We live in a 24-hour society with little regard for rest or its well-known benefits. A solid night’s sleep contributes to greater mental acuity and serves us in almost every aspect of life. A lack of sleep leads to poor work performance, irritability, greater risk of injury, and overall poor health.

A poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation revealed that three out of four adults in the U.S. have chronic trouble falling asleep, and that one in three suffers from fatigue due to a lack of sleep that is severe enough to inhibit their daily activities.

So, what’s keeping us up? Work stress and relationship conflicts can contribute to a restless, preoccupied mind, but one could also argue that when trying to fall asleep we don’t respect the process; perhaps because we’ve been doing it so long, we take it for granted. The truth is that falling asleep is not a trait we’re privileged with -- it’s a skill we must develop.

The following four steps have been geared toward developing the fundamental skill of falling asleep. Keep in mind that trying to fall asleep doesn’t begin the moment you climb into bed; plan ahead to accommodate the time you know you will need to fall sleep.

Here are four steps that will help you through the process of trying to fall asleep.

step 1
Take care of pressing business
First things first: The smallest issues, such as responding to an e-mail, can keep your mind alert enough to prevent you from relaxing.

Before you try to fall sleep, make certain you have addressed anything -- any issue or pressing business -- that has the potential to nag at you. In short, if there is anything that might cause you distress and prevent you from relaxing when you climb into bed, take care of it now.

If there are issues you simply can not tackle before going to bed, jot them onto a piece of paper, including any additional thoughts you might have on the subjects. Doing this lets you feel as though you have acknowledged the issues and have taken nominal steps to address them that night -- a reassuring belief that can pay off as you try to fall asleep.

step 2
Hide the alarm clock
We all know what it’s like to lie in bed and, every so often, glance at the clock and do the math: “1:00; I can still get five hours of sleep,” but that optimism soon turns to negotiation: “1:30; four and a half hours. If I skip a shower and don’t stop for coffee, I can still get five hours.” Two big problems accompany this: It is not the kind of mental activity that contributes to relaxation, and by trading away aspects of your morning routine, you severely compromise your entire day.

In any given 12- to 24-hour period, you need your alarm clock on precisely two occasions: at night when going to bed to set the alarm, and in the morning when that alarm goes off. Between those two occasions, you have no use for the thing, so position it so that you can not see the clock face. Taking such a step will also prevent you from knowing what time it is if you wake up in the middle of the night. While it may be reassuring at times to wake up and learn you still have four or five hours of sleep left, there will be other times when you wake up to less reassuring news.

You will benefit in the long-term from eliminating all the distractions associated with going to bed, including watching television or listening to music. Reliance on these stimulants to fall asleep sets a dangerous precedent for those occasions when you’re not at home and don’t have access to them, as well as those times when you awake in the middle of the night and can’t fall asleep again without them.

step 3
Quiet your mind
Filtering out all the rambling thoughts from your mind when trying to fall asleep may be the most important step in the process. It may also be the most difficult.

In order to quiet your mind, get ready to fall asleep with the firm conviction that whatever might be bothering you and causing your mind to race will be there tomorrow, and can wait until then to be addressed. If that thought doesn’t bring you peace, you will need to assume a selfish approach and assure yourself that losing sleep over it does nothing to help the situation, it only serves to hurt you.

Experts recommend avoiding stimulants like caffeine, nicotine or alcohol within six hours of going to bed, since they can exacerbate your restless mind and keep you alert. They can also mitigate the value of the hours you do manage to sleep.

step 4
Follow a single image to sleep
Pick a soothing image -- something that brings you peace. It needs to have sufficient detail to keep your attention; it’s OK for your mind to be active in this process -- just don’t let it be overactive. Your mind’s focus should be dedicated to the colors, shapes and slow, easy movement of this image. Best case scenario, your mind will succumb to the image and it will hypnotize you into sleep.

Everyone’s relaxing image will differ, but ideally it should omit people, or at least people you know. Thinking about a quiet meadow under an easy breeze is fine, but inserting your ex-girlfriend is only going to stimulate a host of other distracting thoughts and emotions.

我们生活在一个只关注利益而忽视休息的24小时制社会里。充实的睡眠会给我们生活的方方面面提供充沛的精力。缺乏睡眠会导致工作效率低下，精神焦躁不安，增加风险最重要的是有损健康。

国家睡眠基金会的一个民意测验显示，美国有四分之三的成年人患有慢性的睡眠症，三分之一的人由于缺乏睡眠导致心智衰弱，严重影响了他们的日常生活。

那么，是什么让我们把生活继续下去？工作压力和关系矛盾会造成神经疲劳和精神紧张。有人可能会反驳说，当我们睡眠的时候，我们并不注重入睡的过程，可能是我们长期这样，我们必须承认。真正的睡眠不是我们特有的特征---而是我们必须改进的一项技能。

你可以通过以下4个步骤来入睡。

第一步

处理好紧迫的事务

首先，诸如一些回复邮件一样的小事可能会造成你精神紧张，这足以影响你放松。

在你试着入睡之前，要确保你已经处理好了每一件事情---每一件小事或者紧急的公务都有可能打断你的睡眠。简言之，如果在你上床之前有什么事情可会影响你休息，现在就解决好它们。

有过有一些事情在你上床之前不能简单的处理好，那么把它连同你的一些想法誊写到一张小纸片上。这样做会让你觉得你已经解决好了----这种精神胜利法可以让你安然入睡。

第二步

藏起你的闹钟

我们知道我们躺在床上的时候总是会瞥一眼闹钟：“一点，我还可以睡五个小时，”三是这种乐观很快就会转变“一点半，还有四个半小时，如果我取消早茶和洗澡，我还可以睡五个小时”。两个大的问题随之出现了：其一你的神经没有放松，其二你把早上的事情拿到了晚上来思考，颠覆了你的整天的生活秩序。

在任何一个12-24小时里，你只在两种时候需要闹钟：晚上睡前设上闹铃，早上当闹铃响的时候起床。在这两个时刻之间，你并不需要闹钟，因此，把他放到你看不到他的地方。这样做会避免你夜间醒来的时候知道时间，是不是该起床了或者还剩多长时间，在起床之前你可以安心睡眠。

你可能长期借助一些刺激来入睡，如看着电视或者听着音乐。借助这些刺激是非常危险的，特别是在你不在家或者是没有电视和音乐的场合，这个时候你如果半夜中途醒来，没有它们的刺激你可能就再也无法入睡。

第三步

静下心来

在入睡之前做到平心静气可能是这个过程中的最重要的一步，也是最难做到的一步。

为了让你大脑清净，你要相信所有可能扰乱你思想的事情在明天都会得到解决。如果这样还不能让你的思想平静下来，你就要用你自己的方法来说服自己：缺乏睡眠除了会伤害你的身体健康之外别无好处。

专家建议要在入睡前6个小时内避免服用咖啡因，尼古丁或者酒精，因为这些会使你的脑神经处于兴奋状态，他们会有损你的睡眠质量。

第四步

随着一个简单的意念入睡

找你一个平静的意念----一些让你平静的事物。它要能让你注意力集中，这对你入睡有好处--只是不要太活跃。你的注意力应该集中在它的颜色，形状，缓缓的速度，简单的运动。你脑海的这种意念会对入睡有催眠作用。

每个人放松的意念是不同的，但是它能让你忘掉别人。想象着微风下的一片静静的牧场，但是如果把你的女友安排在这个场景里就会让你的思想产生杂念。