This is probably going to be long and rambling: as luck would have it, I didn't have a great sleep myself last night :) So there's the 'common' suggestions of

This is probably going to be long and rambling: as luck would have it, I didn't have a great sleep myself last night :) So there's the 'common' suggestions of avoiding caffeine in the afternoons / evenings and trying to 'switch off' half an hour or so before going to bed (as in, turn off the computer, put down the cell phone, dim the lights and maybe read a book). I know you said you wanted to avoid drugs, but does that include all 'chemicals'? Melatonin is great for helping with sleep, although I find it helps more with 'keeping me asleep' than 'putting me to sleep'. Do you have a TV or computer in your bedroom? If so, get rid of it. I don't care if it's not on when you fall asleep, you have to get rid of it. I don't know why, but for my wife and I, getting rid of the TV from the bedroom had an immediate effect. And we weren't the type to stay up late watching it just because it was there. Have you tried meditation at all? For a long time, I did a fair amount of meditation and that definitely helps me to fall asleep... just basically running through the relaxation practice. For an even longer time (when I was in high school) I used to listen to self-hypnosis tapes. Again, just from repetition I can pretty much put myself to sleep by running through one of those in my head. Having said all that, here's one trick I learned from a very unlikely place: some random guy on Big Brother in Australia a number of years ago :) Lay down and in your head imagine drawing the number '150' in the sand. Do it slowly and think about what you're doing... if you pay close attention, you can almost see every grain of sand moving as you do it. Once you finish '150' imagine doing '149', '148' and so on. For me, at least, it's all about (a) trying to keep your mind off the happenings of the day, and (b) doing something that you do all the time and that you associate with sleep. If I lay down and can start on the 'numbers in the sand' thing straight away, I can be asleep by '145', because my entire body understands the drill :) Anyway, hope that helps!