Rest is important in order to give the best during the day: anxiety, worries and a poor diet can make us sleep badly and make us nervous, not focused and less efficient at work and in the studio.
Let's see what are the herbs that promote sleep and allow us to sleep well, thus also improving the quality of our days.
Insomnia: why it is important to rest
Insomnia is a very common disorder that affects people of all ages and genders. When you suffer from insomnia it is difficult to fall asleep, you often wake up during the night, or you have an inversion of sleep-wake rhythms.
Adults should sleep for at least six to eight hours a night : during these hours sleep is characterized by different phases that follow one another during rest; the last of these phases is called REM sleep, that is the period characterized by fast movements of the eye.
The loss of this stage of sleep causes irritability and drowsiness during the day, can compromise psycho-physical efficiency and negatively influence mood, learning, memory and concentration, decreasing performance at work, in study and in normal daily activities ; therefore, to have the right mood to face the day and enough energy to spend during the day it is essential that you rest adequately during the night.
The causes of insomnia can be of various nature: it is possible that you do not sleep well due to an incorrect diet, or that the difficulty in falling asleep depends on anxiety, worries or simply an uncomfortable bed or an environment that does not promotes rest due to light or noise.
If the insomnia persists even after having found and resolved the causes, it is possible to resort to phytotherapy and use herbs that promote sleep.
The herbs that promote sleep
The requirements of a good remedy against insomnia must include, in addition to efficacy, also a rapid elimination and the absence of side effects.
Insomnia drugs can cause daytime sleepiness, mental confusion, headache or addiction, while sleep-promoting herbs lack these side effects when use is not prolonged.
Among the herbs recommended to promote a good rest we find hops, valerian, lemon balm and passionflower, often used together in the form of herbal tea.
Hops ( Humulus lupulus ) is a perennial herbaceous plant whose strobili are used. The drug contains an oleoresin consisting of bitter principles among which we find the humulone and the lupulone whose degradation products seem to be responsible for the pharmacological activity. Hop is used to treat anxiety and insomnia and is considered a safe drug. It is taken in the form of an infusion or decoction, often in combination with other herbs that promote sleep, such as valerian.
The valerian drug is represented by the dried rhizome of Valeriana officinalis which contains essential oil, valepotriati, lignans, alkaloids. The activity of valerian appears to be due to the different compounds that make up the drug, used in the treatment of insomnia and anxiety in the form of aqueous extracts, hydroalcoholic extracts, gastroresthetic tablets or herbal teas.
Lemon balm is a Mediterranean aromatic herb whose leaves contain flavonoids and essential oil. Melissa officinalis is used in herbal teas along with other herbs that promote sleep because it has a positive effect on anxiety and insomnia, as well as improving the taste of the infusion and having spasmolytic action.
To promote sleep you can also use the lemon balm water to be vaporized on the body or the essential oil of lemon balm, pouring a few drops on the pillow or inside a massage oil to use before going to sleep.
For the treatment of anxiety that accompanies insomnia, inflorescences and infructescences of Passiflora incarnata, a perennial climbing plant, are also used. Those responsible for the pharmacological activity of passionflower are not known, but studies on this plant are encouraging with regard to sedative and anxiolytic action.
Passion flower is taken in the form of herbal tea or other preparations for internal use to treat sleep disorders and nervous restlessness .
