Many women assume that getting ready for IVF treatment might include changing your diet, maybe losing weight, taking nutritional supplements and cutting out bad habits such as smoking and drinking alcohol. Few would imagine that sleep would be particularly important.

Getting enough sleep can actually help to keep you fertile and give you a better chance of IVF success. There are sound reasons why this is the case and the following facts help to illustrate this:-

* Insomnia can increase the level of the stress hormone cortisol. Stress negatively affects your reproductive cycle

* Adults need around 7-9 hours of sleep each night and not having enough sleep can have a negative effect on conception as sleep allows our bodies to release toxins and use nutrients correctly. By doing this whilst we sleep, it allows our bodies to function correctly the next day-including our reproductive system.

* When getting ready for IVF treatment, it is important to eat a good, balanced, healthy diet. Insufficient sleep reduces the production of the hormone, ghrelin, which regulates appetite. This can lead to unhealthy eating patterns.

* The hormone Melatonin, which regulates body temperature, the immune system, appetite and reproduction is produced at its highest levels at around 9pm. Although it is not practical to go to bed at this time each night, if you can manage a couple of early nights a week, this will go someway towards helping regulate the body's systems and rhythms.

Of course, there are other steps which can help greatly when getting ready for IVF treatment, such as eating a healthy diet, taking the right kind of exercise and reducing levels of stress as well as specific techniques for directly improving fertility.