I've been reading a lot of articles and books lately on improving life and getting what I want out of it.

One essential part of the fitness articles I keep reading is getting a good night's sleep.

So, how does one go about getting a good night's sleep? The articles define a good night's sleep as waking up in the morning fully rested and without the aid of an alarm.

Fair enough, but what is someone like myself to do? I've slept through complete days before. Seriously, one time when I was living in Phoenix, I went to bed on Monday night and woke up on Wednesday morning... thinking it was Tuesday all day.

My rhythms don't seem to have any. I'll get through a couple of days where I bounce out of bed at 6 a.m. and then that third day I'll sleep in and find I'm in desperate need of a nap all day. Even if I go to bed at the same time each evening and exert myself in similar ways each day.

What is the best way to fight off the irresistable allure of that powernap. For years and years now, I've slept better in a ten-minute mid-afternoon powernap than eight hours of sleep at night.

Also, my mind works best during that period from right after sundown to right before sunup. How do I get that focus transferred to the daylight hours when I can actually put that resource to good use? And how do I shut that down so my racing mind doesn't keep me awake for hours on end?

There is just so much to getting that "good night's sleep," but there doesn't seem to be a lot of advice out there.

I suppose there are some things I may not be able to figure out on my own. It seems like when I'm on the verge of figuring it out, continuing to do the same thing begins to fail.

Do other people have problems with this? How do they overcome them? Certainly there must be a way!

What i'm listening to:

Open Your Arms
Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie
Good Deeds and Dirty Rags