Almost as much as I enjoy eating, I love sleeping. Oh dear, sweet, blissful sleep, how I love your unconscious, drooling ways! I will sacrifice just about anything -- including, most days, my morning workout -- to make sure I get my full eight hours. And now there's another great excuse reason for me to demand all that sleep: It keeps you skinny. Fist pump! Boo-yah, SLEEP.

Gotta love those scientists. They're always studying sleep. And the latest study shows that people who don't sleep enough eat more, move less, and gain weight. Yipes! Sleep-deprived parents, are you worried about this?

Dear Sleep,

Hello there, old friend -- I miss the hell out of you. Since I had the babies, things just haven't been the same between us and ... yes, yes, I knew this was going to happen, but still, I guess I hoped that it would be different for us. I mean, we're Sleep and Jenny, Jenny and Sleep -- there hasn't been a better pair since PB and J. So, I thought maybe we'd beat the odds. But, alas, you and me? We're never going to be what we were.

I know what you're going to say. Yes, I realize that our relationship is so much better than it was a few months ago. But, call me selfish or greedy, I want more, I do. I want like 7 or 8 uninterrupted hours of your time. I want you to be there for me at 4 a.m. when my baby's, "Help, I'm trapped on my tummy!" wails leave me wired and unable to drift back into your comforting arms. Why, oh why, can't things be like they used to be?

I have insomniac friends who swear that taking prescription sleeping pills is the only way they can get to sleep. But a new study suggests that their good night's rest might be coming at a really high price.

According to this study, adults who take sleeping pills may be nearly four times more likely to die earlier compared to those who are not prescribed sleeping pills. Even those who only take a small number of pills are at risk. And, that's not all of the bad news: People who take prescribed sleeping pills may also be more likely to be diagnosed with cancer. Now, if that's not scary enough to keep you up at night, I don't know what is ...

For the past several years, I have spent the hours of 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. wide awake while the rest of my house (the rest of the world) is fast asleep. It certainly explains why I'm always so damn exhausted and fight the urge to fall asleep every afternoon, but isn't without benefit, too. In fact, on the rare night when I actually sleep through the night, I wake up disappointed about all of the things that remain undone. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're alone for a change!

Brooke Burke has a lot going on these days. She's not only a host on Dancing with the Stars, but she also has four kids, a husband (sexy David Charvet), a modeling career, a product line (Baboosh Baby!) for moms, and probably a whole slew of other stuff I can't even think of right now. In short, she's a busy woman, and she barely gets enough shuteye. Not too much different from most moms, really. But the way she handles her sleep deprivation is a bit different.

Burke told Fitness magazine recently shared her secret to getting enough sleep, which in turn leads to a healthy sex life, as well as keeping her sanity. Throw all those guesses out the window, because it's probably not what you think.

Did you know there are certain places with more walking zombies than others? No, I'm not just talking about Halloween haunted houses here. The mattress company Sleepy's recently did some research and came up with the 10 most sleep-deprived cities. And let me just say, now it makes sense why a lot of people in New York City are a tad bit grumpy early in the morning!

Ready for the results? The most exhausted city in the U.S. is Detroit. The others include (in order from most tired to least): Birmingham, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, New York, Cincinnati, Louisville, Raleigh, Columbus, and Boston.

To be honest, the list doesn't surprise me too much. These are cities we're talking about here -- they're always bustling! But if you live in one of these places, it definitely doesn't mean you don't deserve some solid shut-eye. Check out these 5 tips for a good night's sleep:

I'm taking a red-eye flight home from my brother's wedding this weekend and I'm not looking forward to my slow transformation into a zombie. You know what I'm talking about: that irregular napping and neck lolling that turns you into a cranky, achy, sleep-deprived monster. 

And it doesn't help that I'll be crossing two time zones from Mountain to Eastern standard time, which is two hours ahead. That kind of double-whammy of jet lag doesn't just cause fatigue -- it can lead to other health woes like irritability, confusion, nausea, coordination problems, anxiety, and dehydration. Yeah, good times.

Deep breath! Time to get out my jet lag recovery kit ...

When your boss comes to you and tells you to take a nap every day at work, you don't ask any questions. My task was to take a 30-minute nap during the work day for five days in a row and to see how it affected me. Did I feel more energized? Tired? Did the naps increase my productivity or decrease it? How did I feel overall? You get the picture.

Armed with a pillow and a cellphone for an alarm clock, I went to our office's nap room (it has a day bed and a sound machine and a thing that projects stars on the ceiling and everything!) to see what I could find out about taking a snoozer midday.

My results were more than a little unexpected.