How To Get A Better Night Sleep By Drinking Herbal Teas

Our four recommended herbal teas for a better nights sleep.

Drinking a herbal tea each night before bed can help to improve your quality of sleep by soothing the nervous system and creating space for relaxation before bedtime. It may sound too easy, but making the humble cup of tea part of your nightly routine can help you to wind down before you even turn the sheets down.

There are a lot of great blends on the market designed to promote relaxation and sleepiness, but we wanted to give a quick rundown of the best herbs to look out for and how they can help you drift off into peaceful slumber.

Passionflower

Surprisingly, passionflower tea has a very subtle earthy and slightly floral taste, which makes it a good choice if you’re after a low-key cup of sleepy tea. Passionflower supports REM sleep, and can reduce symptoms associated with sleep disorders including restlessness and anxiety.

Where to get it

Planet Organic makes a delicious chamomile & passionflower blend available in tea bags or loose-leaf.

Wild Oat Straw (​​avena sativa)

Wild Oat Straw has a gentle, earthy flavour and a mild sweetness to it. Oat straw tea, which comes from the hay-like grass that grows as part of the oat plant, can help you to get a better night's sleep by calming the nervous system, acting as an anti-inflammatory and reducing symptoms of anxiety.

Where to get it

The Tea Hut has a nice loose-leaf oat straw tea that’s organically grown in Australia.

Chamomile

Earthy, slightly fruity, slightly sweet chamomile is renowned for its calming effects. Not only can it induce sleep, it can soothe an upset stomach. Chamomile is a great tea to drink before bed because it contains a flavonoid called apigenin that binds to the receptors in your brain responsible for causing sleepiness.

Where to get it

We love this 100% certified organic loose-leaf chamomile tea from The Tea Life.

Lavender

Just imagining the smell of lavender brings a smile to my face! This fragrant flowering shrub has been used for therapeutic and culinary purposes for centuries and also makes for a great bedtime tea. Lavender can help to improve sleep because it actively reduces anxiety and is considered to be a (very) mild sedative. It’s also known to be beneficial for pain management.

Where to get it

For something a little special try this loose-leaf organic lavender tea from Bridestowe lavender farm in Tasmania.