[radmin]

I used to fall asleep listening to tv or music but am happy that I stopped. Granted, it's been many years since, but the readiness with which I fall asleep and the quality and duration of my sleep is now quite good.

I am an anxious person and my mind does sometimes race when trying to fall asleep, but I picked up a visualization technique somewhere along the way that works for me.

Basically, I visualize a looping scene (kind of like a boring, relaxing animated GIF) until my brain gives up and goes unconscious. It's been different things over the years, starting with the memory of relaxing solo experiences (e.g. riding a bike along a segment of lakeside bike path on a cool, sunny day) and is now something more abstract (a 3D cube with different-colored faces rotating in a black space).

[mojomark]

Ha, that's interesting, I'm similar. The best visuallization that's worked for me is imagining a massive hilly vacant landscape at night with a giant grey beach ball that falls from the sky and bounces (slowly due to it's huse mass) around on the hills. Most times I think I only make it 2 bounces before I'm fast asleep.

[joevandyk]

I think that’s called “counting sheep”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counting_sheep