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

Awake in the night again? From box breathing to standing on a cold bathroom floor, experts and readers offer tried and tested tips on how to calm your mind and drift back off …

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.