Hard time falling asleep? Too many thoughts on your mind? Well, I offer a solution!

In the eternal words of Thoreau, "Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify!"

Yes, it really is simple! In fact, it's mostly natural. All I ask is that you do 3 things:

1. Get a sleeping mask (yes, I actually mean a regular, low-tech, inexpensive light-blocking device!)
2. Make sure to lose all sense of time e.g. obscure your view of your alarm clock, or maybe think "I still have ___ hours to sleep. It's easy! Plenty of time. Time, time, time...", or perhaps even forget you own one.
3. ...And lastly, think. Yes, I mean literally give your mind a workout! Going to bed should be about relaxing, not blocking out thoughts, right? In fact, wouldn't, for example, 10:30pm be the worst time to block thinking being exhausted as you are? Just go with the flow! :D

I asked you to get a sleeping mask because it's always been easier to V-WILD for me with my eyes open. Yes, with my eyes open! I have no clue as to why, but it simply works for me.

Also, the blocking out time aspect of this is that oftentimes when you're trying to go to sleep and you just can't, it's time that is making this a driving thought, right?

Keeping your mind free. It's relaxing, being guided by your thoughts. To go to sleep, all you have to do is to forget your responsibilities, and not have a care in the world :)

Just in reply to your "tactics".

For one I learned that simply just turning all the lights off in my room and turning my alarm clock to face the wall is better than having a sleep mask because I don't have any obstruction on my face. I sleep with my eyes about halfway open every night anyways. (yeah I know its weird, and it seriously freaks people out)

Blocking time out? Not quite sure I understand what you mean here. I just simply don't think about time, not that it would worry me that much as to lose sleep anyways.

Keeping my mind free helps me get to sleep faster, obviously. If I'm not really exhausted I do have a lot of things on my mind right when I first hit the pillow. What I do is just imagine your thoughts are on a television in your mind and just hit the off switch so it fades to black. Kinda strange but it seems to work for me.

I learned that totally relaxing my entire body really helps me fall asleep much faster. After each breath I try and relax a part of myself. With each breath have each of legs relax and then your arms and finally your eyes and conscious. Seems to work most of the time.

Anyways, I'm usually so exhausted by the end of the night I fall right asleep.
Or I take some melatonin and valerian root. ;)