Natural Sleep Aids

I don't know about you but I cannot sleep at night! I usually am so exhausted that I fall right to sleep but I don't stay asleep. Regardless of when I go to bed I am usually wide awake by 3:30 or 4 in the morning and just lay there wishing I could sleep. I have had this problem for years and never wanting to take sleeping medications, I don't want to feel drugged in the morning or become dependent on them. I have taken melatonin and it helps some but when I saw this list of natural sleep aids I thought I have to try them! If you have trouble sleeping give them a try and let me know if any of them work for you! Here is hoping to a lot more sleep for all of us!

Kiwi: This tiny fuzzy fruit packs a punch of serotonin. Researchers at Taipei Medical University in Taiwan found that eating two kiwis before bedtime resulted in falling asleep more quickly and sleeping more soundly. The nice thing I learned recently is you don't even have to peel them! Rinse and rub them under cold water and eat them whole, skin and all. They are good this way!

Tart Cherry Juice: A glass of tart cherry juice a day could keep the restless nights at bay. According to findings published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, researchers found that participants who drank eight ounces of tart cherry juice a day reported less insomnia. It's suspected the fruit's red-hot powers lie in its high melatonin content, which helps induce sleepiness. Make sure you are getting a juice that is actually fruit juice and not from concentrate and loaded with sugar!

Lavender: Not only does what you put into your body affect your sleep but also what is around you in your environment. The scent of lavender relaxes your nervous system. Tie a few sprigs together and stick them on your nightstand or above you on your bed frame.

Green Tea: Pull out that cute whistling tea kettle! A steamy cup of green tea can help you get some shut-eye, says Catherine Darley, director of the Institute of Naturopathic Sleep Medicine in Seattle. The drink contains l-theanine, a relaxing amino acid. To have any benefits, you need to consume about 200mg daily—that's about two cups.

Valerian: A tall blooming grassland plant, known as valerian, may be the fix to falling asleep faster. According to Darley, the natural sleep aid reduces the amount of time it takes to doze off. She recommends taking 625mg before bed to give insomnia the boot.

Magnesium Oil: You don't always need to pop a pill—even an herbal one, according to Taz Bhatia, MD, an integrative health expert in Atlanta. "Rub magnesium oil on the bottoms of your feet and around your neck area at bedtime," Bhatia says. "It helps balance serotonin, a sleep neurotransmitter."

Magnolia Bark: If you easily drift off but find yourself waking up bright-eyed in the middle of the night, Bhatia recommends taking 300mg of magnolia bark to bring on a real snooze-fest. "It lower cortisol levels, which can sometimes spike at irregular times and keep you awake," she says.

Bananas: Hit up the produce aisle to bring on the sleep. Bananas are loaded with magnesium, which has a calming effect, but the peel has about three times the magnesium as the fruit itself, says Michael Breus, PhD, a sleep specialist in Scottsdale, Arizona. "Cut off the tips, keep the skin on and boil it in water for six to seven minutes—then drink." The tropical banana tea will have you nodding off in no time.

Losing Weight...Let's Here it for Sleep!

Isn't it a beautiful thing, sleep?! But we don't get enough and more sleep may actually help take inches off your waist. Research shows that if you're sleep deprived, your body produces more stress hormones, which promote belly fat and also increase appetite. What's more, a new study shows that a sound night's sleep boosts levels of leptin, a hormone that works to suppress hunger. To study the sleep-appetite connection, researchers at Laval University in Quebec tracked the sleep habits of 740 men and women for 10 years. As it turns out, the benefits of just one extra hour of sleep are astonishing! The researchers found that women who got six to seven hours of sleep were 11 pounds heavier (men fared even worse—16 1⁄2 pounds heavier) than those who slept seven to eight hours a night. Blood tests revealed that short sleepers had levels of leptin 80 percent below those who got a full night of shut-eye.

So don't worry about being called lazy bones! You know a secret that helps you be thinner!