YMMV, but I would also try cutting out sugar, and adding melatonin. I cut out caffeine and sugar about 5 months ago, and consistently take 3mg of melatonin 1 hour before bed and went from 60+ minutes to fall asleep to less than 5 minutes.
Apparently insulin regulation plays a big part in sleep quality, hence the effect of sugar. Another nice side effect is I've lost about 7kg without counting any calories or making any real effort to.
Xmg of melatonin is hard to measure, because there's apparently not great accuracy in most OTC pills. And... it may take you days to confirm if a specific pill is 'working' well or not. If/when you find a combination, buy a bunch to have on hand.
I recently received the book "why we sleep" and it discussed melatonin's process. If "1 hour before bed" works for you, that's good, but it never did for me. ~3 hrs did. Or... at least 2-3 hours at this time of the year. My routine has been taking a melatonin between 6 and 7ish, and by 10 I'm typically quite 'ready' for sleep, and it's usually a fast process. It doesn't seem like it in the moment, but my wife has noticed I'm "out like a light" (which I think is more just in comparison to months ago).
You can buy liquid fast acting melatonin. I take a pipette 1 hour before bed time and by the time I got the pillow, I am so sleepy I fall asleep instantly and do not wake up during the night.
Have read some - it's not a panacea for sure. It did recently renew some interest in the subject for me, but yes, take it with some caution, certainly. It did make me re-evaluate some of the things I was doing re: sleep, and I've generally had somewhat better results since making adjustments.
For years after I graduated from college I kept my old physics textbook next to my bed for exactly this reason. Interesting enough to easily pick a topic to read, dry enough to put me to sleep in a paragraph.
Been the same forever but I’ve recently found 5-10 minutes of deep, slow, and focused breathing (in through nose, out through mouth) results in me falling asleep very quickly after.
