How To Get Your Sleep
Are you one of those teachers who can't switch off at night? You toss and turn teaching the same class over and over, thinking of the clever or correct response to that supercilious student's questions or lie awake thinking of the papers you still have to grade or that delightful but dozy student who shows no sign of making any progress although she should already hold a degree in texting her boyfriend.

If you do find it hard to get to sleep, then our latest Intermediate Instant Lesson could be of help. Not because it's boring but because it gives advice for insomniacs. A study done recently found that people who got up when they couldn't sleep could improve the quality of sleep they did get. (Help For Insomniacs To Get Their Zzzs - Intermediate Instant Lesson)

You may like to get your students to debate the topic of whether the printed book is dying. Our Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson "Long Live The Book" has plenty of fodder for discussion, looking at book reading habits in different countries and how the e-book and the Internet can benefit readers. '"Digital e-books have created a space for discussion. Books now have websites and forums, and so reading books on electronic devices has created communities and interaction...."'

Included in our latest rather eclectic offering of resources is a lesson on what the strong Swiss franc is doing to Swiss tourism (Elementary Instant Lesson: "Strong Money") and the bizarre, but true Instant Lesson on animals shooting people or other animals (Pre-Intermediate Instant Lesson: "Strange Stories".) Sports fans can read about Roger Federer's plans for 2012 and the London Olympics (Advanced Instant Lesson: "Grand Slam Champ".)

For teachers needing new resources for teaching vocabulary and writing, two of our latest resources include an Anna Grammar worksheet on "Subordinating Conjunctions" and a Max Vocab worksheet "Max Vocab AWL 4 · Wake Up Doc!"

Following the advice in our Insomniacs lesson and knowing that you have access to the lessons above and to our extensive libraries of lessons should help you get your sleep.

Click here to access the new resources.

Newest resources in the Teachers· Room include:
- Strong Money - Elementary Instant Lesson
Swiss holidays are too expensive in 2011 for many tourists from other countries because the franc is too strong. Vacations, Switzerland, money, adjectives.

- Strange Stories - Pre-Intermediate Instant Lesson
Foxes shooting people, dogs shooting people and cows shooting cows. Guns, accidents, definite and indefinite articles.

- Help For Insomniacs To Get Their Zzzs - Intermediate Instant Lesson
A few short visits with a nurse may be enough to help sleep-deprived people learn how to sleep. Insomnia, health, sleep treatments.

- Long Live The Book - Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson
Books may be in decline in other parts of the world but the book industry is thriving in India. Future of books, printed books and e-books, reading habits of different nationalities, India.

- Grand Slam Champion  - Advanced Instant Lesson
With six Wimbledon trophies already packed on to his mantelpiece, Roger Federer would like nothing more than to win a singles gold medal on the hallowed turf when it hosts the Olympic tennis event in 2012. Ambitions, ordering questions, completing a table, vocabulary.

- Famous Cities - London - Weekly Warmer
This warmer is an enjoyable way for students to learn more about tourist activities in London.

- Subordinating Conjunctions  - Anna Grammar Worksheet
Subordinating conjunctions join a dependent or subordinate clause to a main clause. This worksheet has explanations and exercises. 

 - AWL 4 - Wake Up Doc! - Max Vocab Worksheet
More words from the academic word list.

- A Bomb Dog - Pre-Intermediate Instant Workbook
In Sydney, a police dog trained to detect bombs ran away after being scared off by fireworks. There are four exercises to do.
Skills: Grammar - passive, have/get something done.

For access to these and more than 1,700 other resources

This month's Point of Interest comes from the Intermediate Instant Lesson "Help For Insomniacs To Get Their Zzzs ":

'A mental health nurse practitioner in a regular doctor's office [looked at] how to restrict time in bed and set regular sleep-wake schedules, while also discussing the biological rationale behind the strategy, including the body's daily cycles of physical, mental and behavioral changes.

" This (therapy) has the effect of compressing your sleep into a more solid block," Buysse told Reuters Health in an e-mail. "More consolidated sleep is more refreshing." "A lot of insomniacs spend a lot of time lying in bed worrying about their sleep, among other things. They expect to have insomnia," Dr. Thomas Neylan of the University of California, San Francisco, who wrote an accompanying commentary in the journal, told Reuters Health.
"Generally, the most expedient thing to do is just prescribe a sleeping pill ," noted Neylan.

In the meantime, Neylan offers insomniacs some advice: " If you're not ready to fall asleep, don't lie down in bed and try to force yourself to sleep. And if you wake up in the middle of night and don't fall back asleep easily, get out of bed." "You don't want to have any linkage between the experience of lying in bed and being awake ," he said.'
Thomson Reuters 2011