Late at night, you go to bed. You closed your eyes but can't seem to fall asleep. You might even try counting sheep, but to no avail. And your mind keeps on working, you keep on thinking on a lot of things. Looking at the clock, you noticed that hours had passed but your still awake.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, in 2007, that at least 20 million feel the same thing, experiencing occasional sleeping problems. What is commonly referred to as Insomnia has actually three types: transient insomnia which lasts from days to weeks; acute insomnia lasting for about 3 weeks to 6 months; and chronic insomnia which lasts for years.

Although the situation mentioned above is more common, called as onset insomnia, there are 3 other insomnia patterns. One is known as Middle insomnia, referring to the difficulty of falling asleep when waking in the middle of the night. Waking too early in the morning is another type of insomnia called as terminal insomnia. Another type of insomnia is called middle-of-the-night insomnia which cover both terminal and middle insomnia.

There are a lot of causes for insomnia. A common cause of insomnia would probably be a disease or disorder the person is under. Stress might also make it hard for a person to sleep; so as fear, anxiety or any mental or emotional problems that the person is experiencing. Hormonal shifts also causes insomnia, as well as the disruption to a person's sleeping pattern such as a change of shift at work.

Although most people would prefer taking pills and proceed into medication to aid them in their sleep, there are also alternative and natural ways of dealing with insomnia. One very familiar and common way of making it easier to sleep is by drinking warm milk before heading to sleep. Now some might be skeptical about this, but milk is basically been used for a long time to aid sleep. There is a scientific explanation to this. Milk contains the amino acid tryptophan which acts like a mild tranquilizer.

Some also noted that its easier to sleep when you exercise hard before going to bed. This one makes sense since your body will be pretty tired and must need to rest after exercising vigorously thus makes you more inclined to sleep. Some methods of getting sleep faster is avoiding mentally engaging activities as well as exposing your eyes to light before going to sleep. Of course by avoiding mentally engaging activities, you are not "starting up" your brain's engines.

Another method used for a long time, is by using aromatherapy and taking a warm bath. The key to this is making the body relaxed, free from discomforts, and more inclined to sleep. Using lavender oils, or any other relaxing oils is just fine. A good way of doing this is by taking a warm bath before sleep. You can add you're favorite aromatherapy product, coupled with the essential oil while listening to relaxing music of your choice.