Most people have some nights when they cannot sleep. About one in three Americans has a problem with sleep. Many of these people cannot fall asleep. The name of this problem is insomnia. The word insomnia means"no sleep." Some people say,"I didn't sleep all night." But that's not really true. They may sleep lightly and wake up several times. In the morning,they only remember the times they were awake,so they think were awake all night.
This is not a new problem. Many famous people in history had insomnia. Some of these people had special ideas to make them sleep. Benjamin Franklin,the famous statesman and inventor,had four beds. He moved from one to the other to fall asleep. King Louis XIV of France had 413 beds and hoped to fall asleep in one of them. Mark Twain,the famous American writer,had a different way. He lay on his side across the end of the bed!