🤔 Why It Works

This method uses your body's natural instincts to work.

Understand Basic Principles

First, let's go through some basic principles.

We fall asleep because of sleepiness. When someone is extremely tired, like no sleep at all for 36-48 hours, they can fall asleep without taking sleeping pills. For those with long-term insomnia who take various sleeping pills, reaching "extreme sleepiness" might take longer than for the average person.
Sleep relieves sleepiness. The higher the quality and the longer the sleep, the more sleepiness is alleviated.

Just like solving a math equation, from these two principles, we can deduce:

To fall asleep quickly at a set time, we should avoid any form of sleep (including naps) beforehand to build up enough sleepiness.

Make Most Out of Sleepiness

But there's a third principle:

Humans naturally respond to the circadian rhythm. Whether it’s the biological rhythm written in our genes or the social constructs, we are designed to stay awake during the day and sleep at night. Ignoring this rhythm brings discomfort both biologically and socially.

Combining the third principle with the previous ones, we get:

To make the most of our sleepiness, we should follow the circadian rhythm, aligning our psychological state and physiological state, rather than following a disrupted sleep pattern.

The Final Strategy

So, we arrive at an actionable strategy:

Deliberately reduce your sleep time the night before. Avoid taking sleeping pills (or take a smaller dose, depending on your goal).
No matter how much sleep you got (even if you didn’t sleep at all), get up at sunrise. Avoid sleeping in or taking naps.
Endure the tiredness and discomfort throughout the day to build up significant sleepiness.
See if falling asleep that night becomes easier.