Okay, as I said, I find I have to clear my mind of any impending doom/obligations/problems/relationship issues/financial troubles/...,or whatever it is that makes the mind want to ruminate the instant, and while, it is awake. Unresolved, unattended, neglected, put-off-until-later/procrastination....these things will always gnaw at a mind with the least bit of a conscientious nature...which most all of us coming to such health forums are likely to have. This requires fortitude, learning, time, energy, sometimes the enlistment of help or expertise, and most often.....a plan. Living hour-to-hour, drifting, never having a plan for the day, is a recipe for troubles down the road. Everyone should have a list of to-do's, and they should be actively completing them and stroking them off. This practice builds self-respect, confidence, and a sense of autonomy (google Julian Rotter's Locus of Control model and see why kind of personality you are, someone with an external locus of control or someone with an internal locus of control. Which if those do you think you should be, or which orientation to life's obligations and problems, should you want to have to be a confident, autonomous, and successful human being?)
From there, with a quiet mind, one free of guilt or unmet obligations, you can fall asleep. Now it's a matter of staying asleep. This is what I use, but sparingly (as I have said previously, the rest of the time I tough it out, usually three nights running as a minimum to build back an intolerance, or a sensitivity, to whichever sleep aid I plan to use that fourth or fifth or sixth night). Then, as my normal go-to soporific, it is either one or two 2.5 mg gummies of melatonin. That's it. No warm milk, nothing in my stomach if possible, an empty bladder, a cool bedroom, I use the moldable soft silicone ear plugs because my dear wife sounds like an idling diesel locomotive when I go to bed, and I fall asleep 'building something, or planning a project' in my mind. Sometimes doing simply arithmetic helps (you'd be surprised how dividing 1500 by 23 can put you to sleep in a few seconds).
I don't want this to become a tome, not here and now. No sleep aid I used lasts more than about five hours. From there, it's only hope working for you. Sometimes that dose of melatonin lets me sleep for close to 8 hours, but that's one time in maybe four shots at it. The rest of the time, I might get 6 hours, or close to it. It's better than four or five.
The other soporific I use is prescribe Zopiclone. It's a small oval blue tablet, and I cut it into halves and then quarters and try to use it maybe once or twice a month. Again, it sometimes does the trick, even at a paltry 1.5 mg quarter tablet, other times I take half a tablet. It, too, has a short half-life because it is metabolized quickly by the liver, perhaps 3 hours. So, it can get you close to 5 hours, and then you hope your calmed mind will add the rest of the bliss you need.
One final comment: you will sleep better when you are physically tired....spent. This means doing some considerable physical activity during the day....never too close to bedtime, so not within perhaps an hour and a half of bedtime. But going for a brisk walk during the day, splitting cordwood, cleaning out the garage, doing heavy weeding, digging trenches in your raised beds and filling them with your compost that you turn every two weeks (yet more physical activity)...even slow, plodding stair-climbing if you live in an apartment and don't garden...you'd be surprised at how much it helps you to sleep.