…that scarce commodity that everyone wants and no one gets enough of!   Americans sleep 1 to 2 fewer hours per night than they used to, which may be the reason we’ve gotten so cranky and rude.  It may also be the reason we’ve gotten so fat – there’s a strong correlation between sleeplessness and weight gain. 
 
Then there’s the libido-boosting aspect of a good night’s sleep, aided and abetted by some help around the house.  A man fixing dinner or running the vacuum cleaner – what better foreplay is there than that?  You could say something like “Yeah, babe, I know I’m ‘not in the mood’ a lot, I just need less to do, more sleep, and more time to myself to feel sexy.  I know you have a lot to do as well.  What can we do to make time for ourselves?” 
 
Other than that lifelong negotiation, what other great tools are there for the toss-and-turners among us?   Let’s start with some things you just throw in your mouth that make you conk out.  The herbal passionflower helps if you have trouble getting to sleep, while valerian works on helping you stay asleep.  Oldie-but-goodie remedy chamomile tea contains glycine, a mild sedative and muscle relaxer that eases menstrual cramps as well.  Supplemental melatonin is not to be carelessly messed with because it is a hormone made naturally by the brain during healthy nighttime sleep.  It does help some sleep more efficiently in a low .5 mg dose 30 minutes before bed, especially if you’re trying to reset your clock after a trip to a different time zone.
 
Melatonin is part of the sleepy action in Rozerem, a prescription sleep aid that might be the place to start if you’re considering the pharma route.  It claims to “reset your body clock and help you fall asleep faster,” and doesn’t have the balance, memory, and rebound insomnia of other sleep drugs.  Other clock-resetting moves are to sleep in a dark room and avoid the early morning sun and take a late-afternoon walk to force your body to produce melatonin later in the day
 
Understand that blood pressure drugs like beta blockers and Prozac-style antidepressants can also have an effect on falling and staying asleep.  Talk to your doctor about these possibilities and whether “silent reflux” (without the usual reflux symptoms) could be keeping you up at night.  Elevating the head-end of the bed with a wedge shaped insert can help with that, and vacuuming the mattress and keeping the bedding clean cuts down on those nasty allergy-causing dust mites you see in the ads.  Seven to ten years is the lifespan of a mattress; it’s probably loaded with dust mites by that point.
 
Remember the basic lifestyle advice about sleeping – have a consistent waking and sleeping time; get rid of the TV and paperwork in bed; cover up clocks and nightlights; and run a fan, air purifier, or white noise machine like they do in hospital critical care units.  It’s the odd noise that jerks you awake, not the consistent one.  Keep restless dogs and cats out – they hate it when you put double-faced tape where they scratch on the door.