Stop counting sheep – and 13 more no-nonsense tips for getting back to sleep

News Snapshot:

Don’t count sheep Bad news for that old favourite, counting sheep. “It has been studied and it doesn’t work,” says Dr Eidn Mahmoudzadeh, a Manchester GP and co-founder of The Sleep Project, which offers support for sleeplessness at all ages. “It is too simple and mundane; people don’t carry on, they just get bored and their thoughts wander to worrying about sleep.” Counterintuitively, you should go for something more mentally challenging, he says, to distract the brain. Rachel from London counts backwards from 100: “Do it slowly and if thoughts interrupt or you miss where you are, just start again....