It's dark, it's late, and you're not asleep. You don't have anything in the house to help you sleep, and you don't want to run to store at 2 in the morning.

Here are some natural sleep aids that you can do now, without having to go to the grocery or health food store.

Self-hypnosis, sometimes also called creative visualization, is a relaxation technique used to decrease stress. In the process, if done late at night, it can help induce sleep by bringing down blood pressure, slowing breathing rhythms, and calming the mind.

There are many ways to go about self-hypnosis. Here is one description. Here is another.

• Lie in a comfortable place and close your eyes.
• Start at the toes, and one muscle at a time, relax. Tell yourself you are relaxing each muscle.
• Once you have done this for every muscle from toe to head, tell yourself you are completely relaxed.
• Then imagine yourself at the top of a staircase, or the top floor of an elevator. Slowly count the steps, or floors, as you descend. Imagine with each descent, you are sinking deeper and deeper into the floor or bed.
• Repeat until you have fallen asleep.

Meditation is an age-old eastern practice used to calm the mind and spirit. Practiced on a regular basis, meditation can help overal sleep quality. Used before going to sleep can help the mind relax and fall into a deep sleep.

There are several kinds of medication practices, including as zazen, transcendental and guided.

To meditate:

Find a comfortable place to sit. Traditionally, meditation is done on a zazen pillow or mat. But it can be done in a chair, so long as you are comfortable and your back is not hunched with your feet on the floor.

• Close your eyes and breathe.
• On each out breath, count. Count up to 10, then start over at 1 again.
• If a thought comes along, bring your focus back to counting the breaths.

• Repeat until you are relaxed enough to sleep.

Reading is a tried and true way to bring on sleepiness. Preferably, read something that isn't too engaging, or you might be up all night sleeping.

Magazines are good, since their content is often short and doesn't require a lot of concentration. Non-fiction and how-tos are also a good choice.

If you want to find motivation, reading a book about sleep is also an option.

A popular parenting advice to help babies get to sleep is to create a night time ritual; bath, story and then time for sleep. Adults can benefit from the same advice.

Establishing a night time routine can help train the body for preparing for sleep.

Consider a warm bath, a hot cup of tea or milk with honey, or sitting with a loved one as part of your routine.

There's nothing like a massage from a loved one to lure us to sleep. Massage reduces stress, relaxes our muscles and improves our feelings towards the person giving us the massage.

A gentle back rub can do wonders to release tension. Couple's massage is even more relaxing, although it can lead to the sleep remedy number 6....

For some, sex is the most powerful sleep agent available.

In men, orgasm releases norepinephrine, serotonin, oxytocin, vasopressin, nitric oxide (NO), and the hormone prolactin, all sleep hormones.

In women, sex releases oxytocin, the "cuddle" hormone.

Although not everyone feels sleepy after sex, at least it's a good way to pass the time when one has insomnia.

If you have cronic insomnia, you may need to see a doctor. But for those rare nights that you just can't get to sleep, trying these non-medical treatments are worth a shot.