Do you have trouble sleeping sometimes? Yeah. Me too. Standard recommendations for getting a good night's rest include going to bed at the same time each night, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bed, exercising regularly, and avoiding daytime naps. It's also good to make your bedroom a restful environment -- not for working or other activities, just for sleeping. Also, avoid using the computer and watching TV just before bed.

But what works for one person, doesn't work for everyone. In my case, it's almost necessary to sleep with the TV on. The main reason I can't sleep at night is I just can't turn my brain off enough to rest. Leaving the TV set on some old re-runs allows me to distract myself enough from worrying but yet not pay too much attention. That way, I'm able to get to sleep. It's odd, and it's completely opposite of the typical suggestions, but it's what works for me.

BBC Health users submitted some tips for beating insomnia. The tips include playing Sudoku, counting backward from 300, and writing down everything that's on your mind. They certainly aren't the most common recommendations, but they must work for the people who sent in the idea. How about you? What are your tips for a better night's sleep?

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"Hi. My name is Maggie and I have insomnia." There's got to be a support group for insomniacs somewhere, right? My guess is they meet at 3 a.m.

I just recently had a bad bout of insomnia where I was only getting an hour or two of sleep a night. My sleep troubles tend to come in fits and starts, however, so the bad stretch has ended and I'm back to sleeping more normally. I do notice that when I'm sleep deprived, my son's behavior changes. I'm less energetic and perhaps a bit shorter-tempered and he starts to react to that. According to a recent study, adolescents can be greatly affected by a parent's insomnia. Not only are the adolescents more prone to insomnia themselves, they're more likely to feel depressed and suicidal.

In the study, nearly 800 adolescents completed a questionnaire. Some of the children had parents with insomnia, others did not. Those who had a parent with a sleep disorder were more than three times as likely to have a sleep disorder themselves. More alarmingly, 17% of children who had a parent with insomnia reported suicidal ideations -- 11.7% more than children who didn't have a parent with insomnia.

To learn more about insomnia, hop over to AOL Body.

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I struggle with bouts of insomnia. Right now I'm in a phase where, as exhausted as I am, I'm up through all hours of the night. Then, after I finally catch a few hours of sleep I wake up and walk through the day like a zombie. It's a crossroads of sorts; I'm either going to snap out of it and get back to my normal sleep pattern or I'm going to go into what I call "full-fledged insomnia" and get to the point where I'm not tired at all and can stay up all day and night. It's a frustrating and unhealthy disorder that seeps into all corners of your life. Several years ago my doctor prescribed sleep meds for me, but I had an unusual and uncomfortable reaction. Though my doctor assures me there are other medications that would work better for me, I've been scared of trying them. I choose to manage my insomnia by environment, exercise, and diet. Usually it works, though like right now my insomnia still can rear its ugly head from time to time.

Many celebrities have fessed up to having insomnia, too. With their fast-paced and high-stress lives, it's no wonder. Most recently, Heath Ledger died from an accidental overdose of a combination of sleep meds, an antihistamine, and two pain relievers. In the weeks prior to his death he had openly discussed how desperate he was for sleep.

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I've struggled with sleep problems my whole life, and am certainly no stranger to bouts of insomnia. Not sleeping is more than a nuisance -- it can be overwhelmingly difficult to deal with, and it can impact every aspect of your life. So when it comes to sleep tips, I can assure you, I've tried them all. If you're having trouble getting your zzzs in, consider these steps:

• Eat dinner a few hours before bed, and don't eat too much. It's hard to sleep when you body is digesting and your stomach is uncomfortably full. And eating a nutritious diet never hurt either.
  
• Don't drink caffeine after 3pm.
  
• Don't nap -- go for a walk instead, and go to bed a bit earlier. If you must nap, make sure you nap before 3pm.
  
• Get some sort of exercise every day. This was key for me -- I rarely have trouble sleeping when I work out, but when I don't, I feel like I have extra energy at bed time.

Millions of people have sleep troubles -- myself included. But if you're someone who's not quite an insomniac, but you still have trouble putting all the stress of the day aside when you go to bed and instead spend those precious hours tossing and turning, you might just be a semi-somniac, according to the Daily Mail.

In fact, I would venture a guess that the majority of people are semi-somniacs. As the article says, if you gathered a room full of hundreds of people and asked how many of them felt really refreshed and rested, only a handful would raise their hand. Since so many people are not getting enough sleep, it might seem normal to you, and not a big deal. But consider this: in Britain, it's estimated that semi-somnia will cost the healthcare system £290 Million. That sounds like a mighty big problem to me.

So what to do? Put aside at least 8 hours for sleep. What about if you can't fall asleep when you're there? Here's some advice.

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Trouble sleeping? It's a huge problem affecting a lot of people every night. If you are someone who has problems with getting good shut-eye you've probably tried all kinds of things like adjusting your schedule and even medications. But have you ever tried a new mattress? Or even just taken a close look at how you're positioning yourself in bed?

One expert was quoted in this article saying "Most people don't know how poor their sleep is until they get a good mattress." So what is a good mattress? It's all about comfort and support, with firmer being better. The acronym SLEEP is a good way to remember how to shop: Select a mattress, Lie down on it, Evaluate how comfy and supportive it is, Educate yourself on it and what else is out there, and make sure you involve your Partner so they're comfy too.

There are all kinds of approaches to getting better sleep, and I think it's a combination of things for most people. But a new mattress is probably overdue for most of us, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to replace it.

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Suffer from insomnia? Popping prescription sleep aids, or maybe Tylenol PM's, on a regular basis? The answer may not be in medication, but therapy instead.

Researchers in Canada spent some time compiling and comparing the results of 37 different sleep studies. Of the thousands of adult insomniacs studied, their conditions varied from legitimate diagnosed causes to sleeplessness for unknown reasons. The good news is that all groups appeared to benefit, at least a little, from sleep therapies -- some of which are as simple as keeping a sleep diary and getting up at the same time every morning. Even the majority of people who had been relying heavily on prescribed medications were able to cut back.

Obviously there is no known "across the board" cure for insomnia, but it's encouraging that a particular strategy can have such widespread success. Especially when the list of sleep strategies looks so easy to try.

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