When you give up unhealthy tendencies such as overdoing it on sugar, not getting enough sleep or consuming too much coffee, you can expect to get more energy.

This is it, the last post of Sleep Challenge 2010, my joint project with comrade-in-PJs Arianna Huffington to urge American women to stop walking around sleep-deprived and be good to themselves for once. So, what have I learned, other than that the world won't fall apart if I don't watch Letterman?

I tried lavender baths before bed. I tried early dinners. I tried Sesame Street Bedtime Stories DVDs. But despite my best efforts, bedtime became my most dreaded time of the day.

Sleep is one of the great mysteries of life. Like gravity or the quantum field, sleep is so fundamental that scientists still don't know exactly what it is.

Chronic insomnia in menopause is a huge challenge. On every day that I have seen patients, more than one has described the loss of sleep as the worst part of "the change" for them.

Among the 972 weird things about sleep I didn't know until Arianna Huffington and I started the Sleep Challenge: There is a toothpaste that supposedly makes you sleep better.

Sex dreams are my kind of dream -- no meandering narrative, just the undeniable physical proof of the dream's meaning even after awakening. I wonder if Dr. Freud ever heard about that.

I am constantly inundated with requests for medications to "sleep better". Yes, these medications will help you get to sleep. But sleep better? No way!

I know for a fact that everything in life is more interesting when you dress for it. So I've stopped collapsing in bed wearing my old Doors T-shirt, and actually started thinking of bedtime as a fashion occasion.

Remembering dreams and committing those daily experiences to memory are important functions of sleep. And it looks like great sex can reinforce itself by making good dreams out of the experience too.

But hold on -- is this a realistic assessment of the sleep apnea condition, or is some writer over-blowing the situation in order to push business to the national Sleep Center sponsoring the brochure?

Throughout the Sleep Challenge 2010, I've faced numerous challenges in meeting my sleep goal. But this week has presented me with perhaps the toughest obstacle of all: the travel week from hell.

The dream represents a question or message (often related to a limitation, fear or doubt) to the dreamer. It will reach a conclusion once the dreamer understands the message and resolves to make a change.

Several studies have reported the same results, that both long and short sleep durations are correlated with poor health and shortened lifespan, with most reporting a greater risk associated with long sleep.

I used to have to take two Ambien to go to bed, plus Xanax for my anxiety all day long. Worry was my middle name. Everything was non-stop all day long.

If quality sleep is considered "fundamental" to high performance - how are you doing in this department? After all, all of us are performing in some aspect of our lives.

Besides the obvious reasons for someone coming to a beautiful paradise like Hawaii one of the reasons I come is because of sleep. Good, deep, restful sleep. Natural sleep.

As he sits in his CA office of his startup NeuroVigil, Low holds his miniature iBrain device. The size of two pennies, the miniature iBrain marks what scientists see as a revolution in the study of sleep

Tony Schwartz is a business performance guru who has spent his life coaching people how to perform at their best. And, in his new book, he puts getting enough sleep at the apex of the things we can do to achieve peak performance.

For the first time in probably 10 years, I've only fallen asleep when I meant to, as opposed to on planes, trains, automobiles, over romantic dinners or during family events.

A frequent observation I have made as a couples therapist is that the more narcissistic partner is often a better sleeper than the more neurotic partner.

Rather than introducing foreign chemicals that can cause a host of their own problems, my preference is always to go for the natural products that work with the body's own chemistry.

My own bedroom is where I escape to feel safe, where I relax, and where I do my best work. It's where I retreat for solitary contemplation -- where I try to leave the rest of my life behind.

I was so surprised to learn that many long-married couples don't share a bed, that I've been working on some theories why it is so much more common than I'd ever known.

As Sunday's Golden Globes party wore on, people kept asking how much longer I planned to stay, and whether I was going to be able to get my 8 hours of sleep. I felt like I was a kid on a school night -- with dozens of elegantly dressed baby sitters.