No one says it’s easy to get enough sleep, what with demands of job and family, a desire for some semblance of a social life and endless temptations of the night. But experts offer some tips:

¢ Take a nap to help catch up on missed sleep. There’s a reason that 3 p.m. is international siesta time: People need the rest. But be mindful of the time you snooze. A short nap should be no longer than 45 minutes; any longer and you’ll be in deep sleep, waking up groggy and feeling even worse than before you napped. A nap of around 90 minutes could put you in REM, and waking could be a startling, heart-pounding experience. If you nap longer than 45 minutes, go for two hours to get past the REM cycle.

¢ If you have a long commute, spring for a hotel room near the workplace one or two nights a week, and go to bed early, advises Ralph Downey III, director of the Loma Linda University Medical Center’s Sleep Disorders Center.

¢ Sleep in on the weekend – both days. “Our early data show that after a week of four hours of sleep a night, you need nine to 10 hours on the weekend to have any hope of recovery,” says David Dinges, chief of the division of sleep and chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “And one night alone doesn’t fully recover you.”

¢ Prepare for bed by spending 15 minutes or so in dim light, in a quiet room. “You have to slow down before you stop,” says Rubin R. Naiman, psychologist and author of “Healing Night: The Science and Spirit of Sleeping, Dreaming, and Awakening.”

¢ Remember that milk can help you sleep, caffeine interferes with sleep, and alcohol, while it might help you fall asleep, can interfere with your ability to stay asleep.

¢ If you’re not getting enough sleep because of an inability to fall asleep, talk to your doctor about a sleep study and treatments.

¢ Bite the bullet. Go to bed 45 minutes or an hour earlier.

– Los Angeles Times