I had my girlfriend wake me up at 7:30 in the morning before she went on her jog. I had her wake me up every time I started to doze off for about 10 min. After that I imagined myself digging my hands in sand. After about 4 min of doing this, it felt like my hands were actually feeling sand. I opened my eyes and I was in my bed, but in a dream. My GF waking me up time after time made me really tired and made the transition from waking to sleep really easy.

You don't have to use a person but set an alarm to go off every 3 min for 15 min. After that, use whatever technique that works for you. It worked really well for me.