Bush-league sleepers cost U.S. businesses an estimated $150 billion annually in absenteeism and lost productivity. But fear not, rookie snoozers! While other Americans spend $4.5 billion per year on sleeping pills, we’re here to correct your dozing naturally. We even (yawn) brought in the experts to help.

Clear Your Head
Psychological links run deep, and things that happened to you as a kid—that bed-shitting incident at camp, say—can still be affecting your sleep. To avoid new hang-ups, send your subconscious the right message by limiting bedroom activities to sleeping and boning. “If you’re in bed for 20 minutes, go downstairs and read a book,” says sleep psychotherapist Michelle P. Maidenberg. “Get out of there so you don’t associate your bed with tossing and turning.”

Clean Up Your Act
“Take the pillow test on sleepbetter.org to find out which type is right for you,” says Michael Breus, sleep specialist and author of Good Night: The Sleep Doctor’s 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health. “Then, change it once a year—the amount of sweat, oil, and other fluids that leak out of your head at night is crazy, and it breaks down the fabric.” Damn—just when that pillow was getting broken in!

Psych Yourself Out
Leave the sheep-counting to Kentucky pimps and wrangle some shuteye with one of Maidenberg’s relaxation techniques. Start by breathing deeply, then talk out loud about a soothing image, like a recent vacation. Not working? Try Breus’ approach and count backward from 300…by threes. “It’s so damn boring that you pass out,” he says. “I’ve never made it past 150.”

Eat to Crash
According to Yahoo! Food columnist Val Weaver, whole-wheat bread releases insulin to speed your uptake of tryptophan (the sleepy-time “turkey drug”), while bananas combine doze-inducing melatonin, serotonin, and muscle-relaxing magnesium. What about a nightcap? Alcohol may make you pass out quicker, but the sleep quality sucks. “The light, crappy sleep you get with alcohol in your system is half the cause of hangovers,” Breus explains.

Dim Your World
A night-light can save you plenty of midnight misery. “The second you turn on bright lights, your brain thinks it’s morning and stops producing melatonin, the key engine to the sleeping process,” says Breus. Studies also show that flashing TV lights degrade sleep, so if you absolutely need Sin City Diaries to pass out, at least set the timer so it doesn’t wake you up and reset your precious sleep cycle.