> The technique I use is to work on my "novel". I guess my mind knows I've been "working" on it for over twenty years, it's not important.

Not sure if you meant for this to be funny, but I laughed out loud at this because i do the exact same thing. I too can fall asleep within two minutes anytime, anywhere, while "working" on my "novel".

The trick is to never go to sleep with the actual intent of going to sleep. You go to sleep with the mentality of finally, some time for myself to just lie here and work on this project in my head. I work on fleshing out my little fantasy/sci-fi world or solving problems related to my pet programming project. I drift off seamlessly within minutes.

Attempting too hard to sleep is self-defeating; ironically, the stress of actively trying to sleep will prevent you from doing just that.