Healthy sleep

Good health is vital to a good night’s sleep – and vice versa. 

The foods you eat can be a powerful aid in helping you get healthy and stay healthy. They can even help you fall asleep fast and wake up full of energy. 

Thankfully, healthful foods can be tasty and versatile. For example, that smoothie you drink every morning (or wish you did) can be made at night and enjoyed as a dessert. 

With the right ingredients, you can make bedtime smoothie recipes that promote better sleep and health. Today, we’re going to share some non-vegan and vegan smoothie recipes that will help you get the best night’s sleep. 

Is There Scientific Evidence That Night Smoothies Help with Sleep?

Absolutely. To get healthy and stay healthy, you need to learn some of the basics about food and how it affects the body. 

Whole foods tend to have the most health benefits as they’re the closest to their natural state. They don’t contain any man-made sugars, salt, food colorings, starches, or chemicals use to preserve the shelf-life or enhance the flavor. Basically, they’re the exact opposite of processed foods (a bag of chips vs. an apple off the tree).

Processed foods have been treated in such a way that they often barely resemble their original ingredients, at least on a chemical level. And some don’t seem to have any natural ingredients at all, or the manufactured ingredients significantly outnumber the natural ones. 

Fresh, whole foods contain powerful vitamins and minerals that have been found to: 

• Improve metabolism and promote weight loss
• Lift your mood, providing a feeling of physical, mental, and emotional “lightness”
• Improve sleep

Some of the best all-natural foods for better sleep include: 

• Kiwis
• Cherries
• Milk
• Nuts
• Rice

The list above is by no means exhaustive. However, not only will these foods help you fall asleep fast, but they’ll also help you get healthy and stay healthy. 

Get Healthy, Stay Healthy: 5 Smoothie Recipes for Better Health and Sleep 

Looking at a long list of foods that can help you get a better night’s sleep can be daunting at first. What are you supposed to do, eat a pile of raw fruits and vegetables every day? 

While some people might be up for that option, there’s an easier one – a bedtime smoothie. 

Night smoothies don’t have to contain a ton of ingredients or be complicated. Some bedtime smoothie recipes contain only three ingredients. 

Curious about what to drink before bed to help with sleep? Here are a few easy options. 

1. Sweet Vegan Bedtime Smoothie

Ingredients: 

• Banana
• Berries of your choice
• Coconut milk

Note: 

Adjust the ingredients to create a taste and texture you prefer. Combine in a blender, Vitamix, or NutriBullet. 

2. Vegan Salty Night Smoothie

Ingredients: 

• Banana
• Avocado
• Almond milk

Note: 

Make sure to skin and de-seed the avocado before use. 

You can use store-bought almond milk or make your own. Simply blend raw, soaked almonds with water. Then, strain through a cheesecloth. When you have your homemade almond milk, blend with the banana and avocado for a rich, creamy smoothie. 

3. Sweet Dessert Smoothie

Ingredients: 

• Banana
• Berries of your choice
• Cow milk

4. Salty Whole Milk Bedtime Smoothie

Ingredients: 

• Banana
• Peanut butter
• Cow milk

Note: 

If you’re not a fan of sweets, you can still benefit from night smoothies. Simply stick to savory ingredients. Eating peanut butter before bed is a good idea because peanuts contain tryptophan, which promotes sleep. Additionally, peanuts boost metabolism, so you can keep burning fat even while you sleep.  

Which is better when it comes to peanut butter vs almond butter? One isn’t necessarily better than the other. Almonds contain less saturated fat (0.7g vs. 1.7g) and more monounsaturated fats (5.2 vs 4.2). Almonds contain less natural sugar than peanuts, though the amount in all-natural peanut butter is quite low, too. 

Both nuts contain: 

• Protein
• Healthy fats
• Fiber
• Vitamin E
• Minerals

For the most part, choosing the best nut butter comes down to a matter of taste. 

5. Double the Ingredients, Double the Benefits

Ingredients: 

• Old-fashioned rolled oats
• Baby spinach
• Cool chamomile tea
• Tart cherry juice
• Banana
• Almond butter

Note: 

While this recipe seems more complex than the others, it’s not really. There’s no chopping or peeling or anything like that involved. Just make some chamomile tea and then add it to the other ingredients, blend, and you’re done. 

This smoothie – from SimpleGreenSmoothies.com – is made up of foods known to promote sleep. Every ingredient has a purpose – to help you fall asleep fast. 

Non-Vegan or Vegan Smoothies – Does It Matter? 

