Lack of sleep comes with bleary eyes, dull headache and body fatigue and your life can be quite joyless.
Each mental exercise below can help you find that elusive sleep faster.
And all you have to do is lie in bed and focus deeply.

1. Dry Erase Board involves being as comfortable in bed as possible.
   Close your eyes and picture the words 'falling' and 'asleep'.
   Mentally state them thrice as you inhale and exhale respectively.
   Then imagine standing next to a dry erasure board with a tray having an erasure, a red, black and a blue pen.
   Take the red pen focussing in totality on every aspect of the pen: its texture, the smell of ink and the pop of the lid.
   Draw a large heart in the middle.
   Replace the pen and pick the black one.
   Draw 'A' in the middle of the heart without touching the lines.
   Replace the pen and pick up the blue pen.
   Write the words 'falling' and 'asleep' in lower case then replace the pen.
   Pick the erasure and erase 'A' without touching any line.
   Rub off the words 'falling' and 'asleep' until you are left with the heart only.
   Replace the eraser and take the black pen and write 'B'.
   Repeat the exercise then go to C and so on.
   The key idea is to concentrate wholly on the smallest detail.
   Such monotonous and repetitive activity will lure your subconscious into sleep.
   
2. The Bathtub Exercise starts like the Dry Eraser Board.
   This time, imagine yourself in the bathroom.
   All the fixtures, fittings and tiles are brilliant white.
   Feel the water around you and smell the scented perfume in the water.
   On a table beside you are two candles of varying length.
   Concentrate on the flames and see how they flicker.
   Lift up your left hand and mentally see the flames growing larger.
   Lower your hand and they become smaller.
   Repeat this with your right hand.
   Purse your lips and blow lightly on the flames.
   Focus on the way the flames waver and dance.
   Start again with your left hand and concentrate on every detail.
   Repeat this over and over until you fall asleep.
   
3. Alone in the Beach is another mental exercise that helps one to get sleep faster.
   Its starts as the first two and then picture yourself sitting on the beach.
   Feel the sensation of cool breeze against your skin, hear the sound of waves lapping on the shore and feel the warmth of the sun.
   Scoop up sand and let it run through your fingers.
   As you do so, count from10-1.
   The last grains fall with the last number.
   Hear the waves lap at a distance.
   Scoop up the sand with your right hand and repeat this process again.
   This idyllic exercise will lure your mind into sleeping.
   

These ways of exercising simply call for concentration and focussing on the minutest details that we normally ignore daily.
Close following of these steps will definitely improve the quality of your sleep and hasten the speed at which you fall asleep.