What can I do to make falling asleep easier?

[00shahaf]

For as long as I can remember, I can fall asleep only when my body and, more importantly, my mind, become exhausted. This obviously leads to an irregular sleeping cycle that's been a pain in the neck throughout my life. I'd like to hear from people who experience or had experienced a similar issue, and how they dealt with it. I never went to a doctor for a diagnosis, but if anyone (preferably a professional, but I'll take anything) could tell me what I have I'd really appreciate it.

[SoDangTired]

This isn't an answer to your question but a sympathetic response. I'm currently still trying to figure out why I struggle with the same thing. For me, my sleep anxiety has manifested itself in a couple of different ways. The current manifestation is that I jerk awake when I'm falling asleep. The only way to mitigate it , is to be so completely sleep deprived that my fatigue over powers my mind/body's desire to jerk awake.  I've tried a variety of approaches; meditation, pharma (lunesta, ambien, trazedone) and controlled sleep deprivation. After some initial success with each approach, they ultimately have failed to remedy my issue. It turns out that my psyche is extremely adroit at making me not sleep! At any rate, I'm still attempting to figure this issue out and to ultimately "cure" it.

[AnxiousNoMore]

The best thing to do is read a book or two about the subject and possibly visit a sleep clinic.
Two things make you sleep, 1. circadian rhythm so it is best to go to bed at the same time every night and don't linger in bed after a pre-set time in the morning.
2 The fact that your body will drop off when you are exhausted like an overactive toddler once it reaches exhaustion has to be carried to bed.

Not all sleep disorders can be cured but it helps to understand the problem instead of just trying different approaches that might help but can't do the job when you are not doing all the other things right. It may not be correct that your psyche is adroit at making you not sleep - perhaps you are missing part of the puzzle so your psyche is able to work with that and prevent good sleep.