ATLANTA , Georgia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It 's the middle of the night and Steven Ford is wide awake . Insomniac Steven Ford says he needs to find a better way to wind down after a long day on the job . `` I toss and turn and watch the clock , sometimes at 3 in the morning , 2 in the morning , '' lamented Ford , 44 , a commercial sign installer in Atlanta , Georgia . Valerie McCloskey , a 42-year-old mother of two from Grand Rapids , Michigan , complained of a similar problem . `` My husband is sound asleep next to me and I 'm thinking about everything that I 'm worried about . '' McCloskey and Ford are among a huge group of Americans who suffer from some type of insomnia . `` Sleep problems are very , very common , '' explained Dr. David Schulman , director of the Sleep Laboratory at Emory University in Atlanta . `` They affect more than a third of Americans in a given year . '' Health Minute : Watch more on sleep disorders '' Sleep problems may be common , but Schulman stressed that insomnia is not normal if it lasts more than a month or two . He said most adults need about eight hours of sleep a night . In reality `` the average American sleeps just under seven hours , '' he said . `` That 's a problem . '' A persistent lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can leave you feeling exhausted when you wake up . `` These folks are walking zombies , '' Schulman said . `` They are out there with four or five hours of sleep a night . '' Long-term sleep problems also may exacerbate other chronic medical conditions such as diabetes or hypertension , experts say . Before you can treat the problem , you probably need to figure out what kind of insomnia you 're dealing with . The condition is classified as primary or secondary . The latter means that a patient may be having trouble sleeping because of a health condition or medication . Primary insomnia is not related to any side effects . It is considered its own disorder that can be broken down into two groups : sleep-onset insomnia and sleep-maintenance insomnia . Like its name , the sleep-onset version occurs in the beginning of the night when someone tries to fall asleep and ca n't . `` Sleep-maintenance insomnia is much less common , '' Schulman said . `` It occurs when somebody can go to sleep , but wakes up once or several times throughout the night and has difficulty resuming sleep . '' Stress , anxiety and depression may be some of the causes of chronic insomnia . Before he prescribes medications , Schulman typically suggests that his patients try a number of things to regain control of their sleep cycle . First , he said , do n't stay in bed for longer than 20 to 30 minutes if you ca n't fall asleep or fall back asleep . `` If you accustom your body to being in bed for hours at a time unable to fall asleep , that behavior to some degree becomes subconsciously ingrained , '' he said . Avoid caffeine within 8-10 hours of bedtime . Studies show that `` if you take caffeine at noon it 's still in your system at 8 or 10 at night , '' Schulman said . Do n't eat or exercise within three hours of bedtime . Schulman said both detract from sleep . He also suggested avoiding alcohol before bedtime because it might trigger a lighter sleep and make it more likely you 'll wake up in the middle of the night . Finally , he recommended finding light , relaxing activities that will induce sleep , such as reading or listening to soft music . He cautioned insomniacs to avoid bright light before bedtime . He also warned against watching television and using video games and computers before turning out the lights . Cooling off might help . `` One of the ways you can fool your body into thinking it is cooling off is to heat it up just before bedtime , '' Schulman said . `` Take a warm bath or shower 30 to 45 minutes before going to sleep . As your body cools off afterwards , it is very sleep-inducing . '' Steven Ford admitted he needs to find a better way to wind down after a long day on the job . He does n't consider his problem to be serious enough yet to see a doctor , adding `` I 'm too manly to try to look for help . I just deal with it , go to work and wait for the weekend . ''