For many years, I have had a very difficult time sleeping! 10 years ago I was prescribed sleeping medicine to help me sleep. Little did I know back then how terrible these were for you and how hard it is to get off of medicine for sleeping. As I made my journey to a healthier lifestyle, I knew it was time to get off of this medicine. With the help of Chris Dillon of Nu-Health Strategies, I have been able to do just that!
Today I am going to share a recipe that Chris Dillon created for me that helps me sleep naturally. I have a glass of this drink every night and it really helps me relax and get sleepy and more importantly, it helps me stay asleep! Here are the ingredients; Bedtime tea, unrefined sea salt, natural sugar (raw honey, sucanat etc…), gelatin and fat.
There are several elements to this drink and Chris explains why it is necessary to include each ingredient in this recipe.
Salt: Salt brings down adrenalin and other stress hormones. The reason why people have trouble falling asleep or wake up in the middle of the night is due to stress hormones being elevated. Salt downregulates their actions.
Sugar: Honey or sugar is a disaccharide (glucose and fructose). Fructose inhibits glucose from blood sugar to spike. Glucose by itself will cause blood sugar handling issues. This is why honey, sugar, and fruit will not spike blood sugar. When you sleep, you are fasting and you need reserved glycogen stored in your liver to help maintain balanced blood sugar levels while you sleep. When our blood sugar drops, it raises our stress hormones and causes us to wake up. Having a sugar reserve helps prevent this from happening along with the salt to control adrenaline rising.
Gelatin: Gelatin is a protein that is high in proline and glycine which helps counteract tryptophan and cysteine’s stressful effects on the brain. Glycine is recognized as an “inhibitory” neurotransmitter and promotes natural sleep. Tryptophan is the precursor to serotonin, which causes inflammation.
Fat: Fats like heavy cream, milk, cheese and so forth help balance the ratios of proteins and carbs in the tea. The fats help keep blood sugar balanced.
I should also note that “bedtime tea” does state to consult your healthcare provider prior to use if you are pregnant or nursing, taking any medication or if you have a medical condition. You can also choose a green tea, red tea, white tea etc…just make sure that there is no caffeine in the tea and that the tea is a right fit for you.
You can play around with this recipe to see which amounts suit you, but it is very important to have all of these elements to create a restful night’s sleep. Give it a try and let me know how your night’s sleep was!
Print
My Bedtime Drink That Guarantees A Restful Night’s Sleep!
Prep Time: 2 minutes- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Total Time: 7 minutes
- Yield: 1 serving 1x
- Category: drink
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: american
Prep Time:
Yield:
Category:
Method:
Cuisine:
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Learn how to make a bedtime drink that creates a restful nights sleep!
Ingredients
- 1 teabag of bedtime tea
- 16 oz of filtered water
- 1/4–1/2 tsp unrefined sea salt
- 1/4–1/2 tsp natural sugar (sucanat, raw honey, etc..)
- 1 tbsp gelatin from a grass fed source
- 2–3 tsp half and half, heavy cream, raw milk
Instructions
- Heat water in a kettle.
- Add all ingredients to your cup except your cream and tea bag.
- Pour hot water into your cup and stir.
- Add cream and tea bag and let steep for 5 minutes.
- Remove tea bag and drink.
About Chris Dillon
About Chris Dillon
Chris Dillon is a Chek Practitioner, Holistic Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach, Metabolic Typing Advisor and a Massage Therapist. Chris has helped thousands of people to understand health and nutrition better. He is very passionate about educating people about health. I have learned a ton from Chris!
Don’t have all the ingredients? No problem! Click on the links below to see where you can purchase them.
@reidme75 Regular table salt affect blood pressure because of all of the additives that are in it (that they don’t tell you about). It’s my understanding that natural, unrefined sea salt does not affect blood pressure like processed salt does and is actually good for you.
How about bone broth for the gelatin and fat? I have a boat load in my freezer (made from my own free range organic chickens). Yeah it wouldn’t taste very good with the tea but I have them separately. It sure tastes good with the salt.
what about Tulsi tea plus substitute dairy and add different fat? which one you suggest? I don’t do dairy.
Tulsi tea is great bedtime tea
To the questions about the gelatin. I have the Knox brand, (store bought in small pouches) could I use this.
I do not recommend Knox brand, it is not from a grass fed source and really isn’t a quality gelatin.
It’s aո awesome paraɡraph for all the online people; tɦey wiol obtain advantage from it I am sure.
i question the addition of salt. the rationale that it lowers adrenaline spikes may be outdated. recent research indicates that it actually raises adrenaline. see–http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/salt-boosts-bp-but-via-adrenalin-12-01-11/
Does this only work to help you stay asleep or will it help with falling asleep? I have been battling chronic and severe insomnia for 7 years now. I have managed to wean myself down to a 1.25mg does of Ambien, but I struggle falling asleep and if I do I wake up anywhere from 12-20 times a night.
Can someone please show me the scientific research that shows serotonin causes inflammation? I’m having trouble locating this.
Hi there, I am going through some major post pardon issues and I am having a very hard time sleeping. I am currently taking four different things to sleep and still having problems and its pretty scary. I want to try this since I am already drinking the yogi tea at night. My question is that I’ve always been told to eat foods high in tryptophan before bed to induce sleep yet it says that the gelatin is used to counter act it. Should I cut out my small bowl of cottage cheese and bananas before bed and just try this drink? Also can you tell me what is the difference between L-tryptophan and tryptophan. Thank you so much for your time. I’m in desperate need of sleep.
Hi Halle! Many thanks for posting such an interesting article. Just wanted to say that I’m a sort of allergic to gelatin so can we have a replacement for gelatin (preferably a vegetarian ingredient).
You could try Agar, Agar-Agar, or Kanten. See if that works for you.
I will use R.O water, Real Salt by Redmond, and Korio Madus Raw Honey, Grass fed cow collagen/ gelatin and cream, Thanks , GOD BLESS + Nighty night!
Sounds perfect! Sweet dreams Ingrid! 🙂
[…] also use gelatin in my bedtime tea and as a daily supplement. Check it out, you might be surprised how healthy and wonderful […]