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My younger sister suffered from a condition for years called Dream Anxiety Disorder, more commonly known as nightmare disorder. She had difficulty staying asleep because of the condition and suffered from a number of other issues as a result.

The worst aspect of a nightmare disorder is the fact that most people actually feel as if their life is at risk. I remember when my sister was struggling with the disorder, she would cry out and move her arms and legs frantically, and then wake up and would be gasping for breath. Typically, she would also be crying, and when we would ask her what was going on, she would say some of the most horrific things, like she was being pursued by a man with a large knife who had her cornered, or she was in a head-on collision that she could see coming for several blocks, but could do nothing about.

I remember one night in particular, she had been moaning for quite some time and finally woke with a start. She said that she had a dream where all of the members of her family had been shot, and she was trying to revive all of us to no avail. It was at that point that she really started to avoid sleep at all costs. I don't want to give the impression that his happened every night, because it did not. It did happen with enough frequency, however, that she would ask us to wake her up at the first sign that she started appearing uncomfortable while she was asleep.

Some people can fall into bed and they are sleeping within minutes if not seconds. The rest of us struggle some nights to fall asleep and stay asleep. If you are one of those people that feels they are not getting enough sleep, you probably already know that this can have negative effects on your life and your health. Not sleeping at night can mean you get sick more easily and that your brain is not working at full capacity. If these things are occurring in your life, you need to find a way to get more sleep, even if you need a short term medication to help.

There are many reasons why you are not sleeping at night. One reason could be anxiety and racing thoughts. This is probably one of the top reasons why people cannot get to sleep. If you think about your problems before bed, and if you suffer from anxiety, you are not going to get enough sleep. See if you can find a way to work out how to deal with your anxiety first, and then see if you do not fall asleep more quickly. It may not cure all of your sleeping issues, but it may help you get a few solid nights in a week, which is better than nothing.

Newsflash: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes don't sleep in the same bedroom! Just kidding of course -- but it was reported that the couple was having problems with one of them snoring and keeping the other awake (now which one would that be). So they got the ultimate in scoring aids -- they got a separate snoring room for the snoring partner. In fact, there are lots of families doing this today. And new homes on the market often come with a ready-built snoring room for couples with this problem.

You'll especially get to see homes featuring a snore room in retirement communities -- seniors apparently have a harder time with snoring than younger people. The Crowne Plaza Hotel chain is getting in on the trend too. It has several hotel properties in Europe, offering suites with snoring rooms built in.

It's just a reality that we’re finally beginning to face up to. Not infrequently, couples who do want to spend the entire night together in bed are not able to because they would nnot be able to sleep with all the snoring.

The word insomnia may seem a little unapproachable; but it's just a slightly strange-sounding word for a very simple problem – difficulty sleeping. How hard can it be when you don't asleep easily? Michael Jackson would be an example – the effects of insomnia drove him to desperation and to disastrously hire Dr. Murray and talk him into pumping him full of prohibited drugs.

Have you ever popped a Valium to try to sleep on the occasional night that you found sleep difficult to come by? You've probably noticed that that kind of induced sleep is never as restful. That's because sleep isn't just about knocking yourself out. It's a very complex thing. In fact, one reason that drugged sleep isn't as a restful is that during drugged sleep, your brain doesn't get a chance to work behind the scenes sorting out everything that’s happened during the preceding day. This is something our brains always do when we get natural sleep.

Insomnia is common enough in grown people. But we use babies as the very images of peaceful and undisturbed sleep as in "I slept like a baby". Does insomnia have to affect children too? Unfortunately, even if it's somewhat uncommon, childhood insomnia does exist, and it's a real problem.

The good news with childhood insomnia is that it isn't anything like the problem you see in grown-ups – it isn't as difficult at all to help. All you need to do is to understand what exactly causes the insomnia r and you need to make the right kinds of changes.

This may be a little surprising to hear, but children need proper, well-established routine to their lives. When they don't have this – when a child's parents tend to be quite liberal with when the mealtimes are or when bedtime is, or when how much TV time is allowed, children can easily lose their way. When a child doesn't have a routine for when she can expect to go to bed, her mind just refuses to figure out how to fall asleep when you put her to bed. Basically, this kind of childhood insomnia is not exactly insomnia – it's just a matter of timing.