I must have noise to go along with going to sleep. Usually thats an audio book or long-form video essay type YouTube videos. I wear one earbud to bed if I’m sleeping at night with my girlfriend or just blare it from the TV if I’m sleeping alone during the day (rotating shift). I feel like when I don’t have engaging audio and I’m trying to sleep I can’t quiet my mind enough to sleep. A fan or random ambient noise isn’t enough for me.
These days no, because my spouse doesn’t like it. Prior I used to sleep to instrumental music on repeat. My go to for a long time was the sound track to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. To this day if I hear any part of it on shuffle, I immediately feel sleepy.