Sleep Tips from around the world Ayurvedic • Massage warm clarified butter onto your head and the bottoms of your feet. • Trouble waking give yourself a head and foot massage with olive oil. • Waking up in the middle of the night rub your head and feet with sesame oil before bed Buddhist • Being immoral or cruel can cause insomnia or restless sleep’. • Sleeping after daybreak and being up all night have a negative impact on life Chinese • Curse your wife at evening, sleep alone at night. • Graves are aligned north and south, so you should not sleep in that direction because it is bad luck. • There is no economy in going to bed early to save candles if the result is twins. Dutch • Who goes fasting to bed will sleep but lightly. English • A bath containing Valerian to be taken before bed time. • A hot bath with lime-flowers in it. • A potato in the bed helps do away with cramp. • A stone with a hole right through it that was created by running water will stop evil taking you during the night. • Belladonna hung over beds and cradles will protect adults and children from the evils that lurk in the night. • Don’t pack your hop pillow too tightly and change the dried hops every four to six weeks. • If you leave dirty dishes in the sink, don't be surprised if you have trouble falling asleep. • Never let a cat get by a sleeping baby. The cat will suck the air out of the baby's lungs. • Peering into the black centre of a red poppy is a folk remedy for insomnia. • Placing your bed across floorboards or ceiling beams will prevent sleep. • Rub a little castor oil over your eyelids before going to bed. • Sleeping in the shadow of a Yew tree causes sickness or death. • To hear the first cuckoo in bed portends illness or even death. • To prevent foot cramps at night, turn your shoes upside down before going to sleep. French • Eat fried lettuce before bed • Get rid of a fever by sleeping with the back against a peach tree for two or three hours. • He who torments others does not sleep well. • To rise at five, dine at nine, sup at five, go to bed at nine, makes a man live to ninety-nine. German • Briefly run cold water over the ankles before going to bed. • Go to bed with the hen, get up with the rooster. • Keep an important and faithful domestic animal close to you when you sleep to protect you from night terrors. • Nothing should be left on the table before going to bed or the eldest or the last born will be unable to sleep. • Nothing should be left on the table overnight; otherwise the angels will not protect us. Guernsey • If you fall asleep under a pine tree you will never wake up. Hampshire • If you change your sheets on a Friday the devil has control of your dreams for a week Indian • If a baby is born prematurely, the new-born child is made to sleep each day on a fresh banana leaf. Irish • Whichever one of the newly married pair goes to sleep on the wedding night first will be the first to die. Italian • Bind oak twigs into the form of a cross Japanese • Eat sea slug entrails before bed Leicestershire • Sleeping in a Bean-field all night will give you awful dreams or make you go crazy. Mexican • Sleeping beneath the branches of the Tetlatia, or Gao, tree causes both men and animals to lose their hair. Scottish • Nettle leaves finely chopped mixed with whisked egg white applied to the temples and forehead Somerset • If you are lost in a wood at night nothing can harm you if you sleep under a beech tree. Spanish • If you want to be dead, wash your head and go to bed. Suffolk • Beds must never be stuffed with wild birds' feathers, or sleep will be uncomfortable on them. • It is not good for children to sleep upon bones—that is, upon the lap. • To hang a flint with a hole in it over the head of your bed is a preservative against the nightmare. Thai • Always wash oneself after sleeping. • Do not sleep with one’s charms and amulets. They will be impaired of their magical properties. • One must not allow one’s wife to sleep upon one’s arm (as a pillow for her head). • To sleep on the left hand side of a woman is unlucky Traditional remedy for snoring - Chew on raw garlic, preferably before bedtime. Traditional remedy for snoring - Sip a little olive oil. Traditionally children’s cradles were made of birch as it was thought to ward off evil spirits. Trinidad • To avoid strokes or facial palsy, both of which twist the face - don't sleep in the moonlight Welsh • If someone falls asleep in a room where many meadowsweet flowers are put, death is inevitable. • A bee buzzing around a sleeping child means the child will have a happy life. Yiddish • If you go to bed without supper, you will rise without having slept. Yoruban • The child who will not let his mother sleep will not himself sleep.