For more than thousands of years, as seen on Healthy Holistic Living, homemade cures with honey have been used to help with insomnia and other sleeping problems.
In Europe, it is not uncommon to consume a cup of warm milk mixed with honey before bedtime to ensure quality sleep. Moreover, traditional Mexican healers have been recommending a tsp of raw honey mixed with chamomile tea. Let us learn why honey is so popular in the world of holistic medicine when it comes to sleep.
Why Is Honey so Important when it Comes to Sleep?
As seen on Healthy Holistic Living, Mike McInnis, a pharmacist, author, and researcher from Scotland claims that holistic remedies with honey have the capacity to better and prolong the duration of restorative sleep in three different ways, i.e. it make sure there is sufficient glycogen in the liver for calm 8 hours of sleep, balance the levels of blood sugar, and encourage the melatonin secretion- a hormone which is pivotal for sleep.
Also known as the HYMN cycle according to McInnes, this cycle starts with the consumption of two tbsp of raw honey an hour before going to sleep.
What Happens once You Consume the Honey?
As explained on Organic Solutions Portal, here is what happens during the HYMN cycle:
- The glucose from honey goes from the gut and through the liver flow into the blood flow and causes a minor spike in the glucose levels
- This elevation encourages the pancreas to secret a small insulin amount
- This insulin, through the blood flow, transports tryptophan to the brain
- The brain transforms the tryptophan into serotonin, the happiness hormone
- Once you turn down your lights, the pineal gland makes melatonin from the serotonin
- This melatonin lowers the temperature of your body and encourages sleep; also, it averts addition secretion of insulin from the pancreas and averts a drop in the blood sugar
- Melatonin is important for the release of the growth hormone- a hormone necessary for our recovery physiology
- When the liver glycogen levels are sufficient, there is no need for stress hormones to be released
DIY Honey Remedies to Treat Insomnia
If you have sleeping problems or suffer from insomnia, here are several powerful and completely natural remedies we found on Healthy Holistic Living (based on honey) which can be of great aid:
- Drink a cup of chamomile, lemon balm or orange blossom tea mixed with a tsp of raw honey an hour before going to sleep
- Drink a cup of warm milk mixed with 2 tsp of raw honey before bedtime
- Before going to bed, drink half a glass of freshly-squeezed orange juice combined with half a glass of lukewarm water and 2 tsp of raw honey
- Drink a cup of peppermint tea mixed with a tsp of raw honey; add a bit of clove to spice things up
- Combine 2 oz. of honey and 5 drops of lavender essential oil and put 2 tbsp of the mixture in your warm bathwater. Soak in it for 10 minutes before bed
Important to note:
Remember, since over-the-counter sleep medications have been associated with a long list of dangerous side effects and can also be highly addictive, whenever possible, opt for natural remedies!
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