I find reading technical work makes my brain fall asleep very quickly. I am sure if I read Knuth's books at night I would be asleep within fifteen minutes.
I am not sure thinking about technical work would help sleep, because thinking could be orthogonal to reading.
Oh, I'm with you regarding technical reading being a good way to fall asleep! But reading someone else's train of thought is a different way to engage the brain than trying to figure out a mathematical proof on your own - that's a lot more like what pondering over programming problems would be like for us I think
I am not sure thinking about technical work would help sleep, because thinking could be orthogonal to reading.