What drinks are effective against insomnia?

Accord­ing to stud­ies con­duct­ed by West­ern and Russ­ian sci­en­tists, an adult’s sleep of less than 5 hours can pro­voke health prob­lems, includ­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal dis­or­ders, mal­func­tions of the ner­vous sys­tem and colds (due to a decrease in the pro­tec­tive func­tions of the immune sys­tem). Also, chron­ic lack of sleep, asso­ci­at­ed with heavy work­days, promis­es con­stant stress, night­mares, lethar­gy, low per­for­mance, reduced con­cen­tra­tion and mem­o­ry.

To min­i­mize the risk of health prob­lems, it is very impor­tant to ded­i­cate at least 7 hours of sleep at night. Sooth­ing drinks will be an excel­lent addi­tion, which, thanks to valu­able ingre­di­ents, will make it eas­i­er to fall asleep and elim­i­nate the feel­ing of anx­i­ety. What is good to drink before bed?

1. Warm milk with cinnamon and honey

The taste of milk with hon­ey is famil­iar to every­one from ear­ly child­hood. Car­ing moth­ers rec­om­mend­ed drink­ing a warm drink dur­ing a cold instead of bit­ter mix­tures and after a seri­ous ill­ness for a quick recov­ery. Also, warm milk with hon­ey was advised to drink before going to bed, because it has a calm­ing effect on the body. This aspect is due to the con­tent of the essen­tial amino acid tryp­to­phan in the com­po­si­tion of the live­stock prod­uct. It is she who helps to sup­press feel­ings of anx­i­ety and depres­sion, and hence sound sleep. The effect of warm milk is enhanced by cin­na­mon and hon­ey. By the way, this is men­tioned in the ancient Indi­an trea­tise Ayurve­da.

Despite the high cost, many peo­ple pre­fer farm prod­ucts. Milk is no excep­tion. Mean­while, not all farm­ers are hon­est with their cus­tomers. Roskon­trol experts exam­ined nine sam­ples of farm milk, five of which turned out to be haz­ardous to health. So, in the milk brand “Izben­ka” E. coli was found, and in the prod­ucts of the brand “Ustin­sky Mead­ows” the num­ber of mesophilic aer­o­bic microor­gan­isms is exceed­ed. These aspects, in turn, indi­cate that the farms do not com­ply with san­i­tary norms and rules. It is also pos­si­ble the fault of store employ­ees who make mis­takes when stor­ing dairy prod­ucts.

2. Cherry juice

Cher­ry juice can be safe­ly called an elixir of health. It con­tains a large amount of antiox­i­dants — pow­er­ful fight­ers with free rad­i­cals, which are the cul­prits of ear­ly aging, dis­eases of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem and can­cer. A lot of mela­tonin, the main hor­mone of the pineal gland, is in the com­po­si­tion of the cher­ry del­i­ca­cy. It, in turn, facil­i­tates falling asleep and nor­mal­izes dai­ly rhythms, which is espe­cial­ly impor­tant for those who, due to work or oth­er cir­cum­stances, are forced to face a sharp change in time zones.

Fact!

Cher­ry juice is rich in ellag­ic acid. This is a phe­no­lic com­pound, which is endowed with pro­nounced onco­pro­tec­tive prop­er­ties. He can fight against malig­nant can­cer cells, coun­ter­act pho­toag­ing, accel­er­ate regen­er­a­tion and quick­ly heal wounds, cuts, and scratch­es.

3. Chamomile tea

Chamomile tea is often rec­om­mend­ed for upper res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions and colds. He also proved his advan­tage in the abil­i­ty to nor­mal­ize the psy­cho-emo­tion­al back­ground and calm before going to bed, how­ev­er, pro­vid­ed that he was tak­en 2 hours before bed­time. Research has shown Moscow Sci­en­tif­ic Cen­ter of Neu­rol­o­gymin­er­al com­po­nents and vit­a­mins that make up the chamomile drink quick­ly elim­i­nate aggres­sion, pan­ic attacks, cause­less fear and insom­nia.

Fact!

Sci­en­tists from Korea in the course of long stud­ies and exper­i­ments con­duct­ed in 2013 proved that chamomile tea is extreme­ly use­ful for weak immu­ni­ty. This aspect is due to the con­tent of plant phe­nols, which are effec­tive in com­bat­ing path­o­gen­ic microflo­ra. Drink­ing just a cou­ple of cups of chamomile “elixir”, a per­son pro­tects him­self from colds and flu, which is espe­cial­ly impor­tant with the onset of autumn.

