Some days no matter how late it is, you toss and turn in your bed unable to fall asleep. When counting sheep or drinking warm milk don’t help, when you are so tired you can’t doze off, or maybe you’re not tired enough even though it’s well past your usual bedtime, you can either try to close your eyes and hope sleep is not far away, or you can use that time to do something more constructive than just kick down your sheets.

Sooner or later you will fall asleep, so forcing yourself to stay in bed is not always the right thing to do. Sure you have to get up the next morning, but it’s not going to be easier just because you lay in bed for four hours with your eyes wide open and your mind racing. You might as well do something you’ve been putting off for weeks due to the lack of time. Make yourself a cup of cocoa and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on warmed up pita bread, sit in front of your graphics tablet and finally select photos you need to get printed; open your closet and get rid of the clothes you haven’t worn in years; finish cataloguing your books or DVDs; arrange your CDs in alphabetical order. Do something simple and monotonous, requiring little effort from you.

When your stomach is full but not too heavy, your mind trails off towards a simple task at hand and your body gets calm performing easy movements, you’ll notice your eyes will start closing in the middle of what you’re doing, and if you just take that moment to go to bed, you’ll be able to fall asleep pretty much right away and sleep calm through the rest of the night. And the next morning you’ll be refreshed more than you would be if you stayed in bed kicking, tossing and turning, trying to force yourself to sleep.