If there's nothing physically wrong, Esther offers five tips to get your sleep back on track.

1. Have a standard wake-up time. You can't always control the hour that you actually fall asleep, but you can make yourself get up at the same time every day. If you stick to that schedule, eventually you should find yourself falling asleep more easily. That's something both Leive and Huffington have been doing. And that also means that you have to get up early on weekends as well, as Leive did so painfully. Esther says your weekend wake-up time should be no more than an hour later than your regular wake-up time. "The most common night to have problems sleeping is Sunday night because you're worried about Monday and you slept in on Sunday," Esther says.

2. Make sure you have downtime before bed. Your body needs a signal that it's almost time for sleep. Most parents do this with their kids by giving them a bath, then reading them a story—a regular bedtime routine. Adults need this as well, so shut off computers and TVs at least an hour before you want to be asleep. Lowering the lights in the house helps as well; this signals your brain that it's the end of the day.

3. Avoid caffeine after noon. Yes, it's hard—especially with a Starbucks on every corner. But it takes many hours for the caffeine to work through your system and if you have a cup of coffee or tea at dinner, it will interfere with your ability to get to sleep. That also applies to soft drinks that contain caffeine—and even chocolate.

4. Watch your alcohol consumption. If you drink too close to bedtime, you will not sleep well because as you metabolize alcohol, your sleep is interrupted. Esther says you generally metabolize alcohol at a rate of about an ounce an hour. That means if you drink a four-ounce glass of wine at 8 p.m., you won't finish metabolizing it until midnight.

5. Make sleep a priority. You need to schedule sleep time just like everything else. It's not expendable.

It all sounds simple, but as Leive and Huffington have found, reforming long-held sleep habits takes real effort. Leive admits she's a little uncertain about what will happen when the month-long challenge ends. "I am sure I will have a relapse when there's a string of nights where I want to be up until 2 in the morning," she says. But, she adds, "I hope some of it will stick."

                      (来源:www.newsweek.com)