4. Banana smoothie

Those who are on a diet and suf­fer from insom­nia will like a cock­tail of bananas and kefir (pos­si­bly live yogurt with­out addi­tives). In its com­po­si­tion, a sweet drink con­tains a lot of potas­si­um, mag­ne­sium and vit­a­min B6 (pyri­dox­ine). These com­po­nents con­tribute to the nat­ur­al relax­ation of mus­cles, the elim­i­na­tion of neg­a­tive emo­tions and calm. The banana treat is also high in tryp­to­phan, an essen­tial amino acid that stim­u­lates the pro­duc­tion of sero­tonin and mela­tonin. The lat­ter is often referred to as the sleep hor­mone. He is respon­si­ble for its reg­u­la­tion.

Fact!

Many peo­ple often com­plain about bad dreams or lack there­of. In the mean­time, you can fix the sit­u­a­tion your­self. Vit­a­min B6 will help to see vivid and sen­su­al dreams every night. This has been proven by stud­ies con­duct­ed by Euro­pean sci­en­tists. Stu­dents took part in the exper­i­ment, some of whom received 100 mg of vit­a­min B6 per day, and the oth­er part received 250 mg per day. The results showed that par­tic­i­pants who took a large dose of pyri­dox­ine for 5 days saw only kind, emo­tion­al and inter­est­ing dreams.

5. Rosehip decoction

Many have heard about the ben­e­fits of rose hips in the midst of colds and flu. Indeed, a decoc­tion of med­i­c­i­nal berries increas­es the pro­tec­tive prop­er­ties of the body and strength­ens the immune sys­tem, due to the high con­tent of vit­a­min C. And few peo­ple know that a nat­ur­al gift is very effec­tive in com­bat­ing insom­nia. It elim­i­nates anx­i­ety, min­i­mizes the feel­ing of anx­i­ety, and nor­mal­izes the emo­tion­al back­ground. It is espe­cial­ly use­ful to com­bine rose hips with hop cones, chamomile, sage and moth­er­wort. A drop of nat­ur­al hon­ey in the drink also does not hurt.

6. Ginseng tea

Gin­seng has always been famous for its unique heal­ing prop­er­ties. In Chi­na, for exam­ple, gin­seng tea is con­sid­ered almost a panacea for all dis­eases. Thanks to a bal­anced set of vit­a­mins, min­er­als, organ­ic acids, alka­loids and tan­nins, the fra­grant drink is able to relieve emo­tion­al stress, reduce the effects of stress, elim­i­nate anx­i­ety and improve sleep. Gin­seng tea also strength­ens the immune sys­tem, coun­ter­acts ear­ly aging, and pro­tects against exces­sive appetite. The last aspect is extreme­ly impor­tant for those who decide to enter the warpath with excess weight.

Inter­est­ing fact!

The Chi­nese and Kore­ans call gin­seng tea a pow­er­ful aphro­disi­ac. It enhances sex­u­al desire and activ­i­ty. Sur­pris­ing but true! Men who reg­u­lar­ly con­sumed gin­seng tea and wine, and chewed the root itself, became fathers in their eight­ies. At the same time, absolute­ly healthy chil­dren were born to their cho­sen ones.

7. Decoction of hawthorn

A decoc­tion of hawthorn berries and flow­ers has been used in alter­na­tive med­i­cine for hun­dreds of years to com­bat a wide range of dis­eases. It con­tains a lot of bio­log­i­cal­ly active sub­stances, includ­ing organ­ic acids, flavonoids, antiox­i­dants, min­er­als, etc. The list­ed com­po­nents have a calm­ing and relax­ing effect, increase stress resis­tance, relieve men­tal and phys­i­cal fatigue, and elim­i­nate insom­nia. It is also use­ful to drink a decoc­tion of hawthorn for pro­longed depres­sion, reduced immu­ni­ty, mal­func­tions of the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem and dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract.

Fact!

Stu­dents and fac­ul­ty of the Fac­ul­ty of Health and Human­i­ties Ply­mouth Uni­ver­si­ty, locat­ed in Eng­land, con­duct­ed a study. For sev­er­al months, par­tic­i­pants suf­fer­ing from heart fail­ure, as well as hyper­ten­sion, drank a glass of hawthorn broth dai­ly. At the end of the study, pre­vi­ous health indi­ca­tors improved sig­nif­i­cant­ly. The par­tic­i­pants also not­ed an increase in strength and ener­gy, the absence of short­ness of breath dur­ing pro­longed phys­i­cal activ­i­ty and rapid fatigue, sound sleep.

8. Hot cocoa

The child­hood favorite drink is a real sav­ior for those who often suf­fer from insom­nia. This aspect is due to the high con­tent of mag­ne­sium in the drink, an ele­ment that helps to improve the process of inhi­bi­tion of impuls­es in the brain, which means reliev­ing irri­ta­tion and overex­ci­ta­tion, calm­ing down and sound sleep. Dark choco­late affects the body in a sim­i­lar way, how­ev­er, they should not be abused, oth­er­wise excess weight can­not be avoid­ed.

