Getting enough sleep, eating and exercising right and taking time to relax are all important things we can do to be healthy and more productive.

This fall, now that kids are back in school, is a great time to focus on yourself and get back into some healthy habits or start a healthier lifestyle for the first time! Even if you don't have kids, fall is a good time to start making positive changes in your life.

More than anything else the amount and quality of sleep I get seems to affect my health the most. If I don't get enough sleep I don't function well at all. And when I do sleep well - I feel great in the morning.

One of the most obvious things you can do to help you sleep at night is to avoid caffeine late in the day (or completely). Other things that may help include not eating for a couple of hours before your planned bed time.

Drinking too many liquids close to bedtime may result in interruptions of your sleep if you end up having to use the bathroom much in the middle of the night. On the other hand a modest volume of warm milk may help some people to relax.

If outside noise keeps you from falling or staying asleep you may want to try a white noise generator. Many of these have different settings to choose from including rain and other nature sounds.

Exercising too close before bed can also have different effects on different people. For some it can make it harder to relax, some it may put right to sleep.

It can also be helpful to start turning lights off or down a couple of hours before you go to bed too. Be aware that for some people even looking at a computer monitor or T.V. before trying to fall asleep can cause problems. You may need to experiment a little and try not eating/no T.V. etc. for different amounts of time before you want to sleep to see what works best for you.

A sleep diary may be helpful for this. You can keep a little notebook and write what activities you did close to bedtime and keep track of whether or not you slept well each night. This can be especially useful since everyone is different and what works for one person may not for another.

Once you have improved your sleep quality - improving your diet is a great second step in living a healthier life!