You cannot fall asleep.
You can, however, lie really still on a comfy mattress. You can let your mother tuck you in, or let the person you love crawl into bed next to you. You can stop drinking coffee after noon. You can keep the room dark and cool. You can count sheep and wear blue light glasses and buy the magnesium gummies with the moon on the bottle.
You cannot fall asleep, but you can wait.
It will happen little by little, then all at once. Your eyes will get heavy and suddenly you will be somewhere else. Maybe you toss and turn. Maybe you dream about a house you've never lived in. Maybe you spend eight hours seeing and living nothing at all.
You'll sleep eventually, but you cannot fall asleep.
You can't do anything, really. You can't get stronger. You can go to the gym and pick up heavy things and eat quinoa, but you can't grow your muscles. You can't make a good salad. You can't explain love or taxes. You can't become rich, but you can drive to work and do what your boss tells you and hope you get paid at the end of the week. You can't become any cooler, but you can spend your wages on a nice jacket.
You often cannot do the Thing. You can only do some other thing that you think might cause the Thing to happen. Which means if you are trying to do the Thing, you are necessarily doing it wrong.
I'm not going to tell you how to do it right. That's for the bald guys with the courses to sell. And I don't know how, anyhow. I'm just telling you how it goes. Dogs drink out of water bowls. Some of your best friends growing up will become strangers. Some of it will be your fault.
You cannot make someone like you, but you can forgive them for something stupid. You can be forgiven for something worse. You cannot make the machine do what you want it to, but you can write the code and press enter. You can trust the people and institutions that came before you. You can hope your working model of the world is right.
You cannot fall asleep, but you can put your phone on the other side of the room. You can find the right person to lie next to. You cannot fall asleep, but you can always increase your chances.