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What Are The Best Teas For Better Sleep?

What Are The Best Teas For Better Sleep?

Do you love to have a hot drink before bed? Some might love soothing hot chocolate to help them drift off, while others might enjoy some tasty tea. Or maybe you've never considered indulging in a hot drink as part of your nighttime routine.

Whatever you like to drink before bed, it's essential to ensure it won't negatively impact your sleep. Your favourite cup of tea might be delicious, but it could contain caffeine, which will have the opposite effect of helping you nod off!

To help, we've investigated the effect caffeine has on sleep and found seven of the best teas for better sleep.

What effect does caffeine have on sleep?

Anyone who drinks coffee will know it gives your body energy, making it a popular choice as a morning drink to kickstart the day or as a pick-me-up at work. Caffeine is found naturally in coffee beans, cacao pods, tea leaves and more. This means that people worldwide consume caffeine daily, even if they're not enjoying a cup of coffee.

It works by blocking the adenosine receptors, which means your brain doesn't get the sleep-promoting chemical adenosine. As a result, you stay awake and alert for longer, which is great when trying to wake up in the morning but not so much when trying to fall asleep.

As you might expect, consuming caffeine later in the day can harm how easily you fall asleep and how much sleep you have! Studies have found that consuming caffeine can reduce your total sleep time by 45 minutes, with your sleep efficiency being reduced by 7%.

This is because caffeine has a long half-life of 3 to 5 hours, which means it takes your body to metabolize half of the dose. If you drink coffee at 5 p.m., you may still feel the effects even at 10 p.m.! Of course, the more you drink of it, the longer it will take to leave your system!

Why is tea better than coffee for sleep?

When we think of caffeine, we automatically think of coffee. As a result, you might believe that your cup of green or black tea before bed won't have the same negative effects, but you'd be wrong! There's no specific caffeine content we can give you per cup, as this depends on whether you like it strong, but tea leaves contain around 3.5% caffeine compared to the 1.1-2.2% of coffee beans.

Surprising, we know! Coffee has a higher caffeine content because the hot water extracts more caffeine from the beans than tea leaves. As such, a single cup of coffee will have more caffeine than a cup of tea.

What are the best teas for better sleep?

So, what exactly are the best teas to drink before bed? We've scoured the internet and found six teas reported to have great sleep benefits. Before drinking any, we'd recommend discussing with your doctor beforehand if you have problems sleeping or are worried about any potential side effects of these teas.

Chamomile tea

1. Chamomile tea

Chamomile tea is a fantastic choice for anyone looking to sleep better, as it is well known for its sedative effects. It's a popular herbal tea and essential oil therapy that has been traditionally used for insomnia. Studies have shown that chamomile tea contains an antioxidant called apigenin, which binds specific receptors in your brain to cause a sedative effect.

This means that drinking chamomile tea will make you sleepy, potentially reducing insomnia and allowing you to sleep comfortably.

Lavender tea

2. Lavender tea

Another tea that is thought to boost sleep is lavender tea. We're sure everyone knows lavender is a great choice to help you sleep better, as it's popular for pillow sprays. A study compared two groups practising good sleep hygiene to see who had better sleep quality. Those who wore a patch infused with lavender essential oil were found to have better sleep quality than those with a blank patch.

Another study aimed to find the effectiveness of lavender tea in postnatal women with poor sleep quality. Each woman drank a cup of lavender tea, and the results found that those who drank the tea had less fatigue and depression than those who didn't, showing a short-term boost to sleep quality.

Valerian root tea

3. Valerian root tea

Now, there's a chance that you won't have heard of this herb compared to some of our other contenders, but it's one of the better choices if you're looking to relax and sleep better. Valerian has been used in medicine for thousands of years and is just as popular for its sedative effects. It's such a great help for sleep disorders that the Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products has stated that valerian root as a dry ethanol extract can aid sleep.

Drinking a cup of Valerian root tea before bed can help you fall asleep quicker, improve your sleep quality, and reduce the number of nighttime awakenings you have!

Passionflower

4. Passionflower tea

A lesser-known choice of tea for better sleep is passionflower tea. Passionflower is a genus of over 550 members of the Passifloraceae family, and it's great for anyone wanting to branch out into some of the more unusual tea types. Drinking a cup of passionflower tea before bed can help you relax and sleep better, boosting your brain's gamma-aminobutyric acid level.

This compound lowers your brain activity, giving you a more relaxed feeling and letting you sleep better each night. Studies with animals have been found to increase melatonin levels, the hormone that regulates your circadian rhythm or sleep cycle. At night, your body produces more melatonin, leading to sleepiness, and a lack of melatonin can interrupt your sleep.

Rooibos tea

5. Rooibos tea

Rooibos tea has become pretty popular in recent years, making it easily accessible to make the perfect bedtime drink. As you might expect, we recommend rooibos tea for its fantastic sleep benefits. One of those is that it is naturally caffeine-free, making it the perfect alternative to black or green teas and less likely to keep you awake.

There is no other scientific evidence that rooibos helps with any specific health problems, but its lack of caffeine makes it an ideal choice if you're looking to reduce your caffeine intake.

Lemon balm tea

6. Lemon balm tea

Despite its name, Lemon balm has nothing to do with lemons! It's a lemon-scented perennial herb in the mint family that is easy to grow – so easy that you could grow it yourself to create your own lemon balm tea!

Whilst more studies need to be done on lemon balm's specific sleep benefits, a 2019 study found that 54% of those who took 500mg of lemon balm three times a day had improved sleep, considered significant compared to a control group.

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