Getting regular exercise helps me fall asleep the way I like to--right away. If I'm stressed out, worried, or have extra energy (from sitting around all day) then I'll lie around for 2 to 3 miserable hours wishing I could fall asleep.Cold medicines that have drowsiness as side-effects are really great for inducing sleep, but I only use these when I actually have a cold. Other meds such as vicodin will help me fall asleep, but as soon as I drift from consciousness into sleep, it's like being thrown into a really bad dream, and half the time I will sit bolt upright and gasp or something. Not fun. Usually I can overcome this and go to sleep, but the dreams are really fucked up and unpleasant, and I wake up worn out.
One thing that I cannot stand when I'm trying to sleep is voices. If someone is watching TV, listening to the radio, or talking on the phone, I can forget about sleeping till they cut that shit out. Even if I can't make out what's being said, my brain won't tune it out. Music is the next most annoying thing. Of course, the best sleep I've ever had has always been during nine hours of complete silence and darkness, which usually I only encounter when I'm backpacking.
As for the wakeup, if my computers are off then I usually can sleep as long as I'd like to. The hum of the fans, however, will wake me up instantly when I start to become more alert in the morning--rolling over and going back to sleep becomes impossible.
I pay a lot of attention to my sleep patterns because I really fucking hate being sleepy during the day. One thing I've noticed and use to my advantage is that if I wake up after about seven hours of sleep, do something (like drive my sister to school...fun), then sleep for a few more hours, those last few hours will be full of lucid dreams. Who doesn't like those?
Fin.
