The habit of drinking tea before bedtime has been praised for helping people who struggle with sleeping naturally to relax and achieve longer hours of a peaceful rest.
Examples of sleep-inducing teas
Though, how efficient most sleep-inducing teas are came from the testimonies given by people using them to sleep better. In other words, little scientific research is available to attest to the extent of their efficiency.
That being said, the teas highlighted below have helped some people who normally have a hard time sleeping to enjoy more restful hours:
- Magnolia tea: This tea is made from dried Magnolia's barks, buds, and stems. It contains honokiol and magnoloi, which are two components considered to have sedative effects.
- Green tea with low caffeine: Some research have shown that epigallocate chin-3-o-gallate (EGCG) found in green tea may be responsible for its sedative or sleep-inducing property.
- Chamomile tea: This is categorized as a herbal tea, made from the Chamomile plant. And some interesting research have confirmed its sleep-inducing characteristics.
- Lavender tea: You can make a lavender tea by brewing some lavender flower's buds in water. It is usually purple in color and it comes with an aromatic flavor. A study revealed that by drinking 1 cup (237ml) of lavender tea per day for 2 weeks can lessen fatigue that normally causes sleeplessness.
- Valetian tea: This type of tea can be made from the dried roots of Valerian plant. It is believed that this tea can boost the levels of a neurotransmitter referred to as gamma-aminobutyric acid (GAMA), which reportedly helps in reducing people's anxiety.
- Passion flower tea: This tea can be extracted from passion flowers, and the chemicals in it purportedly have calming effects. This explains why people utilize Passion flower to calm down their anxiety, stress, and fight insomnia, ADHD, etc.
- Herbal tea: Some herbal teas such as Ginger tea, Hibiscus tea, and Chamomile tea have been detected to possess sedative properties, and could make people sleep longer when they drink it.
Some important facts about sleeping-inducing teas
- Do not over-drink any of these teas. The normal volume per person per day should be 1-2 cups. Although, some people may require more quantity before they could feel the teas' sedative effects. Whatever the case may be, make sure you drink them moderately, because of the chemicals they contain which may producee an adverse effect in human bodies if consumed in large quantities.
- If at any time you feel drowsy or experience any sign of discomfort based on the teas you've consumed, please get in touch with your doctor.
- It is advisable that you should complete your bedtime tea-drinking at least 2 hours before going to sleep. Don't drink any of these teas and go straight to bed. It takes some time before they'll start to work in your body.
- As expected, teas may be slower in getting you to sleep, unlike sleeping pills. However, they are likely not to produce any significant side-effects if consumed moderately.
- Because of little research in this area, it is almost impossible to believe that chronic insomnia or anxiety disorder may be cured by merely drinking teas, but there is some hope that they could help calm down your nerves!