We have solved the world's sleep problems, and it isn't even bedtime yet.

Pick up a book you've been longing to read. Sip your beverage of choice. Get comfortable. Fall asleep. The professionals call such intentional patterns behavior modification, and with a little practice they work every time.

Consider the reading nook, cranny, or chair, whatever you call your favorite place to read. It's usually a place so comfortable it will soon have you nodding, book or no book.

I have several places like that. I almost fell asleep in one today before I ran upstairs to write about it. I was out on the deck, feet up, enjoying the garden, reading a book about driving, of all things.

I was starting the chapter "How Traffic Explains the World: Good Brakes, Good Horn, Good Luck" in the new book Traffic, Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us when I felt the Sand Man's heavy hand.

At other times I'm in a recliner upstairs, gazing out the window at woodpeckers and squirrels, several shelves of interesting books within my grasp when the Sand Man knocks. Or I'm propped up in bed, book in hand, cat on chest, fresh air sailing in the window, and then it's morning and I have no idea how I got there.

These places and positions put me to sleep almost immediately. And each one feels like a small slice of heaven.

Serious reading is accomplished sitting up straight in an uncomfortable chair, or in a public place where falling asleep with your mouth open is not a polite option. Also, I cannot sleep in the dentist's chair or the doctor's office, no matter how old the magazines. Ditto trudging on the treadmill, walking to the mailbox, enduring earthquakes, or listening to the news. These locations tend to keep me awake, reading or not.

Joselyn is an expert at inadvertent behavior modification. She reclines on her side of the bed, glasses on nose, book in hand. Gradually her breath steadies, and she remains frozen in a kind of reading sleep. I can take the book from her but she will remain motionless. Merely looking at her makes me feel sleepy too.

Some say it's the reading rhythm, running one's eyes back and forth horizontally and progressively down the page that induces sleep. Certainly it's a restful motion, like scanning the horizon from a gently rocking rowboat.

By contrast, many people report they dislike reading on a computer screen. Some of these complainers don't know how to enhance the image, making it larger and more contrasty. And there are distractions online.

More likely, people who don't like to read on computers simply miss their regular reading spots. Computers, even small laptops, are rarely situated in comfortable places. You're not going to fall asleep in front of your portable if you can hear people conversing or they can hear you snoring. Ditto if you're in the airport, or at a café. The constant brushing by of customers, the odor of latte, mocha and roasting bean will keep you awake, not to mention occasional social interaction caused by the fool who just now stepped backward onto your toes.

I read books and newspapers while eating at home or in restaurants. Almost every book I have owned, not just the cookbooks, contains accumulated soup stains and crumb bits. And I can't remember the last time I fell asleep over my food.

All of this accumulated sleep wisdom can be reversed by the simple means of reading a really good mystery or thriller. Then you have the opposite problem: how to function next day on no more than an hour or two of sleep.

Aired Sunday August 10, 2008 at 10:55 am and Wednesday August 13, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Orders/Information:

Traffic, Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Us by Tom Vanderbilt. Alfred A. Knopf hardcover $24.95. ISBN 9780307264787. More on this interesting book in a later WOB.

Notes on falling asleep to audio books: http://www.wikihow.com/Fall-Asleep-With-Audio-Books

Seven secrets to a great nap: http://www.newsweek.com/id/58012?tid=relatedcl

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