i either watch a movie with a long boring scene like saving private ryan or lord of the rings or just read a boring book or magazine
read a book with a title like "stain tensor deformation of thick-walled pressurized cylinders using finite element modeling" in an extremely dim light. this will make you fall asleep in 5 minutes flat.
i usually watch tv. put like a 30 minute timer on it so it shuts off on its own or i listen to my mp3 player and put a timer on it so the battery doesn't die and i can still use it in the morning when i wake up. the text book thing works also for me.
um... watch porn movies of course! joking, i never watch that, i just listen to music or i just keep thinking of stuff.
still awake more than ten minutes. just grab a pair of old socks, take a big sniff, sleep like a baby.
watch tv programs, read a book or just simply come to the forum and see if there's any interesting articles being posted