A good night’s sleep is all that is required to keep you active the next day. Poor sleep immensely affects your thinking capabilities and can have deteriorating effects in the long run. Healthy living starts with a healthy sleep pattern. Insomnia is the term that is being widely used for this syndrome and has been affecting half the people above the age of 50 around the globe. Lack of sleep can be attributed to a lot of things but the most common reason is anxiety. When you’re anxious, you tend to worry and think a lot thereby preventing the brain from shutting off. So the next time you are on the bed not being able to sleep and simply staring at the ceiling or tossing and turning waiting for sleep to kiss you goodnight, remember the following tricks that could help coax yourself into a dreamland.

1. Sleep music: Studies have shown that a mild music that has a slow rhythm of 60-80 beats per minute can help lull you to sleep. You can pick the style of music you wish to hear but ensure that it is slow and soothing. You can either listen to this music before you lie down or you can turn it on while you are lying down on the bed. A lot of options are available for free online and you can try different kinds of music to see which one puts you to sleep faster.  
2. Set your room temperature right: Your room and body temperature have to be mediated to allow your body to enter into its sleep mode. The sleep-friendly room temperature has been found to be 20 degree Celsius. Also ensure that the room in which you sleep is dark and comfortable and also free from noise and other distractions. Some people might even have their sleep disturbed due to ticking clocks. Make your room free from all kinds of disturbances. Sometimes wearing socks while sleeping also helps keep your body warm and can induce sleep quickly.
3. Rewind the day: This is a technique similar to counting numbers in reverse or even saying the alphabets in reverse. By recapitulating all the events that happened during the day in the reverse order, you tend to work out your brain a little more thereby making it tired. A brain that’s tired easily goes to sleep.
4. Shower before sleep: Having a warm shower just before you sleep and then immediately stepping into a relatively cooler space will cause the body temperature to drop suddenly. This rapid decrease in temperature lowers your body’s temperature and prepares your body for sleep. For some people immersing their face in cold water for 30 seconds can have similar effects (this may not work for people with sinus, asthma and other such disorders)
5. Stay away from blue rays: Blue rays are predominantly attributed to the gadgets ruling the present scenario. It is always advised to keep your phone 10 feet away from where you are sleeping since the rays are quite harmful for the brain. Similarly avoid scrolling your phone at night while lying down on the bed with all the lights turned off. This causes too much strain on the eyes and it tends to lose its visual balance. This in turn causes the brain to work hard to maintain the visual balance and keeps it working actively thereby hindering the process of sleep.
6. The 4-7-8 Method: This is a very famous sleep inducing technique which involves a few breathing sessions in a set manner. This technique has been proved to put people to sleep in less than a minute by slowing your heart rate and releasing more carbon dioxide from the lungs. 

• Place your tongue against the ridge of tissue behind your upper front teeth and        maintain  this throughout the exercise
• Now exhale completely through your mouth making a whoosh sound
• Then close your mouth and inhale through your nose to a count of 4
• Hold your breath for a count of 7
• Exhale completely through your mouth, making a whoosh sound to a count of 8
• This is one breath. Now inhale again and repeat the cycle 3 more times for a total    of 4 breaths

References:

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/15-ways-to-fall-asleep-faster_us_55dde3e7e4b04ae497054470

http://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/health/unable-sleep-eleven-ways-you-2300449