There’s nothing quite as frustrating as tossing and turning in your bed, trying your best to fall asleep. You know you need sleep in order for your body to re-charge. You’re trying, but it seems the harder you try, the less sleepy you become. Before you reach for that bottle of sleeping pills, try the following suggestions.

Creature comforts: Make sure your bed is nice and comfy, with a good supportive mattress. 

Be Goldilocks: Try different pillows until you find one that’s not too hard and not too soft, but that’s just right.

Stick to a routine: Establish a bedtime routine and maintain it. Try to hit the hay at the same time every night. This will help your body get into a healthy pattern.

Make some noise: Soothing music just might be the trick that sings you to sleep. White noise, like a fan humming, also helps many insomniacs. Invest $25-$30 in a “noise machine,” and you can choose the relaxing sounds of a gentle rain, a summer night, a forest, or waves breaking on the seashore.

Exercise right:  Try walking or doing mild to moderate aerobic activity a few hours before bedtime to reduce stress. Heavy weight lifting just before bedtime, however, might “rev” you up and have the opposite effect.

Be cool: Turn down your thermostat before bed time. Numerous studies show that people sleep better in cooler temperatures – some experts claim the perfect sleep temperature for humans is 65 degrees.

Be a sun worshipper – for short periods of time: Get at least a little sunlight every day. The body’s sleep and wake times are regulated by something called circadian rhythm. By getting sunlight during the daylight hours, your inner clock will remind you to sleep at night.

Relaxation methods: Try a few other relaxation techniques. Meditation and prayer helps some insomniacs. Also, try lying on your bed with your eyes closed. Concentrate on relaxing your entire body, starting with your toes. Picture your toes relaxing, then your feet, then your ankles, then your calves…

Say no to big meals: Avoid large meals just before bed time. They can make you feel bloated and miserable. Give your body several hours after a big dinner to process the food before you try to force it to fall asleep.

Snack attack: Eating a light snack of simple carbohydratess before bedtime can help make you sleepy. Carbohydrates increase serotonin, neurotransmitters that can induce sleep and relaxation.

Have a banana: Try eating a banana just before bed time. Bananas not only enhance the production of serotonin, they also contain trace amounts of melatonin, a hormone that causes drowsiness. Bananas also contain magnesium, which functions as a natural muscle relaxer.

Try some herb: Drinking a warm cup of chamomile tea can help you relax and unwind.

No joe: Avoid stimulants like coffee a few hours before you go to bed. You’ll be too wired to sleep!

Milk it: Did your mom have you drink a glass of warm milk just before bed when you were a kid? The age-old advice about drinking a glass of warm milk to help you sleep has a scientific basis: calcium calms nerves and can induce relaxation.

Be a book worm: Go to bed with a boring book. Eschew the latest thriller. Instead, try reading something like a 10,000-word treatise describing the sexual behavior of tsetse flies. C’mon, I dare ya!