I've spent years learning to fall asleep as well. I've had no luck with any of the "mindful" methods, brain just too overactive and restless. What worked well is listening to user comments on a monotonous text-to-speech engine. Feels like dozying off at a party while eaves dropping on conversation.
Setup is low profile in ear bluetooth headphones + copy and past a HN or reddit thread of interest (bookmarked earlier during RSS time), strip superfluous UI text and listen away. Unlike produced content like podcast/show, it's not designed to keep your attention. It still takes 10-20 minutes but it's reliable. Also gaining 10% more time is invaluable.
haha this podcast is what inspired me on my tts system.
Thought the concept was great, but couldn't stand the host or style. it feels like being trapped in room with crazy person, harder to fall asleep to his mutterings. Also doesn't work well when topics are random, need something that grabs brain interest, but not too much. This is why comment threads are great - they're somewhat sorted by quality. You start off with interesting conversations before quality drop, and it's easy for brain to check out.
Setup is low profile in ear bluetooth headphones + copy and past a HN or reddit thread of interest (bookmarked earlier during RSS time), strip superfluous UI text and listen away. Unlike produced content like podcast/show, it's not designed to keep your attention. It still takes 10-20 minutes but it's reliable. Also gaining 10% more time is invaluable.