Banana Cinnamon Tea Recipe- It Works Like A Sleeping Pill

Sleep is incredibly important and any doctor worth their salt will tell you that. No matter your age, it’s one of the most important things you will do in the course of 24 hours. Without it, there are a host of problems you can expect in both the short, and long term. With short term sleep loss you are less alert, your memory is impaired, it can put stress on your relationships, dark under eye circles, premature wrinkling and your quality of life is lessened. However, long term loss is even more dangerous. Go long enough without sleep and you could be contributing to issues with blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, depression, lowed sex drive, heart attack, heart failure or stroke.

The National Sleep Foundation has outlined the amount of Z’s you should aim for(based on two years of research). They recently published the following table in their journal Sleep Health:

  • Older adults, 65+ years: 7-8 hours
  • Adults, 26-64 years: 7-9 hours
  • Young adults, 18-25 years: 7-9 hours
  • Teenagers, 14-17 years: 8-10 hours
  • School-age children, 6-13 years: 9-11 hours
  • Preschool children, 3-5 years: 10-13 hours
  • Toddlers, 1-2 years: 11-14 hours
  • Infants, 4-11 months: 12-15 hours
  • Newborns, 0-3 months: 14-17 hours

(There is also evidence that genetic, behavioral, and environmental factors also determine how much sleep someone needs but a minimum of seven hours of sleep is a safe bet.)

Now more than ever we are working until the last possible minute but our electronics emit a blue light which tells our brains that though we might be working at 11 p.m., it’s really earlier in the day. This in turn prevents the body from releasing melatonin, the hormone in charge of making us sleepy. With increased stress and screen time as a daily part of our lives, it’s no surprise that sleep deprivation is on the rise; some people even have trouble staying asleep once they’ve finally shut their eyes and their minds off. To help this issue, it’s best to stop using devices a couple of hours before bed. You can even get an app that will block blue light.

But, if you’ve tried it all and sleep is still elusive, before you reach for pharmaceuticals, here’s an all natural tea remedy that just might cure what ails you:

Ingredients:

1 banana (organic)
A dash of cinnamon
1 small pot of water

Preparation:

Cut the ends of the banana and add it to a pot of boiling water. Leave for 10 minutes, then pour the water through a colander into a tea cup. Add cinnamon to spice up your taste and you are good to enjoy! This banana cinnamon tea should be consumed an hour before you go to sleep.

From the article at Collective Evolution:

“A big part of sleep is being well nourished and also welcoming relaxation. Bananas contain high amounts of vitamin C, fiber, potassium, and magnesium, and all of these minerals help nourish your body and encourage your muscles to relax, so the rest of the work is just about allowing yourself and your mind to quiet down. When you add cinnamon to the mix, not only are you making things taste great, but you are also adding another relaxation (and circulation and digestive) powerhouse into the mix.”

I hope you enjoy this and that if you are having trouble sleeping, that you can find a good health care provider who will walk through these issues with you and not throw more pills at you. Your body is a marvel and it knows what to do but sometimes it gets out of whack and needs a gentle adjustment. Here’s to better health!

XO- Erin

Source: Collective Evolution and Cleveland Clinic