Falling asleep

[Chaostracize]

Perhaps this is a basic question and best moved, but I was wondering what other people do/think about when they are trying to fall asleep.

I have always generally fallen asleep rather easily, but there are times when my mind is thinking about so much that I have a difficult time doing it.

One thing that definitely works is merely writing things down that I need to accomplish for the next day. I know when I was little I would just run around a lot, and that would often be enough.

Sometimes I think of falling and the feeling of weightlessness really helps. Maybe this is an unneeded glance into my psyche, but I also imagine what it would be like to die, so once again I get the feeling of weightlessness.

I've always thought it silly that the North American interpretation of someone trying to fall asleep is them concentrating on sheep jumping over a fence. If I tried counting to fall asleep that would almost definitely keep me up longer, as I've also never been the kind of person to fall asleep reading a book or watching the television. As long as my mind is somewhat active in that manner then I definitely cannot sleep.

I've been around people who meditate all my life and one thing that's struck with me is that (supposedly) people who meditate can fall asleep within a minute or so. Just by clearing their head of all thought they can pass right out (not saying meditating and sleeping is the same thing, just noting that what I try to accomplish when falling asleep is what people do when they meditate, so it's almost a muscle).

Anyone have any other methods to throw out there? I should also note that I don't plan on getting up and drinking hot tea with milk or anything like that.