I tend to take about 1/2 an hour to a hour to get to sleep. I don't operate on an alarm clock, generally go to sleep when i'm sleepy. which usually is around 10-12 midnight, however when i'm working outdoors it can plummet to 8-9. As for falling asleep, the only thing that has really sent me off to sleep is the movie natural born killers. nothing like a psychotic love story to put me to sleep, anyone else think that's better than little red riding hood? happened three times in a row, no idea why. maybe it just makes too much sense and lets me know all is right in the world, there are still things that are screwed up \o/ huzzah zzzzzzzz
as for mornings, bright and early used to be a 6:00 on the dot wakeup, then 6:30 and then after all good cartoons were remove of tv it went to 5-45 minutes before I need to do anything. Then again I believe that I do not completely shut down for every sleep, sometimes my memory comes around and I am suddenly aware that I have been concious for about 30 min and not realised it, other times i'm awake and my senses slowly come online. kind of like i've tricked my body to stay asleep, my limbs don't register and my hearing doesn't exist. but as soon as I run through a 'system check' everything suddenly springs into life. so it's a bit tricky to observe.
Some other things that get me bolt upright awake is my dad's voice, he could be talking on the phone whatever but as soon as my name is called I practically wake right up, I think he's been a bit unsure when I he's walked past me a few times then told me to wake up and i do. but that's a long story, not for here..
As for that foetal state mentioned earlier, sounds interesting. get this, after a person had a kidney transplant he went mad for all food greek, pasta and the works, twisted the fork to get it on the fork and everything. more astonishing because he never really liked that style cuisine before. sooo, this leads me to believe that the nerves that run through the whole body are capable of storing memories albeit unspecific ones. which leads me onto how I fall asleep, i let my brain drift and retreat to my body and then start to retrract back from my extremities to the core and just waver there until morning when I realise i'm awake. this might somehow tie into the conscious state of early infants. no ideas here, but interesting non-the-less.