I don't have any kids, but have baby sitted a lot of my cousins who were far from perfect little angels so I had to invent so many different ways to get them to go to sleep.

My most successful one is getting them to play the quiet game, and while initially they found it funny, I just gave the impression that losing this one game was a bad thing, and after a couple of days, it started working.

I also would take them swimming everyday which got them tired and eventually used to a schedule of sleeping.

And I'd make everything sound super important, like if he/she didn't sleep, they wouldn't be tall and strong, and wouldn't do well in school, and rant on and on, and sometimes they fall asleep during my speech, or somethings they'd take it to heart and just listen. Works with feeding them veggies and making them clean their room, but I have to give the speech everytime.

I love kids in general, and can tolerate almost all their antics (even if I am trying to sleep or just lay down) but if I give them the look (One I learned from my mother), they all sober up and pretty much do anything I want (I think they're secretly afraid to disappoint their favourite cousin). That one took some time to get working, but it works like a charm now.