Roskon­trol experts con­duct­ed research on cocoa pow­der from six well-known brands. The first place was shared by two sam­ples at once — “Mar­ket” and “Kom­mu­nar­ka”. They were test­ed for qual­i­ty and safe­ty, how­ev­er, in the sec­ond copy, the ash con­tent allowed by reg­u­la­to­ry doc­u­ments was vio­lat­ed. Not infe­ri­or to them on points sam­ple of the trade­mark “Roy­al Pre­mi­um”, how­ev­er, it con­tains a resid­ual amount of two pes­ti­cides in an accept­able amount.

The bud­get sam­ple was black­list­ed “Red Price”. This is carob. An ana­logue of cocoa is lit­er­al­ly pow­dered carob, which grows in large num­bers in the wild in Spain, Cyprus and Italy. Carob is not harm­ful to health. The prod­uct was black­list­ed for incon­sis­ten­cy with the name and com­po­si­tion.

9. Melissa tea

Melis­sa is called a nat­ur­al anti­de­pres­sant. Min­er­als and vit­a­mins, which appear in the com­po­si­tion of the heal­ing herb, are famous for their calm­ing and relax­ing abil­i­ties. Tea with lemon balm can han­dle the elim­i­na­tion of irri­tabil­i­ty and anx­i­ety, the fight against fear, the nor­mal­iza­tion of the psy­cho-emo­tion­al back­ground. It is espe­cial­ly use­ful to drink a drink with the inclu­sion of a tea­spoon of nat­ur­al hon­ey, hop cones and St. John’s wort. Such an alliance in action will be able to com­pete with even the most pow­er­ful drug against insom­nia.

10. Rooibos tea (rooibos)

Rooi­bos tea (rooi­bos) is a herbal drink that is obtained by brew­ing the leaves and young shoots of lin­ear aspala­tus. It is espe­cial­ly active­ly used in trop­i­cal coun­tries (as a thirst quencher). Also, a heal­ing drink has gained pop­u­lar­i­ty among res­i­dents of Euro­pean coun­tries. It is val­ued for its unique com­po­si­tion and a huge num­ber of use­ful prop­er­ties. Rooi­bos tea, or rather the com­po­nents that are part of it, relieve ten­sion, elim­i­nate anx­i­ety, and nor­mal­ize sleep. Do not take away from the heal­ing drink the abil­i­ty to increase immu­ni­ty, pre­vent the devel­op­ment of ail­ments from the car­dio­vas­cu­lar sys­tem and, final­ly, min­i­mize the risks of pre­ma­ture aging (due to the high con­tent of antiox­i­dants).

Expert com­ment

Jack­ie Koehler, nutri­tion­ist, author of per­son­al­ized nutri­tion pro­grams for weight loss and over­all health improve­ment, pro­fes­sion­al fit­ness train­er, pres­i­dent of the Board of Direc­tors of the Los Ange­les Inter­na­tion­al Coach­ing Fed­er­a­tion

Insom­nia does not go unno­ticed. It must and can be treat­ed, oth­er­wise prob­lems with the heart, ner­vous sys­tem and metab­o­lism are pos­si­ble. Before you buy anti-anx­i­ety drugs, you must deter­mine the cause of your insom­nia. Per­haps you drink a lot of cof­fee or black tea dur­ing the day, eat very heavy meals at night, go to bed in an unven­ti­lat­ed and stuffy room, have an extreme­ly uncom­fort­able mat­tress or pil­low. These are just a few of the rea­sons that can trig­ger sleep dis­or­ders.

Try to elim­i­nate bad habits from your life. Before going to bed, be sure to ven­ti­late the room; in the sum­mer, sleep with the win­dows open. Eat right dur­ing the day, don’t overeat at night. Try to adjust your day, paint it lit­er­al­ly by the hour, accus­tom your­self to the regime. Don’t watch TV before bed, opt for a more pas­sive and relax­ing activ­i­ty like read­ing a book or lis­ten­ing to clas­si­cal music. Do not argue and do not swear at night, leave dif­fi­cult ques­tions until the morn­ing.

Do not drink alco­holic bev­er­ages before bed­time and, espe­cial­ly, cof­fee. In gen­er­al, avoid large amounts of flu­ids or foods that can cause fre­quent uri­na­tion (water­mel­on, can­taloupe). If you have trou­ble sleep­ing, drink a cup of herbal tea, such as chamomile and sage, 1–2 hours in advance. Such a drink will help to calm down, put thoughts in order, get rid of feel­ings of anx­i­ety and fear.