Try “Serial Diverse Imaging” to trick your brain into going to sleep (2021)

I had to scroll all the way down just to read the damn thing. It's the last thing in that article, even below Results and Caveats, under the title "The Cognitive Shuffle strategy".

I think that strategy demands a lot more cognitive effort than the usual relaxation exercises that meditation embraces. If you focus on your breathing and keep bringing your attention to it while laying in bed you are going to observe the same effect since the message to the brain keeps being the same.

summary: (human edited! no AI)

1. As you’re lying in bed, think of a random, emotionally neutral word that has at least 5 letters. Example word BEDTIME

2. Starting with the first letter, “B,” think of a word that begins with B, and visualize that item. Like imagine a Bear. And then a Banana. And then Bacon. And then Bread. And then Butter, etc.

3. If you can’t think of another word starting with B, move on to the next letter in your word BEDTIME – in this case, the letter E. So you’d imagine an Elephant. An Egg. An Escalator. And so on.

4. If you get to the end of your word and are still awake, just pick a new word, repeat.