If you're not getting enough good sleep, you'll feel terrible much of the time. Your productivity, your health, and your relationships will suffer.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to improve the quantity and quality of your sleep.

The first step for most of us is to examine how much caffeine we consume in a day. Caffeine is a stimulant found in coffee, tea, and many types of cola. It is also present in many over-the-counter medications.

Caffeine enters the bloodstream very quickly and its stimulative effect lasts several hours. If you are have a hard time getting settled down at night, it could be due at least in part to an excess of caffeine throughout the day.

If you are not getting enough good quality sleep, make the effort to cut your consumption of caffeinated beverages to just one or two cups a day, or stop drinking caffeine all together. In order to have a more restful evening, don't drink anything caffeinated after lunch.

There are plenty of beverages without caffeine that you can substitute. For most people, a cup of warm milk before bedtime will promote sleepiness. Some of us are physically addicted to caffeine and will actually go through withdrawal symptoms if we try to cut back, or quit using it altogether.

You may find that when you stop ingesting caffeine, it takes up to two weeks to get over your physical craving for it. In the meantime you may experience headaches, dizziness and insomnia.

Another factor that can disrupt your sleep patterns is the consumption of alcohol. Although alcohol initially can make you drowsy, it suppresses the REM stage of sleep, which appears to be essential in restoring a sense of wellbeing.

There are many other possible causes of poor sleep. If poor quality sleep is a problem for you, it will be worth the effort to become a detective and track down the cause. Often the problems of poor sleep can easily be fixed.

A poor quality mattress will lead to poor quality sleep. So will poor ventilation in your bedroom. Or too much light. Or too much noise. Or a television set.

Are you getting enough exercise? Most of us today do not move our bodies nearly as much as our bodies were designed to move. If we have an office job we are often so mentally fatigued by the time we get home that we don't want to get off the couch. Our brains may be exhausted, but our body still needs exercise.

A lack of sufficient physical exercise will lead to poor quality sleep. However, vigorous exercise too close to bedtime can leave you too stimulated to sleep.

Sleep experts advise:

• Keep a regular schedule for sleeping.
• Maintain a comfortable, restful bedroom. - Don't use your bed for anything other than sex and sleep.
• Don't have the television in your bedroom.
• Get at least half an hour of physical exercise a day, preferably outdoors.
• Slow down your physical and mental activities as bedtime approaches.
• Cultivate a relaxed, calm state of mind at all times, but particularly before bedtime.
• Avoid shift work.
• Avoid stimulants or alcohol before bedtime.

If you try all these recommendations and you still feel that you are not sleeping well, you may have a medical condition that interferes with the quality of sleep you are getting, or you may be taking medication that interferes with your sleep.

For example, if you always wake up feeling exhausted, you may be suffering from a medical condition such as fibromyalgia, or sleep apnea.

If you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, anxious and unable to sleep again, this can be caused by depression or stress.

These are conditions that should be discussed with your doctor.