make up sleep in one night. It takes at least two weeks to make up for one night of lack of sleep. Set a bedtime and start to prepare for bed an hour before your bedtime. Do not do any activity within one hour of bed that may keep you awake. Television shows leave the viewer hanging on to a story line from one week to the next. The book will still be there tomorrow. :-)

Lately, I'm the exact opposite. I can't stop sleeping. I can easily sleep 12 hours and then I want to take a nap during the day. I'm sure it's because I'm not very active and everything, but it's hard to be active when you're tired all the time. All I really do lately is work online, play my Nintendo DS and watch tv lol.

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-Brittany Brydahl

Oh, I remember living like that... Staying up until 4, 5, sometimes even 6 or 7 in the morning. I was fighting depression at that time, too. I didn't mind this messed up schedule, but it was hard to keep up with "day life" since I wanted to sleep for half a day. I did what Brittany suggested - just went without sleep for the night and the next day. By the next night, I was crashing, and I easily slept through the night.

OMG we're so the same. For the past few weeks I sleep like 9pm till 8am I always skip dinner just to sleep. I don't even know why because before I used to sleep like 5am already then wake up at afternoon. >.<