Contents:

• Natural drinks that help you fall asleep
• What you should avoid before going to bed

We all know how much good sleep impacts our health and well-being. It regenerates our strength, mind, and energy for the challenges of each new day. However, there are many factors that contribute to our increasing difficulty falling asleep. The deterioration of sleep quality can be influenced by excessive responsibilities, work-related stress, excessive stimuli, and bad habits such as using a laptop, phone, or television shortly before bedtime.

The consequences of not sleeping regularly and in comfortable conditions are serious. Initially, it can lead to irritability, fatigue, and drowsiness, which in turn lead to poor concentration, reduced immunity, and susceptibility to illness, even depression. Therefore, we should pay attention to the quality of our sleep, maintain physical activity during the day, avoid heavy dinners, and limit the use of electronic devices that emit blue light shortly before bedtime. If we have trouble falling asleep, natural drinks, consumed in the evening, can help us relax and rest.

Natural drinks that help you fall asleep

Our metabolism slows down before bedtime. Adding an extra portion of calories from a hearty dinner puts a strain on our stomach, making it difficult to achieve a restful night's sleep. Another important point is that our well-being depends on proper hydration. Therefore, instead of eating, we should drink something before bed—especially drinks that have a calming and relaxing effect. Fortunately, our meadows are home to many wonderful herbs that have a relaxing and soothing effect and also support digestion. For example, valerian has hypnotic properties, reduces central nervous system activity, and has an anxiolytic effect. Lemon balm provides relief from irritability, restlessness, and chronic fatigue. There are many other herbs with similar effects. For a good night's sleep, we recommend preparing infusions of:

• Lemon balm,
• Valerian,
• Lavender,
• Chamomile ,
• dogwood,
• Mulberries,
• Linden,
• wild rose,
• nettles,
• Verbena
• Hawthorn .

However, it's not only herbs that have calming properties. Before going to bed, we can also drink:

• Cherry juice – Research by scientists at Northumbria University shows that cherry juice increases the body's melatonin levels—the so-called sleep hormone. It is recommended to drink two glasses of juice daily, one in the afternoon and one in the evening.
• Golden milk – prized in Ayurvedic medicine, it's a traditional Indian beverage used as a remedy for all kinds of ailments. Simply add turmeric , cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger to heated milk. This beverage will warm you up and give you a feeling of satiety, making you sleepy.

What you should avoid before going to bed

To calm the body before going to bed, we should remember the above principle of avoiding electronic devices, but also:

• Excessive physical exertion – exercise is best done in the morning. In the evening, exercise is not calming, but rather stimulating. In the afternoon, it is recommended to take walks that supply the body with oxygen.
• Alcohol – although it may seem to us that a glass of red wine can have a relaxing effect, even the smallest dose of alcohol actually leads to our sleep becoming shallower and less restful, and us waking up more often.