ABSTRACT
Poor-quality sleep contributes to accidents, bad decisions, illness, and so on. Advice on improving sleep is readily available. Small changes to diet, bedroom environment, and so on can be very effective. This chapter suggests some other options for improving sleep quality and quantity, some chosen as most likely to work generally, others as more unusual and not widely known about. Insomnia is used as a general term for sleep difficulties, and like others comes in varying degrees of seriousness ranging from disabling to quite readily responding to relatively simple treatment. Some of the main causes of snoring are smoking, drinking alcohol and being overweight. Night cramps, usually in the legs or feet, are very painful but not usually a sign of illness. To counter them, people might try sleeping with their legs slightly raised. The chapter discusses three sleep disorders – sleep apnoea, restless legs syndrome and REM sleep behaviour disorder.
