[crb3]

Two techniques from my experience:

- 'walk back' in your mind to center yourself away from forebrain activity and visual activity (this is a visualization technique)

- cover your back with something insulated and/or warm. The less your back is staying tensed against chill air, the more physically relaxed you can be. I have a Thinsulate-filled sleeping bag that I use like a throw for this as it reflects body heat better than a comforter. Sleeping on a sofa, up against the back cushions, and noticing how it was good for naps, was what alerted me to this one.

[Widow]

I noticed this when I started sleeping with my back against a body pillow. I wonder if it has anything to do with wanting to sleep with pressure around our bodies?

[crb3]

That's not universal. I've read that infants / small children tend to like sleeping while wrapped / confined. This adult: not so much. (Part of that is probably the Minuteman attitude I've adopted since becoming a single parent a couple of decades back. Anything which interfered with my ability to quickly respond to / protect my kids had to go.)

I do think it's the warmth. Part of our maintaining constant muscular tension is maintaining body heat. While we do seem to want to chill down slightly for sleep -- my observation, based on how often I'd nap on the bus and awaken sweaty, and I seem to recall reading something about that -- IME that tension does noticeably interfere with quickly getting to sleep.

[twobits]

Could you please expand on the "walk back" thing? Also, any links, books? Thanks.

[crb3]

Like I said, it's a visualization technique, and it works better if you have some experience with pushing your mental energies around. Practice in Wiccan grounding, centering and shielding helps (Google that or start with http://www.witchvox.com and start probing, I guess; I don't know of any instruction materials currently in print or online). This is my experience, so I describe it here in first-person...

When I close my eyes, almost immediately my visual memory lights up with a "day review" which is like a daydream but for being something which I can direct, using pretty much the same visualization mechanism I use for data/code/schematic structures when I'm designing, coding or debugging. I can feel that forebrain activity as a slight heat just behind my forehead. It's great for overview and casual entertainment when I can afford the time, but not when I need a quick nap and it's keeping me conscious.

I will the main weight of my awareness to recede from that frontal visualization viewplane, moving toward the back of my skull, deliberately dissociating from the visual activity, to where things feel like they're quieter and move slower. If, for motorcycling, where a less tightly-focused, more panoramic viewpoint is best for situational awareness, I take a half-step back, for quick napping I take several steps back.

You can forcefully imagine the footsteps if it helps establish the change of center; after awhile, that mental positioning becomes familiar enough to dispense with the imagined physical/aural sound-effects.

Sorry if it sounds all too Crafty or New-Age, but that's how I live.

[sleazebreeze]

I knew exactly what you meant when you said "walk back". I've never been able to describe that effect, but you've nailed it on the head. It took some practice to develop after I discovered on accident, but it is very effective.