In case you are taking part in a stressful activity, or anything which creates over-stimulation, you need to try an alternative. Even the most common of modern relaxations, which is television viewing, is not so relaxing after all. Most of the programs watched on modern televisions contain violence and fast action scenes and watching these kinds of programs will not be putting your mind into the right relaxed state in order to induce sleep. This is the reason that has made not watching TV a new sleep aid. Even if you are viewing something of a gentler nature, the effect of staring at a artificial screen having fluctuating pictures tends to have a stimulating rather than a relaxing effect on the brain. In order to be honest, refraining from watching TV in the two or three hours before bedtime would be sensible as a new sleep aid.
Drinking stimulant drinks which contain caffeine, just before retiring is like asking for trouble. Even those who typically drink a large quantity of caffeine, and whose body has largely adjusted to it, will find that cutting this stimulant out will help in their sleep patterns returning to normal.
If you feel like taking some nutrient before bedtime, you need to consider carbohydrate foods such as porridge, pasta, rice as well as bread as a new sleep aid, besides the bedtime drinks made with milk. All these are worth trying before you try out any artificial sleeping aids.
A new sleep aid will be to make sure that your environment is as comfortable as possible. Always keep the temperature in your room at the level which you find the most suitable for sleeping. Ensure that the room is dark. In case there is too much light outside, consider investing in blackout drapes to block this out.