I asked my dad the same thing and here was his trick to fall asleep at night:
He had a ceiling fan but no AC. So he would wrap himself in a blanket until he was soaked with sweat. Then he took the blanket off and laid on his sheet and let the fan blow on him thereby evaporating the sweat. This would cool him down and allow him to sleep.
Totally random aside, but one trick with falling asleep is that the body doesn't fall asleep when warm, but when it warms up. So get yourself nice and cold (open windows in winter, pump up ac, put a fan on, keep the blankets off, etc), like really uncomfortably cold, then cover up. Sleep is much easier to achieve :)
I can vouch for this too, but the down side for me is that because I've done this for so long, it's nearly impossible for me to fall asleep quickly if the room is remotely warm already...
This, and also the way our bodies go to sleep is by dropping it's body temperature a bit. If it's hot in your room, or too many blankets, you're body will struggle to cool down and thus you'll struggle to get to sleep.
I have had weird sleeping issues all my life, and the key for me to falling asleep was when I found out that our body gets tired not when it is warm, but when it warms up.
So next time you can't fall asleep, take off the blankets, make sure your room is cold, and then get really, uncomfortably cold, and stay that way for at least 15 minutes. Then, and this is key, cover your whole body only with your sheet, and then pull the blanket just over your legs. You'll warm up and fall asleep. If you pull the blanket all over yourself and "mummify", then you'll risk getting too warm, which will wake you right up again.
I'm sure this doesn't work for everyone, but I think many people get too warm and comfortable, and that will keep you awake.
White noise? I find I fall asleep faster due to air conditioner and forced air furnace and occasional rain storms.
When I was a kid I could just barely hear my parents decompressing by watching Barney Miller and All in the Family (yes I am older) and that helped me sleep.
As a child I used to complain about going to bed because I "can't sleep". My father would often say, "well, you usually need to close your eyes for it to work".
The relaxation method in the article requires physical comfort, which isn't always available. I used to lie awake for hours when I was younger; now I can fall asleep quickly in all places (bus seats, desk chair, etc). What changed?
I ride a bicycle. That fixed my blood circulation, so I don't get cold feet.
I also read the Bible and pray. It's very easy to fall asleep in church on a hard wooden pew. The same approach works at bedtime.
Sleeping less once a week (CouchSurfing meetup from 9 pm to 1 am on Wednesdays) builds sleep debt. That increases my emotional extremes, but the prayer handles the low points, so I end up happier. It also makes me pretty tired, so I'm able to sleep more easily on Thursday & Friday.
Interesting. On a tangent, when I was a teenager I would sometimes fall asleep on the couch with the TV on. Mostly because I don't like falling asleep in the dark, esp. when alone. I would set a timer on the TV so it doesn't run all night but inevitably the TV shutting off would wake me up. More recently I would put on a documentary on YouTube, and I would queue a few different ones so I get into deep sleep before they end, otherwise it would wake me up.
There's a Feynman story about him trying to experience the moment of falling asleep.
I tried the same thing, and had some interesting experiences. Around bed-time, lie down in a relatively quiet, not too bright place. For me, a hardwood floor with thin carpet works well. Close your eyes, and try to breathe slowly. Whenever you have a startling thought or start to feel impatient (why isn't this working?) just remember that all you need to do is to breathe slowly.
Over time my mind gets quieter and quieter. I may focus on the greenish patterns inside my eyelids (similar to photo-luminescent plankton). These patterns may swirl and move like a fluid-simulation.
If I'm lucky, at some point I'll realize that I'm asleep. I've never experienced the transition -- just the realization that, yup, I'm asleep. In winter this is accompanied by an overall feeling of warmth. There's also a feeling of disconnection from hearing and motor. It's not that I can't hear, but if there were crickets or bird noises outside, I realize it's gone suspiciously quiet. It's not that I can't move, but it feels like I'd have to surface first before moving.
Often the reaction to the realization "I'm asleep" is to startle and to wake up, but you can train yourself not to.
I have two methods to fall asleep after I wake up at night. 1) I close my eyes and focus on tracing an imaginary square with my eyes. I do this over and over. I'm usually out within 5 mins. 2) I focus on my breathing and count 1 for in 2 for out, repeat. I do that and I'm usually asleep within a few minutes. These are just tricks to quiet my mind enough to go to sleep.
Try meditation. I guess you are not supposed to fall asleep while meditating, but the breathing exercises I learnt from meditating always helped me fall asleep.
Laying in bed awake is counter-productive to falling asleep. Get up, have a drink of water, read a few chapters of a book. Let your mind settle down, then try it again. Laying awake just lets your mind wander.
I knew temperature was a factor. I have severe difficulty falling asleep unless I'm slightly chilly, preferably with a fan blowing on me. So probably around 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. Anything more than 70 degrees and I start to have problems.
78 degrees or higher and I will probably be jumping in the shower, applying wet towels to my legs, maybe bring a cold pack out of the freezer, sit in front of the open refrigerator door for several minutes, anything to try to cool me off, and it will take a couple hours to fall asleep, unless I'm already super exhausted.
I use a machine built just for this purpose. It’s a fan that stays on until morning. I cannot have a restful sleep without it - if someone in the house coughs or a slightly louder car drives by, ill be awake. Then I’ll spend part of the night worrying about things like a financial result at work or whether or not I locked the basement door.
He had a ceiling fan but no AC. So he would wrap himself in a blanket until he was soaked with sweat. Then he took the blanket off and laid on his sheet and let the fan blow on him thereby evaporating the sweat. This would cool him down and allow him to sleep.
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