Being much stricter with myself on sleep hygiene has helped quite a bit; but before I knew I had a problem, I could force sleep with alcohol, a bucket ton of it, but it did work. I didn't do that often, but it was always my backup plan. Not sure that that's any different than relying on meds though and its certainly unhealthy.

melatonin / benedryl... don't do squat for me.

My doc doesn't like me relying on chemistry as long as I can make the behavioral trick work I think. I didn't say it, but was thinking it a couple months ago, "com'on, everyone else gets sero'snooze, I say one dumb thing and I get started with an expensive, stimulating AP instead.." /bah :-D