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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At That's Fit, we've discussed the importance of good sleep many times. A restful night's sleep can boost your energy, help manage stress, and can even help you maintain a healthy weight. But there are a lot of notions about good sleep that may or may not be true. To help you decipher fact from fiction, Revolution Health busts some of those sleep myths.

• Myth: Health issues have no relation to sleep. Fact: Other health problems such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and depression can lead to sleeplessness or disrupted sleep patterns.
  
• Myth: The older you get, the less sleep you need. Fact: The average adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep. Older adults may have more disturbed sleep, so a short nap during the day can help them catch up on their body's need for sleep.
• Myth: Snoring isn't harmful. Fact: While, for some people, snoring is nothing but a nuisance, it can be a sign of sleep apnea.
  

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Martha covered this last night, and it's something dear to my heart -- preventing nightmares. Many of us have experienced nightmares of some type. Stress, fear (irrational or not) and other factors all can lead to nightmares. If you're tired of the unsettling these dreams cause, what can you do to curb them?

It's hard to say that the conscious mind has control over dream types, but according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, there are things you can do to stop or greatly reduce the number of bad dreams you have. Oddly enough, many of these are simple steps -- nothing out of the ordinary here.

It's one of the best things you can do for yourself if you have nightmares -- confront the problem and deal with it without using prescription drugs or other potential semi-solutions. If you have regular nightmares, it's up to you to use a root cause approach and delete them from everyday life.

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In the search to better understand and treat sleep problems in humans scientists have turned to a group of unlikely creatures: fish.

Fish are not often thought of as animals that spend much, if any, time sleeping but like all animals they need their share of "shut eye" to stay healthy. Research has discovered that fish can suffer from insomnia just like people can, and that this is often due to a genetic difference in the brain. Experts are hopeful that this discovery will lead to a better understanding of how genetics affects our sleep patterns and problems, although as we hear so often: more research is necessary.

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Anyone who has ever had trouble sleeping knows how upsetting, irritating and frustrating it can be to lie awake watching your alarm clock tick closer and closer to the time you'll have to get up for school or work feeling exhausted, grumpy and unhappy. For some, sleeplessness is a chronic problem while for others it can be brought on by a number of issues including stress and other lifestyle factors.

On the occasions I've had trouble sleeping, I've resorted to over-the-counter, low-dose sleeping pills that were recommended by my doctor. As my own sleepless nights are fairly rare, and the pills were recommended by my family physician, I don't worry too much about taking them. If I needed the tablets on a regular basis though, I may be more inclined to try a herbal sleeping pill made with non-addictive, all-natural ingredients.

But then I read this article about how a number of over-the-counter herbal sleeping pills being sold in Canada (my homeland) contained potentially-addictive drugs, which weren't listed on the label. According to the piece, some people who took the pills experienced weeks of sleeplessness followed by depression after discontinuing use. A pretty scary thought for those believing that herbal pills are better for them than those with sleep-inducing drugs.

I think the most important thing to learn from this is that if you're having a chronic sleep problem, it is worthwhile to consult your physician about the best options available to you. That, and to make sure that you're aware of what kinds of ingredients are in any pill that you consume on a regular basis.

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So it seems many people have just given up completely on the idea of getting enough sleep every night, and have resigned themselves to being tired all the time. And some of those people get a false sense of "getting used to it" when they start to feel less tired and think they've adjusted. But the truth is that not only are these people losing out on sleep, but they're losing the ability to catch up on sleep as well. When only deprived of sleep for one night at at time the body is "extra tired" the following day and sleeps longer or deeper to make up the difference. But when the body is deprived of sleep on a regular and chronic basis it loses the ability to trigger a "make up session" and won't necessarily feel any more tired than normal -- even though the body technically needs more sleep. The body generally suffers all the same negative side-effects of sleep deprivation, only without the warning signs.

So if you think you've "adjusted" to only a few hours of sleep you are probably fooling yourself -- for the best health we all need 7-8 hours a night!

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How much sleep do you get every night? Some will answer six hours, while others stretch for a solid eight hours of sack time each night. Is there a correct answer? According to experts, there sure it.

Although it is hard for many of us to wind down after a long day of work, kids, spouses, chores and everything else, sleeping priorities are a biggie if you plan to function at close to optimum efficiency the next day.

It's been said that sleeplessness is this country's #1 health problem -- yet I rarely hear about it from the media. How is this so? Because it's seemingly boring to most of us -- but it shouldn't be. According to experts, we're sleeping 20% less than our peers did a 100 years ago. In an age where there is more and more thrust upon our daily lives than 100 years ago, that mix seems very dangerous to me. How about you?

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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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