Having trouble sleeping at night? Do you wake up frequently or have trouble falling asleep? Are you tired of feeling like you have never gone to bed, and aren’t rested after spending 8 or 10 hours in bed?

If you don’t sleep well at night, you’re not alone. Up to one-fifth of all adults have a problem sleeping at night. The problem with sleep disturbance, though, isn’t just that you feel tired and miserable throughout the day. If you don’t sleep, you are as dangerous as a drunk driver.

Now, that may sound like a pretty bold claim to make, but studies have shown that people who drive after having stayed awake for 24 hours are as likely to be involved in serious accidents as people who have been driving while intoxicated.

It’s kind of scary when you think about it. Most people think of drunk drivers as people who shouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel of a car (which is true). They would never dream of letting their friends or loved ones get into a car after having drunk too much. But these same people often don’t realize that people who haven’t slept are just as dangerous.

There are medical causes for sleep problems, like sleep apnea or narcolepsy. These conditions may require a doctor’s treatment. If you are pretty sure that yours is related to anxiety or stress or poor sleep habits, though, you may be ready to do what it takes to get a good night’s sleep.

Before you reach for a bottle of sleeping pills, or resign yourself to another round of sleepless nights, read about the effective self-hypnosis programs that will help you to fall asleep without spending hours counting sheep.

First, self-hypnosis CDs can program you to relax and allow yourself to fall asleep without the use of sleeping medicines or other costly aids. These CDs use direct suggestions and offer simple ideas.

If you’re a person who finds it difficult to accept suggestions from other people, you may find that either Ericksonian hypnosis or NLP is more effective for you. These methods use metaphors and conversations to install ideas that will create the expectation of sleep, making it easy to enter dreamland.

You will be so busy concentrating on the conversation that your conscious mind won’t have time to fight the suggestion to fall asleep. You’ll be getting a good night’s rest before you know it!

Read more about how to overcome insomnia and sleep disturbances.