Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders around the world. Species of plants such as Citrus sinensis, Citrus limon, Ternstroemia pringlei, Ternstroemia sylvatica, Casimiroa edulis, Galphimia glauca and Cymbopogon citratus are traditionally and widely used in Mexico as sleep aids. The aim of this work was to evaluate the sedative effect of different extracts of these plants by using the exploratory cylinder model in mice. Different doses of the hexane, dichloromethane, methanol or hydroalcoholic extracts were intraperitoneally administered 30 min before testing in order to obtain their sedative ED 50 values. The most active extracts were Galphimia glauca methanol extract (ED 50 = 22.06 ± 5.6 mg/kg) and Cymbopogon citratus hexane extract (ED 50 = 27.01 ± 2.9 mg/kg), followed by methanol extract obtained from the Citrus sinensis leaves (ED 50 = 38.48 ± 8.0 mg/kg) and flowers (ED 50 = 47.04 ± 12.0 mg/kg); whereas, Ternstroemia sylvatica methanol extract (ED 50 = 61.88 ± 6.42 mg/ kg), Galphimia glauca hexane extract (ED 50 = 76.85 ± 20.9 mg/kg) and Cymbopogon citratus dichloromethane extract (ED 50 = 77.11 ± 15.0 mg/kg) show lower sedative activity. Other extracts showed an ED 50 value over 100 mg/kg or were inactive. Our results give evidence of the popular use of these medicinal plants as sleep aids.