I just read about a brilliant way to lull yourself to sleep — or back to sleep if, like me, you tend to wake up in the middle of the night.

1. Think of a letter — either at random or start at the beginning of the alphabet.
2. Visualize a word beginning with that letter, e.g. “apple” for A.  Don’t choose anything you’re phobic about, such as clowns, heights or spiders.
3. Keep thinking of new words beginning with the same letter (“avocado”, “armadillo”…) and take time to picture each one.
4. When you run out of images, move on to a new letter.
5. Keep going until you nod off.

I tried this in the middle of the night and bored myself back to sleep in record time!

Have a great, sleep-filled weekend, and Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who are mothers, about-to-be mothers, or have ever had a mother.