Learn how to write yourself to sleep.

What keeps you up at night? Your to do list? The bills? Worries about people you love? Your health? Your job? More than 70 million Americans have a hard time falling asleep. If you’re one of them, I have a solution. I call it sleepwriting. At bedtime, I pick up a pad and pencil and start writing. I start with the first words that pop into my head and keep going for three pages—no looking back—and after I’m done, the noise of the day is silenced, I can hear my own voice and I slip into a deep restorative sleep.

Everybody can sleepwrite. Here’s how:

• Forget everything you know about writing. You’re not writing a story. You’re writing to fall asleep. Spelling, grammar and neat penmanship don’t matter. Your subconscious will lead the way.
• Get yourself a pen or pencil and a notebook or pad that will fit comfortably in your hand. Put it beside your bed.
• Get ready for bed. Do all the stuff you have to do before turning in. That includes your usual grooming rituals, locking up your home, setting your alarm and turning off the overhead lights in your bedroom.
• Plump up your pillows so you can sit comfortably.
• Pick up your notebook and pen—or pad and pencil.
• Turn off your inner editor or English teacher. Sleepwriting isn’t an assignment. It’s something you’re doing for yourself.
• Start writing the first words that come into your head and let your mind take your hand where it wants to go for three pages.
• Don’t worry if what your writing doesn’t seem to make any sense. It doesn’t have to. You’re just “draining your brain,” and giving up all the stress of the day.
• At the end of your third page, put down your sleepwriting tools, lie down and sleep.

Sleepwriting is proven to work. Log-on to some sleep expert sites. Many of them recommend writing before bedtime. I recommend it as the best non-toxic sleep aid and a path to greater creativity—for anyone in any job. Bedtime Stories: The short, long and tall tales of a sleepwriter is pulled from my years of sleepwriting journals. The next book in the series will be a collection of stories by my readers. You can log-on www.greatlittlebooksllc.com to learn how to submit stories for possible publication.

Bedtime Stories is getting a lot of buzz. Julie Morgenstern, author of Time Management from the Inside Out, sees the stories as “the perfect bedtime treat to lull your mind to rest after the haste of the day.” Jesse Kornbluth, editor of HeadButler.com named the book to his December 18th “holiday buy” list and says the stories, “jab away at your resistance,” and actor and activist Ed Begley, Jr., “enjoyed every delicious page of Barbara Worton’s book.” RJ at the www.readingden.com describes Bedtime Stories as, “Refreshing, chock-full of personality and written with an awe inspiring clarity of spirit that is thoroughly entertaining, you will read and re-read these stories, as this is one of those rare books that is meant to be savored...slowly and often.” I hope you will too. Sleep tight.