The number of hours of sleep we need changes during the life cycle. There is a lot of research about sleep, and a general agreement on the approximate hours per day we should be sleeping.

Children need a lot of sleep:

• Infants from 3-11 months should get 14-15 hours sleep.
• Toddlers aged 1-3 years should get 12-14 hours sleep
• Preschoolers from 3-5 years of age should get 11-13 hours sleep
• School-aged children (1st through 5th grades) should 10-11 hours sleep per day.

Teenagers and adolescents should be sleeping between 8,5 to 9,25 hours per night.

Healthy adults have a basic sleep need of 7 to 8 hours every night,

Research has also clearly foudn out that the sleep need varies from person to person, and that some people can function just great with only 7 hours per night, whilst others need well over 8 hours to be fit and alert.

To be able to fall asleep easily your sleeping environment should be conducive to good sleep. Many factors can be arranged by you to assure that falling asleep will be easy.

If there are bright lights outside your room and it never gets really dark in the bedroom you should block out this light. Your body is following a light / dark cycle, and if there is no distinct dark period, your body clock has a problem steering the wake sleep rythm.

You need a relatively cool room for best sleep. This means you should have the possibility to cool the room to a temperature that is pelasant for you. The room climate should also not be humid too humid, nor dry. humidity between 40% and 60% is considered to be best.

Now that we have the room set up for a good nights sleep, let's have a look at the bed:

To prepare yourself for sleeping and to make sure that your body is ready to let go and sleep, it's important that you try to develop a ritual. Means that you do a few things the same way in the same order every evening. This will after a while signal your unconcious mind that it will be soon time to fall asleep and it will start to slowly reduce activity and prepare for relaxation.

If you have the possibility, go for a short walk of about 15 to 30 minutes befor you go to bed. This will oxygenate your system and make you feel good, at the same time it will tire you just a bit and you'll be glad to lie down.

Try not to eat a heavy dinner, but rather eat light food, fresh fruit, veggies, a fish maybe, but avoid heavy fat food. That takes long to digest anc chances are that your stomach is still jugging away full tilt - not ready at all to take a break for the next few hours, because fat takes a long time to properly digest. If you digestive system is still busy, it's difficult to fall asleep.

Find out what time of the evenign is good for yout to go to bed. It's of no use at all to try and lie down at 10 pm, if you find that before midnight you will never fall asleep. We all have slightly diifferent body clocks and they follow their own individual rythm.

So if a good bedtime for you seem to be midnight, then that's it! Enjoy the time till then and do things you like, take that walk at abuot 11 pm and then lie down.

There are quite a few pople who have found, that by listening to meditation audios once they are in bed, brings about a state of mind and body that lets them fall asleep really very deeply and that they wake up the next morning very well rested. I quite like to listen to one of these audios every now and again, but I hardly hear much when I put them on.... I'm one of the lucky ones that puts the head down and then I'm off within minutes!

Below are the links to a few great audios for relaxation, meditation and falling asleep. Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's clinically proven audio system helps you fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up feeling rested and refreshed.

Delta Brainwave Pulses blended into different soothing sound of nature and lull you effortlessly to sleep:

The Delta Sleep System is a series of audios tha will help you find restful sleep. Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's audio programs are currently being used by psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, MD's, chiropractors, and bodywork professionals in 26 countries.

He explains the Delta Brainwaves this way:

There are several stages of sleep which people pass through in the course of a good restful night. In each stage our sleep gets deeper, our bodies get more relaxed and our brainwave patterns slow down.

Delta sleep is the most physically relaxed stage of sleep and is the time when the body recuperates and rebalances itself for the new day. Getting enough sleep but more specifically enough Delta sleep, is essential for healthy, productive living.

How This Program Can Work For You:

Play Delta Sleep System on any ordinary stereo or through headphones. Pulses of sound embedded into an ambient musical soundtrack, combining rich orchestration and "3-dimensional" sounds of nature will coax your own brainwaves toward their natural pattern of deep Delta Sleep.

In this audio you will learn: About the natural cycles of sleep and how they effect you - How to use Delta Sleep System to fall asleep, stay asleep and wake up rejuvenated

Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's pioneering work with thousands of patients has led to groundbreaking discoveries in how sound frequency patterns built into musical soundtracks induce brainwave entrainment.

The Delta Sleep System is composed of four audios, they are listed below. Click on any of the links to hear a short audio sample online:

These great mediation audio books are available for immediate download here: Meditation and Sleep Help - Brainwave Audios

• Sleepy Ocean - Meditation Audio Download

  Delta Brainwave Pulses blended into the gentle sounds of the Pacific Ocean surf rolling onto a pebbled beach, lull you effortlessly to sleep.

• Sleepy Ocean and Rain - Meditation Audio Download

  Delta Brainwave Pulses blended into the sounds of the Pacific Ocean surf and gentle rain dripping from leaf to leaf, lull you effortlessly to sleep.

• Sleepy Rain - Meditation Audio Download

  Soothing Delta Brainwave Pulses blended with the sounds of gentle rain dripping form leaf to leaf transport you to rejuvenating slumber.

• Ambient Music for Sleep - Audio Download

  Peaceful musical soundscapes blended with Delta Wave Pulses quiet your mind and lead you into deep restorative sleep.

• Brainwave Suite: Sleep and Rejuvenation - Audio Download

  Lush Ambient Music Combined with Natural Delta Brainwave Frequencies. Simply play this uniquely soothing musical program in the back ground to enjoy states of rejuvenating relaxation and deep restful sleep- easily and naturally.

• Brainwave Symphony: Unwind and Sleep - Aduio Download

  Orchestrate your state of mind with natural Delta audio processes combined with the works of Holst, Mendelssohn, Barber, Albinoni, Bridge, Elgar, Parry and Chopin. Simply play in the background to enjoy Deep Relaxation and Restful Sleep