That persistent car alarm. Your partner's late-night TV habit. Your Stress-of-the-Month Club membership. Face it: there's a lot to keep you up at night. Is it any wonder that two-thirds of all women have trouble sleeping at least a few nights a week? The resulting bloodshot eyes are annoying enough, but more and more evidence links a lack of sleep to health problems like extra kilos, depression, and even cancer. Worse, when it comes to sleep, women get an especially raw deal - a recent study by Duke University in the US found that women who had trouble falling asleep more than twice a week or who took longer than 30 minutes to drift off had a higher risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease than men who couldn't sleep. Don't take insomnia lying down - a few tweaks can help you get your sheep tally down to, like, one.

Before you pop another pill, figure out what's really keeping you up. Does just the thought of the Stilnox in your medicine cabinet make you feel more relaxed? Research shows that the benefits of sleeping pills may be mostly in your head. A 2007 analysis in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that prescription sleep aids added to total zzz time by only 11.4 minutes and slashed the time spent waiting to fall asleep by just 12.8 minutes. But there's good news: studies also show that making small changes to your pre-bed routine (like forgoing after-dinner espresso or moving your evening run to mid-arvo) can help you conk out as well as - if not better than - pills.

To figure out what's keeping you awake, break out the notepad. Each day, note all your activities: Did you work out? Have a coffee at 4pm? Take a power nap? Include everything you ate and drank as well as any meds you took. At night, write down what time you went to bed, then follow up in the morning with notes on how long it took you to fall asleep and the number of times you woke up. "After a week, you'll begin to notice patterns," says Dr Michael Breus, author of Beauty Sleep: Look Younger, Lose Weight, and Feel Great Through Better Sleep. "Once you can identify what's disrupting your sleep, you can start making changes to help you log more shut-eye."

Don't just lie there

Want to wake up more refreshed? You may need to spend less time (yes, less) in the sack.

12:17. I'll fall asleep soon.
12:51. Any minute now.
1:32. At least I'm getting some rest.

Er, not exactly. "When you lie in bed obsessing about being up, wondering when you're going to doze off, you begin to associate your bed with being awake," says Dr Phyllis Zee, author of Regulation of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms. Meaning all that "rest" could be contributing to your restlessness.

If you're not spending at least 85 per cent of your in-bed time sleeping, try climbing in later "until you're sleeping better and longer," Dr Zee says. "Once you're spending at least 85 to 90 per cent of your sack time asleep, you can hit the hay a little earlier every few nights until you work up to seven or eight hours of sleep." Spend those extra awake minutes calmly prepping for bed-- not letting your brain whir until you switch off the light.