After several hours of sleep I wake with a very dry mouth and have to take a drink of water. This happens several times a night. Any suggestions for a cure?
The most likely cause is that you are breathing through your mouth rather than your nose. The nose is designed to warm and moisturise air as it enters your body, but if the nose is blocked by a cold, hay fever, narrowed nostrils from a polyp or other cause, air has to enter through the mouth.
During the day you may clear the nose or it may drain better while you are upright, only blocking when you lie down at night.
You will need to have your nose checked by your doctor to find if there is a cause for it blocking. If hay fever or a cold is responsible, medications can be given regularly to clear out the nose and prevent it from reblocking.
People who snore may also develop a dry mouth. Snoring can lead to disturbed sleep for both the victim and others nearby, and in severe cases can cause breathing to stop during the night. Snoring can be dealt with in a variety of ways including medications to clear a blocked nose, devices in the nose, surgery and machines that increase the air pressure you breathe through a mask.
There are a number of rare conditions and many medications that can cause a dry mouth, so these should also be excluded by your general practitioner.

All my life I have found that waking up in the morning is the hardest thing I do each day. I can easily drop back to sleep at any time in the first half hour I am up in the morning. I am often late for work as a result. Can I be helped?
Some people seem to be morning people, while others are evening people. You are unable to function well on waking, while others can bounce out of bed and be fully alert and active within seconds. On the other hand, you may be able to outlast others in the evening.
The Spanish and other southern Europeans seem to be able to function well at both ends of the day, but then they enjoy a siesta in the early afternoon. Why this phenomenon of preferring mornings or evenings for activity exists is not really understood, but it is certainly well recognised.
The agent probably responsible is melatonin, which is produced by the pineal gland. This tiny gland lies at the front of the brain, just behind the point where your eyebrows would meet. It acts as the time-keeper of the body, and regulates all sorts of natural daily rhythms. When it goes out of rhythm with jet lag, the inappropriate production of melatonin by the pineal is responsible. It seems some people have their pineal glands set at different times to others, but whether this can be reset is another matter, although some people have commented that after a trip from Europe they can cope better at different times of day than they could previously.
Maybe you can cure your problem with a long-distance holiday? It is certainly a more attractive option than any medication or procedure!

In my job I have to work shifts. I work two days from noon till 8 pm then have a day off, then two days from 8 pm till 4 am, then a day off, then two days from 4 am to noon, followed by another day off. This has gone on for four years, and for most of that time I have not been able to sleep properly. I can’t sleep during the day on night shift, or at night when on day shift. I’m getting irritable, lose my temper easily, can’t relax and have headaches. What should I do?
You have an atrocious job, with an employer who has no conception of the effects such irregular hours can have on an employee.
There are many jobs which require workers to be on site 24 hours a day, but rapidly rotating shifts do not give the body’s natural clock and biorhythm any chance to catch up. You are suffering from perpetual jetlag, and I am surprised that you do not have more symptoms than you have mentioned.
I suggest that you join with other employees in approaching your employer with a request for a more reasonable roster. This does not mean that you avoid night work, but you change shifts less often.
For reasons of health and employee productivity (you won’t work well if you are tired and irritable) you should spend four to six weeks on each shift, and then change to another shift. With a prolonged period on one shift, you can adjust your sleep patterns to a regular one, be it night or day.
On days off, you should try to keep roughly the same sleep times. This can interfere with your family and social life, so if there is some special function you need to alter your sleep time for, ask your doctor to prescribe a mild sleeping tablet (eg. Stillnox, Normison, Halcion) to help you get off to sleep.
Far too many shift workers are being forced to work unreasonable rosters, with rapid changes in shifts. I believe this is something that unions should be investigating, and acting to protect their workers.

I get eight hours sleep a night, but always have dark circles under my eyes, and my eyes get bloodshot in the evening. I am also very fatigued. I would appreciate your professional opinion.
Dark circles under the eye have no specific diagnostic meaning, and many people are just unlucky enough to develop them far more easily than others. If you are ill, suffering from an allergy, or under stress, they occur more readily, but it is impossible to make any diagnosis or form a reasonable opinion about a person from that symptom alone.
In your case, it may be possible to link the widely varied symptoms together. Your bloodshot eyes may also be the result of an allergy, as dust, pollutants and pollen can enter the eye during the day, and cause a reacrion in the eye to make them red, itchy and watery. They can recover overnight, as the closed eyes
prevent any more irritants from entering. Chronic fatigue may also be the result of allergy problems, so all your symptoms may be due to the one cause. Discuss this possibility further with your general practitioner.