“A lot of people underestimate rest, especially sleeping and recovery time”. If you wish to stay healthy, it is highly important to consider the length of sleep and rest. The good quality sleep will help you get up afresh to engage in daily tasks.
10 Reasons Why Sleep Is Important
A good night’s sleep is highly important for overall health in the humans. It is something that is as essential as consuming healthy foods. It is important like the regular workout session. Unfortunately, the number of hours of sleep has reduced these days. As compared to the previous generation, the present generation is sleeping less. Most of us these days are awake for longer hours at the night. Here are the top 10 reasons why sleep is important for every human:
- Poor sleep can increase your body weight
- If you are a good sleeper, you will consume lesser calories
- With a good sleep at the night, you will achieve better concentration and productivity the next day at work
- You can see an improvement in the athletic performance with good sleep
- You will be at a greater risk of stroke and heart attack if you sleep lesser continuously
- Poor quality sleep will increase your odds of type 2 diabetes. The reason is that it affects glucose metabolism
- People, who sleep lesser, are at higher risk of depression
- With good quality sleep, you can improve the immune function
- Poor quality of sleep will increase the chances of inflammation in your body
- There will be an ill-effect on your social interactions with poor quality sleep. The reason is that it will affect the emotions to a great extent.
So, with these things understood, it is important that you should look for ways to achieve a good sleep. Here, natural sleep aid drinks will help with achieving your goal.
1. Banana Milkshake
Bananas are rich in magnesium and potassium. Both these nutrients are excellent muscle relaxants. So, a banana milkshake is an excellent sleep aid drink that you can prepare at home.
Process
- Take a banana and cut it into slices. Just add it to your mixer jar
- Now, add honey, if you do not want to add sugar. Just whip it
- Finally, add some milk to the mixer and beat it once
- You can also add cardamom powder to enhance the flavor
- Consume it before going to bed
Alternative
- If you are not comfortable with milk. You can make the banana shake using cold water.
How Does It Help?
In addition to being rich in magnesium and potassium, bananas also contain the amino acid called L-Tryptophan. It gets converted to 5-HTP in the brain, which, in turn, becomes serotonin. It is a relaxing neurotransmitter to induce good sleep.
2. Have You Heard About Golden Milk?
Golden milk is known for its digestive and anti-inflammatory properties. As it will help with absorption of essential nutrients, it will promote restful sleep.
Ingredients
- Non-dairy milk
- Coconut oil
- Ground ginger
- Ground black pepper
- Turmeric
- Cinnamon
How To Prepare?
- Just bring the non-dairy milk to boil
- Add the other ingredients to the boiling milk
- Let them sit for some time
- Filter the ingredients and consume the milk that has a golden yellow color
Alternative Method
If you do not want to add other ingredients, just add a spoon of turmeric to a warm cup of milk and can consume it before going to bed.
How Does It Work?
Curcumin is an active ingredient in turmeric. This ingredient is also known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Chronic inflammation can lead to disturbed sleep. But, the anti-inflammatory property of golden milk will relax the inflammation. In turn, you will get a good night sleep.
3. Cherry and Vanilla Juice
From the recent studies, it was found that drinking one cup of cherry juice once in the morning and once in the night will help you get an additional hour of sleep.
Ingredients
- A cup of cherry fruits
- A few drops of vanilla extract (optional)
- A cup of water
How To Prepare?
- Just wash and remove the stem from cherries.
- Place the cherries in a food processor or blender and add about 1/4th cup of water for one cup of cherry
- Blend them and make sure that the cherries are loose
- Filter and remove the skins and take the juice alone in a glass
- Add few drops of vanilla extract to the juice and take it before going to bed
Alternative Method
If you plan to store the cherry juice for use in the following days, you will see that it becomes dark in color. To avoid this color change, you can add some lime extract to the cherry juice before storage.
How Does It Work?
Here, it is better to opt for sour cherries. The reason is that as compared to normal cherries they are rich in melatonin content. It is the hormone that helps in regulating the sleep-wake cycles. So, you can keep the sleep schedule on track by taking this sleep aid drink on a regular basis.
4. Take Coconut Water
You might be thinking that coconut water is an energizing drink. But, it will be surprising for you to know that it is a sleep aid drink. You can take coconut water before going to bed every night.