Ok - if youre breaking the law or money laundering - then you probably can't sleep and I can tell you now - it's unlikely you'll ever find a cure till you stop doing it!

If on the other hand, if you are legitimately stressed to the hilt by work, a marriage, money issues, exams or something else - the kind of things that deprove us all of sleep, then this article is for you. There's an old saying in the Bible that a labourers sleep is the sweetest. This Im certain to be true as the times that I have labourerd - ie spent the day working with my body rather than my purely my brain.. I have always slept oh so sweetly! 

Now, what is this amazing - I won't say cure - for sleep problems that I have stumbled across and cannot belive it's never been preached or advised before. It's almost too good to be true since no matter how stressed I am, no matter how many things are going through my mind when I climb into bed, this simple proceedure always does the trick! You can't wait for me to tell you what it is I know, but forst of all I need to ask you to comit to trying my suggestion without dismissing it straight away. This REALLY DOES WORK EVERY TIME!

Right - what you need to do is go out and but a cheap stand up tape/CD player (not a personal player with headphones for reasons later discussed). Then go to the story telling section of your local music store and find some story tapes/ special interest tapes or CD's that interest you. Now stay with me as I can already feel you losing interest as I did - "what - listening to tapes in bed?!!" I hear you say!!!

THIS WILL NOT WORK WITH MUSIC TAPES!

The trick here is NOT to buy tapes that are hyper stimulating - ie music, Jerassick Park, stand up comedy, Star Wars or some roller coaster adventure. Find something that is definitely interesting, amusing and even compelling to listen too. Note: when a mother sings her baby to sleep she uses a combination of words and gentle sounds - not last night of the proms!

The big differnece between music and spoken word audio tapes is they gentle way they stear your mind away from the days issues or your worries - the things that keep you awake. When you are listening to music you don't have anything to latch onto in terms of a plot or storyline - so your mind can easily go back to the issues that are causing yu not to sleep. A spoken word tape, will gently draw you away and into the story, dialogue or scene - just enough to take your mind of getting to sleep and your stressful thoughts - but not too much to keep you awake. Then what happens is interesting - your bodies natural sleep mechanism (because you are tired) has a window to kick in. Hence I've never got to the end of a tape.

Music is different - you will find yourself putting on the music - and turning it over and playing the other side over and over. Spoken words have a kind of hypnotic effect that brings you out of stress and causes you to relax - simply because you forget what youre doing and where you are. Sometime after that point, depending on how tired you are - you will fall asleep!

In our house - we laugh about the fact that none of us knows the end of any of the dozens of tapes we have!

Volume

This is all important. First if you have a partner you don't want to keep them awake - but I guarantee you if set to the right volume, they will not find your playing CD's intrusinve - if anything they too will find it beneficial. But the other more important reason is because you want to get to sleep - not be kept awake by some daft rambling tape monologue!

And here's the best part - I HAVE YET TO REACH THE END OF ANY ONE STORY OR CD!!!!!!!!! Are you getting the point yet?

Im coming back to finish this article - suffice to say, that since I have emplyed this simple routine, I have slept soundly for two years - I CANT REMEMBER HAVING A SLEEPLESS NIGHT! Why this is not recommended by doctors I do not know. All I can assume is that like me - when it was first suggested to me - I said "pha!" - I need sleep - not story tapes! Also the idea of actually going out and buying tapes and/or a player was an arduous task - afterall it probably doesnt work anyway!

Not so - this is my 100% guaranteed best advice for people who have sleep problems. There are a few more things to consider regarding playing the listening material. To be continued...