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

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….