Sleep deprivation is up there with obesity and smoking in terms of health risks, so if this is your resolution then it's a good one. Unfortunately, if you generally have trouble sleeping, then simply deciding that you're going to get more sleep is easier said than done. There are a couple of tricks you can employ, however, that might make it easier to drop off. First up, sort out your screens. A lot of people will tell you to steer clear of your electronic devices for two hours before going to bed but, frankly, that seems pretty impractical. What is this, the 1800s? The reason we're told to down tools before bedtime is that screens tend to emit bluish light. Seeing as iPhones weren't invented when we were evolving, your brain interprets this as bright morning light and starts waking you up. To combat this, there is load of software out there that will tint your screen with red light to counteract the blue. This stops the "good morning sunshine" signals to your brain and lets you drift off to the land of nod mid-candy crush. If you're getting your eight hours and are somehow still knackered then you could always go for something a little more radical. Segmented sleep is a practice that was actually incredibly common right up to the industrial revolution, but has since almost completely disappeared. Essentially, instead of getting eight solid hours of sleep, you split it up into two periods of sleep, with a period of wakefulness in the middle of the night. Back in the olden days, people used to use this witching hour to read, chat, pray, smoke and even have sex, before getting another couple of hours. There are some who think that this sleep pattern might help reduce stress and actually improve the quality of sleep. Some studies have shown that the hour of wakefulness at night can trigger the release of prolactin, a hormone that can produce a feeling of deep relaxation (it's thought to be responsible for the post-orgasm sleepy feeling).