Sweet Sleep and Relaxation Sleeping Beauty. Remember her story? She pricked her finger on a spindle, then slept for a hundred years. Getting some rest should be so easy! In fact, women make up the majority of the 84 million Americans who experience insomnia at least occasionally, insomnia being the inability to get enough sleep. How much is enough? According to Peter Hauri, Ph.D., codirector of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, it varies from person to person. For some, as little as 4 hours will do, while for others, 9 hours is a must. The average person functions just fine on 7 to 8. If you're not getting the sleep you need, you won't need to check into a rest home, but you may feel like you belong in one. It's probably no surprise that, among other things, sleep deprivation cuts energy levels, reduces your ability to concentrate, and can make you moody affecting everything from your work performance and your relationships to your driving skills. Not to mention causing those other, yet all important, eye "problems" unsightly bags and circles. On the other hand, getting the right amount of sleep can overnight help you to think, look, and feel younger. Just think what a little shut eye did for Sleeping Beauty. When that handsome prince fell for her peaceful, resting face and woke her with a kiss, she was well over a hundred years old! Talk about a youth enhancer. The Mind Body Connection So why is it so hard for some of us to crawl under the covers and stay there? For one thing, sleep difficulties may be one of the consequences of leading an extremely busy life, says Meir Kryger, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, and past president of the American Sleep Disorders Foundation. "In our society, we have demanding careers that extend beyond 5:00 P.M., extracurricular activities after we leave the office. We can watch 24 hour television, and we can stay up all night surfing the Internet," he explains. But there are a variety of other factors, both physical and psychological, says Martin Moore Ede, M.D., Ph.D., chief executive officer of Circadean Technologies, a research and consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that specializes in reducing workplace fatigue; a former professor of physiology at Harvard Medical School; and coauthor of The Complete Idiots Guide to Getting a Good Night's Sleep. Here are some of the most common. Illness. The quality of your sleep is a barometer of your health. Insomnia can result from depression or pain. It can also be caused by sleep apnea, a condition in which you stop breathing for 10 to 60 seconds at a time, then wake up for a few moments, then fall back asleep sometimes without even being aware that your sleep has been disturbed. Restless leg syndrome, which makes your legs feel jumpy so that you have to move them to get relief, can also keep you awake. And then there's periodic limb movement disorder, which causes you to kick while sleeping. (The bruises on your partner's legs will tell you if you have this problem.) External factors. Common lifestyle related causes of sleep prob¬ lems include drinking alcohol or caf¬ feinated drinks late in the evening, eating foods that could cause heart¬ burn before going to bed, arguing with your mate before bedtime, wor¬ rying about unfinished business from the workday, and engaging in vigorous exercise after 6:00 or 7:00 P.M. (Experts say that having sex is the exception to this rule; that type of exercise may actually help you release tension and relax.) An uncomfortable bed or a bed¬ room that's too light, too hot, or too cold are also likely to stand between you and dreamtime. Mind games. If you've been having trouble sleeping, you're more likely to begin worrying the moment you hit the sheets about whether you're going to have trouble sleeping again. It's a cruel irony of insomnia. "People learn behavior that prevents them from falling asleep," explains Dr. Kryger. "It's a conditioned reflex called psychophysiologic insomnia, in which people associate going to bed with having a problem falling asleep. This creates anxiety, which actually does prevent them from relaxing and falling asleep. 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