You’ve probably heard about detoxes for weight loss, bloating, gut health, allergies, and a clearer complexion. You may even have tried a few. But have you tried a sleep detox?
A sleep detox is a simple way to detox your body without starving yourself or embarking on a crazy cleansing diet. Deep sleep is a natural way to clear toxins from your brain – and it’s free!
What is a Sleep Detox?
A sleep detox is when your body naturally removes waste, toxins, and hormones from its brain cells and organs during sleep. A good night’s sleep allows your brain’s plumbing system (called the glymphatic system) to open up and let fluid flow rapidly through the brain. This allows the brain to flush out the toxins that build up during waking hours.
The key to a sleep detox is to ensure you are getting enough deep and restorative sleep. Adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep. You have to give your body enough time to get to the detox stage of your sleep cycle. Researchers believe that during sleep, especially during the third and fourth stages – the deep sleep stages – your body is more effective at removing waste product from brain cells.
The following drinks work and in hand with good sleep hygiene to help your body flush out every day toxins.
Top 7 Drinks to Help Detox Your Body While You Sleep
1. Chamonile Tea
Chamomile contains apigenin, an antioxidant that binds to certain receptors in your brain that promote sleepiness and reduce insomnia or chronic sleeplessness. Apigenin has also been shown to fight cancer cells, especially those of the breast, digestive tract, skin, prostate and uterus. And drinking chamomile tea helps lower blood sugar levels. Its anti-inflammatory properties may prevent damage to the cells of your pancreas, which occurs when your blood sugar levels are chronically elevated.
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2. Mushroom Tea
The types of mushrooms typically combined with tea like chaga, lion’s mane and reishi are chosen because they’re considered adaptogens. Adaptogens are herbs or foods that help your body adapt to stress. They work by calming the central nervous system and moderating its response to cortisol, a stress hormone. They’re especially helpful for external, environmental, and emotional types of stress.
Mushroom teas taste earthy, woody and have a slightly spicy flavor profile. Reishi is quite bitter so it’s best sweetened with a dash of honey or maple syrup. Chaga smells and tastes earthy, like the smell of autumn leaves. It pairs well with chai spices such as cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and cardamom. As for lion’s mane, its taste is mild and smooth.
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3. Fenugreek Water
Drinking fenugreek water during the day may help with weight management and proper body function. At night, it can help improve sleep by reducing anxiety and dizziness. Soak a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds in water overnight. Strain out the seeds and drink the water daily.
Fenugreek tea has a nutty taste with a slight bitterness to it. Add raw honey to adjust the taste to your liking.
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4. Lemon Water
Lemons contain vitamin C, a primary antioxidant that helps protect cells from damaging free radicals. Using lemon juice to flavor your water can help you drink more, especially if you’re not a huge fan of plain water and find it difficult to drink your 8 glasses of water a day. So whether you drink your lemon water before bed, or throughout the day, the extra hydration will help your body detox itself.
It’s also good to note that the citric acid in lemons may even help prevent kidney stones. The National Kidney Foundation suggests mixing 4 oz of lemon juice concentrate with water as a complementary dietary remedy alongside your kidney stone prevention medication.
To make lemon water, squeeze half a lemon into 8 ounces of warm or cold water. If you find the mixture a bit too bitter, add a teaspoon or maple syrup or raw honey. To save yourself daily prep time, squeeze a bunch of lemons and freeze their juice in an ice cube tray. Then simply drop a few cubes into a glass of cold or warm water whenever you get the urge to drink a sugary drink.
If you suffer from heartburn and GERD, consuming lemon water before going to bed could cause symptoms, so be sure to consult your doctor before you make lemon water a daily habit.
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5. Valerian Tea
Valerian tea can be taken one to two hours before bedtime, or up to three times in the course of the day, with the last dose near bedtime to treat insomnia. It could take a few weeks before you feel the effects, though. To make valerian tea, pour 1 cup boiling water over 1 teaspoon of dried root and sleep for five to 10 minutes.
Valerian root contains valerenic acid and valerenol, two compounds that can act on GABA receptors in the body. GABA is a chemical messenger that helps regulate nerve impulses in your nervous system. It’s one of the main neurotransmitters responsible for sleep regulation, and so increasing the amount of GABA available in your body has sedative effects.
Valerian tea has a woody and earthy taste. You’ll either love or hate it. Some people find the smell unpleasant, to boot. Like with fenugreek tea, adding a little raw honey goes a long way to making the taste more palatable.
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6. Ginger & Lemon Tea
Lemon-ginger tea is especially helpful for calming indigestion. Ginger, alleviates the delayed emptying of your stomach (great for dealing with those late, heavy holiday meals), and lemon contains a plant compound called limonene that aids digestion by helping move food along your digestive tract.s
7. Green Tea
Green tea is loaded with polyphenols, which fight cancer, and it can even help you lose weight thanks to its fat-burning and metabolism-boosting abilities. Drinking green tea can also help protect you from Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s because it prevents amyloid plaque formation and creates new brain neurons—resulting in a 54% reduction in the risk of cognitive decline.
Limit yourself to a maximum of two cups of green tea a day, especially if you have kidney stones, because it contains high levels of oxalates that could lead to the formation of more stones. And drink your tea before midday because it does contain some caffeine and any amount is going to trigger your adrenals and hormones to be in a more awakened state.
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An Early Bedtime Is Best
My mum used to say, “An hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours after.” And although that’s not scientifically accurate, there is some truth to it. Your sleep quality does change as the night wears on. Your sleep is made of a series of 90-minute cycles of REM and non-REM sleep. The 90-cycles are pretty stable, but the ratio of REM and non-REM changes.
Non-REM sleep dominates your slumber cycles in the early part of the night but as the clock creeps toward daybreak, REM sleep starts taking over. That’s significant because non-REM sleep is deeper and more restorative than lighter, dream-infused REM sleep. So if you hit the sack very late, like around 2 or 3 a.m., your sleep be mainly made up of lighter, REM sleep. And that reduction in deep, restorative sleep could leave you groggy and slower to react the next day.
Good Sleep Hygiene is Key
No amount of herbal tea or lemon water will help you detox your brain if you’re also ingesting alcohol, coffee or rich foods before bed. If you want your brain to properly detox while you sleep, remember to follow the cardinal rules of sleep hygiene:
1. Avoid caffeine after 2 p.m.
2. Exercise daily, but not right before bed
3. Avoid alcohol and nicotine before bed
4. Don’t use your bed for anything other than sleep or sex
5. Don’t use any devices for at least an hour before bed
6. Limit your exposure to light one to two hours before bed (that includes watching TV)
7. Journal or meditate to put your worries to rest
8. Get out of bed if sleep doesn’t come
9. Stick to a regular bedtime
10. Have a comfortable and dark sleep environment
Consult Your Doctor
The use of herbs and sleep teas is a great approach to detoxing your body and preventing disease. However, herbs and teas can trigger side effects, and can interact with other herbs, supplements, or medications. For those reasons, you should take herbs with care, and consult your doctor or healthcare provider before you make any tea or supplement a regular part of your diet.
What’s your drink of choice before bed? What could you happily drink all day, every day? Have you tried any of the above?
great article. thanks meline