title: Healthy Sleep: Fall Asleep Easily, Sleep More Deeply, Sleep Through the Night, Wake up Refreshed
author: Andrew Weil
description: Andrew Weil, one of America's best known advocates of alternative medicine and holistic healing, attended Harvard Medical School. He has worked for the National Institute of Mental Health and the Harvard Botanical Museum. He is the founder of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center and Associate Director of the Division of Social Perspectives in Medicine, University of Arizona. Weil's books include Spontaneous Healing and Natural Health and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health.
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  ![Image](HarvardHeader3.png)
  
  Improving Sleep
  
  
  Dear Reader,
  
  
  How do you feel when you wake up in the morning? Are you refreshed and ready
  to go, or groggy and grumpy? For many people, the second scenario is all too
  common. More than one in three adults get less than the recommended seven or
  more hours of sleep each night, according to the Centers for Disease Control
  and Prevention. Insomnia — trouble falling or staying asleep — is the most
  common complaint. But other chronic disorders, including sleep apnea, restless
  legs syndrome, or narcolepsy, can also contribute to a shut-eye shortfall.
  Sometimes, unavoidable stress or problems like a death in the family keep you
  up at night. But so can habits that you can control, such as drinking alcohol
  or caffeine at night or using brightly lit electronic devices too close to
  bedtime.
  
  
  Whatever the cause, the toll of all that lost sleep on health, well-being, and
  productivity is enormous. Insufficient sleep can make you too