One of the rare things my wife and I weren't fully compatible on, she's like you and needs full silence/darkness to sleep whereas I need something that pulls my mind away from the existential dread to fall asleep. I now use earbuds...
I use SleepPhones. Much nicer than earbuds because they're flat in a headband. Earbuds either fall out overnight or leave me with soreness in the morning.
I read (and sleep) on my side. I prop up the Kindle with a pillow and have it tilted something like 35° so it's more comfortable. So far it's the best setup I've had.
Wait how is nobody talking about this stock photo making no sense? Like what does the rabbit and bucket even fucking mean? And how do you apply that to a meme?
I once tried to fall asleep to erotica on the theory that I'd have erotic dreams instead of nightmares but I couldn't fall asleep so I listened to my sex playlist instead
A running joke in X-Files is that Mulder has a porn addiction. He's even shown to fall asleep watching it, like when he switched bodies with Michael McKean.