TRY THIS, CONK OUT
One of my new favourite teas is banana peel tea from sleep doctor Michael
Breus, Ph.D. It’s got magnesium, which is soothing, and potassium, a
muscle relaxant. To make it, cut off the ends of a banana, slice it into three
pieces—with the peel on—boil for ten minutes, strain, and serve. Breus
recommends having it an hour before bed.While there’s no magic potion that will automatically induce sleepiness, you
can eat and drink to help lull your body into lights-out mode. The food fix you
can use to help involves melatonin, a hormone released by the pineal gland in
the brain, which is the first signal to your body that it’s time to sleep. One of my
favourite sources of melatonin is tart cherry juice (my father grew up on a tart
cherry farm and the whole family slept like babies). You don’t need a lot—
maybe 125 ml at dinnertime so the melatonin has time to act. I like cutting it
with sparkling water because the juice is too sweet for me; that way you get a bit
of a sweet spritz, which actually makes for a nice, healthy dessert as well. While
the data is limited, small studies show that tart cherry juice helps reduce
insomnia and increase total sleep time.
Other things my family likes to use to help improve sleep: lemon balm tea and
turmeric milk (half a teaspoon of the spice added to a cup of warm milk with a
little honey). Both seem to bring on drowsiness. One of the reasons to use milk
is that it aids the absorption of magnesium, which helps muscles relax. Being
tense and being in pain are two main causes for insomnia and sleep-quality