IT’S A COMMON PROBLEM: you lie awake at night trying to get to sleep, trying to free your mind, but the harder you try, the more elusive sleep becomes.

Here’s a method that works for me.

Close your eyes. OK, now open them again so you can read the rest of this paragraph, but then close them and try it. Think of the Eiffel Tower. Can you feel the muscles in your eyes tightening? When you concentrate on a specific thing, your eyes tighten up. It’s an involuntary response, and you can’t help doing it.

So here’s my solution. Rather than trying to empty your mind, instead concentrate on relaxing your eye muscles. It isn’t easy but you’ll find that when you do so, you’re unable to concentrate on anything: the process forces your mind to become blank. Keep it up for a few minutes, and you should drift off to sleep.

You can open your eyes now.