Love this and I agree 100% with you. For me the suggestion of breathing slowly has helped a lot and not to forgot the customized affirmations that I keep saying to myself.

All the best and wish you find the answers and respite from your challenge.

@Hila Bensimhon My take on this. I would say that this is quite normal. The brain, by design, is supposed to look for dangers for survival. I learned this from Marisa Peer's TED Talk. You may want to look at it. She gives 4 guiding principles for the brain. But for simplicity, I would like to simplify it to 3. 1. The brain is hardwired to avoid pain and move towards pleasure. 2. The brain loves the familiar and rejects the unfamiliar. 3. The brain processes the world with the pictures in your head and the words you say to yourself. If you see the language, you used "I have a hard time sleeping in a new place". Point 1,2 kick in, and you want to avoid pain, but this new place is unfamiliar. So this is the reason why you are struggling to sleep. The way to break this pattern is by using methods to bring oneself to the present moment. You can adopt a whole host of techniques taught by @Daniel King but I would say experiment and find the one that helps you. I have been using chanting Affirmations has been helping me a lot. The only caveat is that when you try, do not attach any expectation to it. Because the more you attach expectations, the more you will get into problems. Good luck, and if you have any questions or comments, let me know :).

@Ronald Rosato I think in one of the training videos Daniel did answer this question. What happens when we fall asleep is very difficult question to answer because there a lot of things that happen in the background.

@Shari Sands thank you for the appreciation. Love the point you shared.

@Tunie Harris you are welcome :)

@Susan Tandoc I would like to have a jab at this one. Let me preface it with a disclaimer: I am not a Nutrition expert. But I would say the answer is technically yes. This is because of all the processes that run in the body. Digestion is one of the core processes that happens. Everything depends on the energy, and digesting food is the source of energy. So if you have food before sleep. It is not that because you are sleeping, your digestion is put on the back burner. Digestion is a process of breaking down food into glucose and eventually energy. So, if you give your system time to digest the food and produce energy, nothing is interfering with Sleep. So, your brain can relax technically. But then, if you are starving for some reason, going hungry will not help either. So, having food so that you are not hungry and giving your digestive system the time to digest the food is a good option. I hope I gave my thoughts, and if you have any question, please don't hesitate to ask.

@Laurie Stark :) good to know that.