Help me get to sleep

In last week’s article we looked at three of the most important things you can do in order to help yourself fall asleep easier. We discussed how beneficial it can be to go to bed when you are actually tired as opposed to when you think you should go to bed. We learned about how important it is to avoid stimulation within two hours before bedtime. Finally, we discussed how crucial it is to eat properly through the day and manage your blood sugar. In this week’s article we will discuss three nutrients that can help you get to sleep.

It’s important to start off by saying that no natural treatment and few prescription treatments will actually help you fall asleep in a healthy way if you are not addressing the causes of your inability to fall asleep. I always recommend to dig deeper to find the reasons for the difficulty because medicating naturally or synthetically never truly fixes the problem and can lead to dependency.

 

L-Theanine

L-theanine is an amino acid derived from green tea. This may lead you to think that it has stimulating properties to it. However, it is an extract from green tea that has a very calming effect on the body. L-theanine is not only used to help people get to sleep but it can be used to prevent or mitigate anxiety and panic attacks. The emotional calming effects of L-theanine are thought to be more pronounced than most other botanicals, which makes it especial useful for people suffering from anxiety, depression, or other mental-emotional health conditions.

 

Skull Cap

Skull cap, which is also known as scutellaria, has very similar properties to L-theanine. It provides a very calming stimulus to the body and is wonderful for helping to wind the body down as bedtime approaches. Skull cap has been used in traditional botanical medicine for hundreds of years and is known to be a very safe way to relax the body before bed.

 

Magnesium

Magnesium is a mineral that we use for hundreds if not thousands of processes in the body. One of its major roles is to relax smooth muscles throughout the body. Smooth muscles can be found in the arteries, visceral organs, and throughout layers of the skin. If a person is deficient in magnesium they are likely to respond very well to magnesium supplementation, especially with a bedtime dose. If the body is tight due to tight muscles or if the blood pressure is elevated magnesium may really help to relax the body.

 

In next week’s article we will look at how supporting the adrenal gland function during the day can help the body get to sleep better at night.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.