A game of horseshoes? A game of horseshoes?!?
I do this thing that I call “wormhole-ing”
I just close my eyes and imagine myself traveling through a wormhole vis-avis Star trek, Stargate or whatever your sci-fi of poision happens to be.
It’s kind of strange with me. I imagine myself going through the wormhole at superspeeds then all of the sudden, the wormhole stops and a random, bizzare image will pop into my head like dnooman’s “Pandas playing golf on the moon.” That image will stick in my head for a couple of seconds then it’s back off to the wormhole again to repeat the process untill I eventually fall asleep.
What bogles MY mind is where the Fuck are these images comming from?? 
Don’t do anything in bed but sleep. Make sleeping the only association you have with the bed. (Think of yourself as Pavlov’s dog.) If you can’t sleep, get out of bed and read, watch television, or whatever; just don’t create the association of not-sleeping in your bed.
I’ve found that sometimes I can’t sleep well for several days, and then for some reason I go to bed with a sweatshirt and long-johns on and realize I’ve been too cold to sleep, but I didn’t realize it. So maybe try adjusting your warmth level, up or down.
Another trick is to be consistent with your bed time and rise time. When you change these (say, going out a few nights a week), you throw your body off and can’t get a pattern established.
Finally, take a Benadryl and a melatonin a few minutes before bed. I’ve found that helps really well.
Okay, now finally, except for the above remark, try drug-free sleeping. Don’t go to bed tipsy from booze or whatever. They may seem to help you sleep, but the sleep you get is inferior to sober sleep.
Not for three hours, just be done 3 hours before you are ready to go to bed.
It helps me to do conscious relaxation, or, if I’m feeling very tense and antsy, active relaxation.
In conscious relaxation, you go over your body, concentrating on each body part, and concentrate on letting it become as relaxed and heavy as possible. You can scan through your body a couple times, if necessary.
Active relaxation is the same basic deal, except that you tense the muscles in each body part and hold them rigid for 5-10 seconds, then relax them.
In addition to relaxing your body, these processes focus and relax your mind by concentrating it completely on your physical state, allowing you to let go of other thoughts.
After the relaxation process, I spend some time on slow, deep breathing, and counting breaths, and a little meditation if my mind is still restless.
I’m a visual person, and what I call lying in bed thinking is really just me lying in bed “seeing” scenarios act out. So when I need to sleep I just put up a “gray screen”…the tv in my head goes off the air, nothing to see. The rest of my brain usually gets the message in a few minutes and shuts off.
A dumb technique but it works for me.
Gotchya, I thought you wanted me to go cross country skiing or paragliding prior to bed. 
Two weird things I’ve come up with that often seem to help.
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Breathe slowly and steadily, and imagine waves flowing over your body, in rhythm with your breathing. (counting the waves seems to be counterproductive, for me, but YMMV.)
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Picture yourself and your bed travelling through empty space in wide horizontal circles.
I haven’t had any problems in years, after discovering this:
- Choose a sleeping position. It doesn’t matter what, just something your comfortable with (For me, it’s lying on my left side).
- DON’T MOVE
That’s it. When you’re restless, you tend to move around. If you refrain from moving, you’ll fall asleep, even if your mind is racing.
I can’t sleep unless the TV is on. You can turn it really low so you can barely make out the words. Also, the shittier the program, the faster sleep comes. Tune in to something awful like Fresh Prince of Bel Air or Three’s Company and you ought to be sawing a log in no time.
For starters, I make sure I don’t have any caffeine after 4 pm. Then I usually read on the couch until I’m about to drop off before I get into bed.
In bed, (and this sounds kinda stupid), I make up plots for my favorite TV shows. It’s relaxing and non-stressful and I have some favorite plots I keep adding details to. Going over familar material usually helps me fall asleep.
If I have a lot of trouble dropping off, I lie very still and try to relax every muscle in my body one by one. I start at my toes, concentrate on relaxing every single toe muslce and work my way up. I usually don’t make it all the way to my neck…
I do the counting thing and the conscious relaxation thing sometimes too, but if I’m really not tired, I try to fake myself into thinking that I’m tired.
