2 hours before: Dim the lights and huff some melatonin

2 - 1 hour: Get in bed and read a book. Maybe some more melatonin

Then fall asleep

I don’t use my phone or any electronics and try not to talk too much with my roommates during that time. I also found that if I take ritalin or drink coffee less than like 8 hours before sleep, that I have more trouble falling asleep.

Obviously your mileage may (and will) vary

Recently my wife and I both tried and can confirm that taking Calm (check Amazon) 1 hour before bed allows us not only to fall asleep easily, but felt like we slept well. No I don’t work for them.

Also don’t drink anything with caffeine in it past 3pm.

Toss off

I’m still baffled by it, but a couple of years ago I found a switch in my brain and now I rarely have issues falling asleep anymore. I think the most important thing for me is not to constantly ask myself why I’m failing at such a seemingly simple task, but rather work around my natural instincts and try to support them as best I can.

If I go to bed early, because I have to get up early, I start spiralling and fall asleep way later, so I try to only go to bed whenever I’m tired. If I end up sleping too little I take one or two 20 minute naps (I try to never exceed 20, it would make me even more tired).

Another factor is probably how long I sleep. I always assumed I wanted to sleep long, because getting up sucks. But at some point I realised, that my first ‘sorta-awake’ moment is the perfect moment to get up and have energy for the day and get tired at the proper time. This moment comes at around 6 hours for me. I still struggle with this a lot though.

Drugs

Edit: to clarify, I mean prescription stuff. But whatever floats your boat