Herbs and nutrients to help those sleepless nights
Sleep has always been elusive for some of us. Sometimes we struggle to sleep because of stress or even excitement and sometimes we struggle to sleep for other hormonal reasons. Whatever our reasons are it doesn’t make it less annoying to be lying there awake and wired.
Pharmaceutical sleeping medications can sometimes be incredibly helpful but for so many of us they leave us feeling drowsy and out-of-it the next day. Luckily thats when our herbal and nutritional friends can come in handy!
First of all lets start with nutrition. It’s so important that we’re eating a healthy balanced diet to be getting all of the vitamins and minerals we need for supporting hormone production and function.
To sleep we need our brains to produce enough melatonin, this is the sleepy hormone. The precursor to melatonin is serotonin, the awake and alert hormone. In a natural cycle our brains produce serotonin during the day which is converted to melatonin as the day goes by. To make serotonin we need b3, b6, b12, magnesium, iron and folic acid to name some of the major ingredients in the hormone mixing pot. This means eating plenty of fish like tuna and salmon, mushrooms, nuts and legumes, lean meats like chicken and turkey, avocados, whole grains, leafy greens and a rainbow of fruit and vegetables!
Some things you consume might actually hinder the absorption of these nutrients so look out for too much refined sugars or drinking coffee and black tea around meal times!
Sometimes our bodies need a little bit of extra support on top of our diet and lifestyle. Some of the best and most accessible herbal sleep aids are:
Jujube (Zizyphus jujuba) - Jujube is full of so many grounding and important nutrients and impacts both serotonin and GABA (anther important hormone for relaxation). You can get therapeutic Jujube from some chemists or online but heading into your local Asian grocer will likely lead you to big bags full of the dried fruit!
Hops (Humulus lupulus) - We know it for its usefulness in brewing beer but the dried flowers of hops made into a tea is actually a very effective herbal sedative! Sitting at home with a mug of hops blended with chamomile or passionflower (below) is sure to help you doze off!
Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) - This amazing herb is exactly what you need if youre stressed and anxious and still awake at 2am! Passionflower is a wonderful relaxing herb that is gentle on your nervous system and a very effective sleep aid!
At the Apothecary we have a wonderful sleepy tea blend full of relaxing herbs including: Chamomile, Lavender, Lemon Balm, Hibiscus and Passionflower.
Experiment and see which plants work for you and
Sweet dreams!
