I hate wasting time, and I hate not falling asleep when I want to. I’d like to believe I’m in control of my body. I can generally move the muscles I intend to, I can usually silence my belches, and I never rarely soil myself anymore, but every so often when I desperately need to fall asleep, as if just to spite my achievements, my body will say in revolt “‘F’ you, you’re not the boss of me!” and I’ll wind up lying in bed for 4 hours and not sleep a wink.

Because of this, I’ve read up on and employed some tactics which have allowed me to consistently fall asleep quickly, regardless of how tired I am. Here are the some of the best ones for your viewing pleasure:

1. Create the right environment. If there are noise distractions, use earplugs. If it’s not dark, use an eye blind. Make sure you will not be interrupted by passers-by, phone calls, or other inquiries. Have a nice surface to sleep on. I like to use my sleeping bag for warmth when its cool, or just because it’s a soft clean surface to lie.
2. Clear your mind. Clearing your mind of any stressful or exciting thoughts is key to falling asleep quickly. If there is something especially interesting going on in your life you will need to make a conscious effort to do this. I like to go over everything I’m thinking of, acknowledge each one individually, and then move on to the next thing. If I need to, I write things down so I don’t worry that I’ll forget about them afterwards.
3. Deep breaths. I like to take 3 or 4 deep breaths after I’ve gotten settled to reduce my heart rate, relax my body, and help clear my mind in preparation for sleep.
4. Tense and relax muscles. Another relaxation exercise involves tensing and relaxing your muscles either all at once, or one at a time.
5. Head rocking. I’ve found that slightly rocking my head (while lying on my back) can help by distracting my mind (especially useful when my other mind clearing techniques haven’t worked) and also create a disorienting feeling that helps my mind drift off to sleep. It sounds strange, however it can be comforting if done subtly akin to the feeling of swaying in a hammock.
6. Use a white noise sound track. I’ve been using Placebo’s sleep track to provide white noise to mask sounds of the office and nearby street in place of my trusty earplugs. It was strange to get used to, but I have been very surprised at it’s effectiveness. It is a steady “fuzzy” noise that slowly fades away as you drift off to sleep. The end of the track provides some sounds to wake you up gently as opposed to the jarring and sometimes violent sound explosions from alarm clocks. If you do need that kind of effect to wake you, the longer you sleep through the track, the less gentle the sounds get. Additionally, you can download different lengths to let you pick the nap length. Learn more here.
7. Be clean. There’s nothing better than crawling into bed right after a shower feeling fresh and clean. If I can’t shower, I try to towel off or at least wash my hands and face in a bathroom. For me, being physically dirty is distracting. The less distractions I have, the quicker I can fall asleep.
8. Explore a place in your mind. To do this simply visualize a place that is familiar to you, and walk through it (or do something more interesting in it) in your mind’s eye. This can especially help you clear your mind by providing something to focus your attention on while not needing your mind to be especially active or incite worry. Additionally, for me this “pretending” kick-starts my mind into the semi-lucid “day-dream mode” right before falling asleep.
9. Daydream. An alternative to exploring a place in your mind is to “day-dream” about an interesting place or activity. The better you convince yourself you are in some made up place, the easier it is for your mind to wind down and let go of the active thoughts about current events and let you drop off into sleep.
10. Practice. Practice is paramount. As with anything, you get better the more times you do it, and this is no different. The more you practice the quicker you’ll be able to clear your mind of distracting thoughts and relax your body into a sleep ready state.

If you have any methods that work well for you, please feel free to share them! Thanks.

Everyman Sleep Schedule, Polyphasic Sleep