You know when you are watching a movie or TV and you are slowly dozing off, but trying so hard to stay awake? I go through all the motions of this - first I yawn a couple of times. Then I blink slower and slower (making my eyelids heavy). Slow down my breathing. Maybe yawn again. Relax my jaw (like one of the first posts said) and finally I try to concentrate on hearing my own heartbeat.
It works almost always within 5-10 minutes.
Excuse me now…
:o ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
This works for me too. If I just can’t get to sleep, I roll over and snuggle with the hubby. I know that if I fidget, I’ll wake him up, so I lie very, very still, and in no time at all I drift off.
I saw the thread title and came in here to recommend exactly this. It’s probably the simplest thing you can do and it really does work. Relax your mouth!
Other things that work for me:
- I like to watch TV in bed. I find it helps to keep my mind off things. However, if I am too interested in something and it’s too long, it will keep me up watching. I try to choose a half-hour show, and I make myself close my eyes during the commercials. By the time the show is over, 9 times out of 10 I’m out.
- When the TV doesn’t help, I play a little game. Start with the letter “A” and think of foods that start with that letter. Breathe in, and as you’re breathing out, think of one food that starts with “A.” Breathe in again, breathe out and think of another. Once you can’t think of any more, give yourself three more deep breaths to think of one, and then move on to “B.” I don’t think I’ve ever made it past “L” doing this. I find it makes me slow down my breathing, plus it keeps my mind off other stuff because I’m trying to think of the next food. I’m sure you could substitute foods with names, or whatever else you feel like listing.
I’ve been a lifelong insomniac, and I’ve tried self hypnosis, camomile tea, Horlicks, hot baths, booze - even mogadon - and none of it really worked.
I found my personal solution, which is to listen to talk radio (this feels like about the 20th time I’ve posted this. Probably is). It’s on really quietly in an earpiece - my wife can’t sleep with the radio on - and usually the voices lull me to sleep. And if I can’t sleep, at least I’m not bored.
Note that I don’t listen to conservative call-in shows, as I don’t want to end up gnashing my teeth and yowling.
When I can’t sleep because my mind is racing, there are two things I try. First, stream of consciousness writing, to get it out of my head. Second, I visualize myself putting the problem or whatever it is in a box, then putting the box on a shelf, then leaving the room and looking at the name on the door of the room–work, money, your SO, whatever. There’s a whole hallway of rooms so every problem can be put behind a door and left behind. Then I imagine walking down the hallway and out the door onto a gorgeous relaxing beach and just laying down and relaxing…
Hello! Try SEX!!! a great session will leave you both pretty spent! Solo works too!
I would really like to second (third) this. A good orgasm, whether solo or assisted, is possibly the most effective soporific I’ve ever discovered.
I have a weird one, but it works for me: I make sure that I’m am COLD when I climb into bed. Not just casually chilly, but the full depth body chilling just shy of wanting to shiver. This is very easy for me to achieve since we keep the thermostat pretty low in the house, and it automatically shifts down to 50-something at 10 pm. I just make sure to take off any extra sweaters while I’m watching the last hour of tv, or net surfing, or whatever and gradually my body warmth slips away.
Then I climb into bed, huddle against hubby (yes, poor longsuffering hubby) and tuck the covers tightly about me. The sensation as warmth creeps back in is so wonderful…aaaaaahhhh! The muscles clenched against the cold automatically relax, and before I even feel fully warm I’m sound asleep.
My sympathies, Lama Pacos! It’s rare that I go a full week without troubled sleep. Sometimes I think my brain hates me, waking me up with thoughts of “What if your parents get cancer?” or “What if your husband leaves you for a sweeter, younger thing?” Here are a few things that have helped me.
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As others have mentioned, exercise. Whenever I can, I go to an hour-long aerobics class after work. It helps me de-stress and it physically wears me out, so that sleep is much easier.
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When I wake up worrying about something (usually multiple things), I visualize myself literally shutting the door on it. It’s like I’m walking down a corridor with many doors. I come to the one with my co-worker, say “good night” and shut the door firmly. Next the one with my financial stuff: “Good night,” and shut the door. It’s silly, but it often works.
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If I really can’t sleep, I’ll get up and pace. I make myself walk up and down the hallway at least 50 times. Something about the counting and the motion helps relax me enough to sleep.