I’ve been having trouble sleeping and was wondering if the old warm milk remedy actually does help you to sleep.
A second question is, if it does what temperature should it be heated to? Should it be boiled then left to cool? Or does it not really matter, so long as it’s warm?
LOL! Im sorry…your not preparing a bottle are you? Yes warm milk does make you sleepy. Milk is a lactid that has a chemical that doesnt stimulate but quite frankly does the oppisite. So when you warm it up, I’d say warm it up like you do for cocoa, about 5 minutes and you’d go to sleep better if you add Vanilla Cream. mmmmmhh! 
A discussion of milk and crackers, serotonin, and tryptophan.
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/0515.html
Bottom line–yes, it works for some people. How warm to make it? Just give a coffee mug of milk about a minute in the microwave–it doesn’t need to be boiling hot, just comfortably warm, like hot chocolate. This is mainly because it’s more soothing to drink warm things than cold things.
Actually, you don’t have to warm it up at all. Milk and a few other food items, like turkey, contain a substance called L-tryptophan which can help make you sleepy. It won’t work unless you also consume a carbohydrate with it (the carbs help clean other amino acids out of the bloodstream so the L-tryptophan can work properly). Drink it cold, drink it warm… it doesn’t matter. It’s more a matter of individual preferences.