Do you have trouble sleeping at night? Tired of counting sheep?

“A teaspoon or two of honey before bed insures a restorative sleep,” writes Reese Halter in his informative little book, The Incomparable Honeybee & The Economics of Pollination. “A human liver stores about eight hours of glycogen – an important brain food. If you eat supper at 7 pm, by about 3 am your brain releases a stress hormone called cortisol… Elevated cortisol can lead to obesity, diabetes, coronary disease and autoimmune breakdown. A teaspoon of honey at night fuels the liver with glucose and fructose, which is absorbed slowly – thus providing a restful sleep and preventing the release of cortisol.”

A Delicious Relaxing Drink with Honey

Honey is a sedative, anti-fungal and nourishing as well. Honey soothes tissues and helps retain calcium in the body. Natural honey is also antibacterial and

Boosts the immune system. You can use honey in herbal teas or mix it into warm milk. A delicious relaxing drink that may banish insomnia is a glass of warm milk with a drop of vanilla extract and one teaspoon of honey.

Does Eating Honey Before Bedtime Cause Weight Gain?

No, according to Michael McInnes of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Eating a teaspoon or two of honey at bedtime can improve sleep quality without causing weight gain. Based on cumulative results of prior studies, McInnes postulated why eating honey may promote restorative sleep.

The Liver vs Stress – What About Honey?

Another way eating honey at bedtime may promote restful sleep is through glycogen storage. A 2006 study conducted by Vatallie suggested that we are more wakeful when our stomachs are empty. Thus eating small portions of food at bedtime may actually promote quality sleep.

The body stores ready-to-use energy as glycogen in the liver. Because honey contains the ideal 1:1 ratio of fructose to glucose, it is the best food available for glycogen storage. Sufficient glycogen storage is necessary for restful sleep. When your liver runs out of glycogen at night, your brain starts to trigger stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin to convert protein muscle into glucose. The result? You wake up and start counting sheep! The remedy? Eating one or two tablespoonfuls of honey at bedtime promotes higher quality sleep by providing you with liver fuel.

Honey, a Close Friend of Melatonin

Unlike other sugary food, eating honey raises your blood sugar level only slightly, McInnes found. It causes a controlled increase of insulin, which causes the amino acid trytophan (which honey also contains) to enter your brain. In your brain, trytophan is converted into the hormone serotonin, which promotes relaxation. In darkness, serotonin is converted into melatonin in the pineal gland. Melatonin, as everyone knows, is a natural cure for sleeping disorders. It is widely used for treating insomnia symptoms for elderly and depressive patients. Melatonin also enhances the quality of restorative sleep.

So don’t count sheep. Try something sweet! Like a couple teaspoons of raw, unprocessed honey before bedtime. And get ready for a night of restful, restorative sleep.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 7:32 pm and is filed under newsletter-archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.