Waking up with a crick in your neck is one of the worst ways to start your day. Turning your head hurts anywhere you look, and you usually have no idea why. Here's what causes it and what you can do to help yourself avoid it in the future.

We know that not getting adequate sleep means we do a disservice to our brain and our physical and metabolic health. Unfortunately, trying to fall asleep can be a tricky, especially when we try too hard. Here are five secrets to a good night’s rest from the University of Sydney's associate professor of sleep and wellbeing, Chin Moi Chow.

Don’t you hate it when every piece of tech you own doubles as a night light? Even if you make an effort to avoid using your phone and laptop in bed, the various gadgets in your room may still be impeding your ability to sleep with their stupidly bright status lights.

Welcome to Lifehacker's Lucid Dream Workshop. Each week we'll learn a little more about the mysterious realm of sleep science, dreams, and how to "wake up" when we're fast asleep.

Ever been told to 'sleep on it' when you were struggling to make a decision or come up with an idea? A new study suggests this is actually a great idea - your brain may in fact be able to process information during naps that it's not even consciously aware of. That's right, you have a great excuse to take a nap at work from now on.

Whether we're springing forward or falling back, the biannual time shift is, at best, a discombobulating experience - but changing the clocks also gives us a ready-made opportunity to change ourselves.

We've all experimented with sleep at some time or another. Here at Lifehacker we're straight up expert in experimentation (even when it doesn't turn out quite as planned). There are a few sleep experiments that even we wouldn't touch - though we're glad someone did.

The Great Australian Sleep Report is a national survey commissioned by Koala Mattress. It found that the majority of Aussies (60 per cent) only get 6-7 hours of sleep per night. Furthermore, around half of us aren't satisfied with the quality of our sleep and 58 per cent believe they are not getting enough of it. This infographic looks at the key findings.

Do you think wearing socks to bed is totally dorky? Well, as it turns out, socks could be the secret to falling asleep faster, sleeping longer and waking up less during the night. Why? Well, as we all know, cold feet are the worst, in a lot of different ways.

Last summer I spent a few weeks in Italy, where the time difference is nine hours from my home in San Francisco. That aggressive time change meant that the first week of my trip was spent pretty exhausted. I survived those first few days on naps and coffee. Then one of the people I was travelling with suggested something interesting: combining the naps and coffee.

Most of us have a go-to position that we instinctively adopt at night, but it may not be the best one for the quality of your sleep, or more general health.

About a third of adults don't get enough sleep. And sleep deprivation has serious consequences for your brain and body.

Need to fall asleep fast? One mid-century relaxation technique, developed in the US Navy Pre-Flight School, supposedly works within minutes. It may not be magic, but it seems like a pretty good way to relax your body and mind.

We all know that waking up to an alarm clock is pretty much the worst way possible to get up in the morning, although arguably the most efficient.

As groundbreaking personal statements go, ‘I never get enough sleep’ ranks somewhere down there with ‘I enjoy music!’ and ‘I like going out – but also staying in’. It’s the modern default. Because nobody does, right? Unless you're under 10, over 70 or live on a farm with no wi-fi, you’re probably not getting enough sleep. I was one of those people. I decided to embark on a two-week experience to learn how to get eight hours of shut-eye a night.

Okay, so this life-hack might not be particularly enticing in the middle of winter, but those who are willing to brave bedtime in the buff will have a newfound confidence to go with their chill. (If you share a bed with your partner, it can also lead to more nooky. Hurrah!)

Picture the scene: It’s Friday and you’re clocking off. After a few sleepless nights you want to tuck yourself up early and catch up on all the sleep you’ve lost. But does it really work that way?

Having trouble falling asleep, but meditation isn't your thing? The good people of Reddit have some recommendations for chatty podcasts and tracks where the sounds of voices can lull you into dreamland.

When you just want to turn your brain off and sleep, meditation apps are perfect. A guiding voice, or the sounds of something peaceful such as rain, helps to fill the silence so your thoughts can’t creep in. The best ones strategically bore you into drowsiness. (You can look for sleep-focused meditation tracks, but I’m guilty of misusing the Headspace intro lessons for this purpose.)