It doesn’t work every time (I am very much not someone that can just switch off), but I have found “floor time” to help as a method of meditating. Initially I was just doing stretches of time for the sake of countering being slumped posture all day without a specific intention of being a sleep aid. Some of us randomly do it on the cold floor at work if physically stressed out, which is why I thought to try it at home in the dark.

Tend to either have some long form video play that I have watched before and find nice for sound, or put buds in and set like a 20~30min sleep timer for podcast episodes I like and marked to never delete in a favorites section of the app. Ended up also finding some buds (Soundcore Sleep A10 for anyone that wants to know) that can auto-stop playback if they detect sleep (guessing they use like a heart-rate sensor). So they can act as an additional stop if I fall asleep before the actual sleep timer (sadly I have misplaced them ATM). Which help silence my own thoughts, and anchor onto the audio (and thoughts get kept to the video/podcast). And use the timer to formerly end the “floor time” or to avoid losing my place.

Only other thing I try to allow myself to drift into thinking about is if I feel like I have tensed-up or periodic moving my head to each side for a few mins each to stretch my neck. I just stare into the back of my eyelids, but sometimes the darkness of the room (or into something covering my eyes) for times that staring into the back of my eyelids feels weirdly stressful in the same way a staring contest does when open (very annoying feeling).

I have a high level (in my understanding) of Aphantasia, which for people that haven’t heard of it, is not being able to “see” imaginations like folks that talk about “imagine a ball of light” or other guided things. Not fully lacking complete ability to “see” things, but ranging from only the idea (nothing) to extremely quick flashes of mostly super low details. So I try to learn how to focus on keeping the flashes a little longer and “see” simple things or pull the image of the room as I would be seeing it from my spot on the floor if my eyes were open. Made some progress here and there, while still not being able to do it outside of these times. Which I think might be helping me start to nod-off into really light sleep where dreams are close to starting.

Which can slip into that weird sudden falling feeling people have sometimes before fully falling asleep. However even if that happens, I can use that as a stopping point for “floor time” and move into the bed and fall asleep soon after. As my mind/body are much closer to whatever state needed for going over the edge of sleep. If the “falling” thing doesn’t happen, I might reach a slightly deeper sleep where I am dreaming but can either still hear the show/podcast in the dream or it is influencing the dream to some in the short time I nod-off.