If you haven't managed to get a ticket in the sleeper carriage and are facing an overnight (or longer) journey by train, buy the soft seat ticket and board the train as normal. When the train departs find a conductor and ask for a sleeper ticket. The sleeper carriages have beds reserved for the conductors, but often they will sell these to you once the train has left the station (particularly if you're a foreigner). You only pay the difference between the cost of the soft seat ticket and the hard sleeper. Plus you can pretend to be asleep when a well-meaning student tries to practise their English on you for the full 18 hours of your journey!
Updates
This ain't as easy as it sounds. Number one: not all trains have soft seat carriages - in fact I never saw one. Maybe you mean hard seat or soft sleeper? Number two: you won't find a Chinese conductor who speaks English, and trying to translate all the above with a phrasebook isn't easy. You might just have to take the pain and sit in a hard seat overnight.
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