The wonderful thing about whole foods is that they taste delicious and have multiple health benefits to help you get healthy and stay healthy. Any recipe you make is not dependent on the type of milk you use. Both vegans and non-vegans can create powerful, sleep-inducing smoothies with the milk of their choice. 

Vegan Smoothie Recipes 

Choose a variety of flavors to please your palate, from sweet and salty to savory and tart. 

Check out some vegan smoothie recipes online for better sleep and simply substitute the cow’s milk with a nut milk of your choice, like: 

• Peanut butter, banana, honey, almond milk, and ice.
• Coconut milk, pineapple, banana, honey, and vanilla extract.
• Banana, cherries, nutmeg, honey, and cashew milk.

Cow’s Milk Smoothie Recipes 

If you can tolerate it, cow’s milk before bed has its benefits, too. It contains tryptophan, an amino acid that promotes drowsiness. You can find recipes with cow’s milk, yogurts, kefir, and other dairy products that taste great and help you fall asleep. Some ideas: 

• Milk, banana, almond or peanut butter, cinnamon, maple syrup 
• Milk, yogurt, kale, kiwi, banana, almond butter
• Milk, honey, vanilla, yogurt, cherries

Don’t Forget: A Comfortable Mattress Can Help You Fall Asleep Fast

Another way to get more rest and improve your overall health is with a high-quality, organic mattress, like the cotton and wool mattress from White Lotus House. 

A comfortable mattress made of natural products is not just cozy – it’s safe.  Recent studies show that synthetic materials in mattresses can adversely affect your health by releasing toxic fumes. 

If you want to get healthy and stay healthy, the mattress you spend eight hours a night on should be made of the highest-quality, healthful materials.  

The internet has coined parents who practice natural parenting crunchy, and we say embrace it. Being kind to people and planet while raising children is a challenging path to walk, and well, none of us would survive it if we didn’t learn to laugh at ourselves along the way.

You Fly Past the Character Fruit Snacks in the Store

You’re determined your kid isn’t going to know anything but fruit dyed gummy snacks, and curse whoever decided to put those artificially colored atrocities right next to your favorite granola bars.

You Smell Your Kid to See If They Need a Bath

Crunchy parents know too much of a good thing can be bad, so they bathe on an as-needed basis. If they don’t stink, let them be free!

You Keep Coconut Oil In the Kitchen. And the Bathroom. And the Baby’s Room.

Deep conditioner? Coconut oil. Diaper rash? Coconut oil. Best brownies you’ve ever had? COCONUT OIL.

You Hate Running out of Cleaner (Because It Means You Have to Make More)

Crunchy parents know Clorox has nothing on vinegar and baking soda. They also know he who leaves the bottle with one spray left should have the decency to make the next batch.

*AHEM*

You Have More Essential Oils Than You Have Room For

Crunchy parents take their family to the doctor when necessary. Otherwise, they’re consulting their local naturopath, because honey — there’s an essential oil for that.

Losing the Amber Teething Necklace Is the Equivalent of Armageddon

Skeptics can say what they want — at this point, you’d do a rain dance if you thought it would help get your baby through teething. Must. Have. Backups.

You Measure Time You Have to Do Something in Time Between Nursing Sessions

New moms especially know, if it takes more than two hours, they’ll have to ask their tiny baby boss.

You Do Shots...of Apple Cider Vinegar

Who said your partying days were over when you had kids? Shooting apple cider vinegar is way more hardcore than tequila. And it’s great for your gut health.

You Collect Cloth Diapers Like Pokemon Cards

Crunchy moms know, it doesn’t matter how many cloth diapers you have — if there’s a Harry Potter fitted for sale anywhere at any time, it has your name on it.

You Boil Beets at Easter

You don’t feed your kids artificial colors the rest of the year, why should you do it for the holidays? Sure it’s messy, sure your fingers are pink for days, but just look at those eggs!

You’ve (Uncomfortably) Made Wishlists for Kids’ Birthdays

It’s never fun to tell people who are already buying things for your kids that you have a preference as to what they buy. Unless you want another heap of plastic and noise at the holidays though, you’ve learned to power through.

You’re More Scared to Admit to Feeding Your Kids McDonald’s Than You Are to Eating Your Placenta

Sure, we’ve all been there — desperate days that call for quick and easy sustenance and a little sanity for mom. But you’d still rather talk about your placenta capsules than the fossilized remains of a Happy Meal on the floor of your car.

What crunchy parent thing do you do that cracks your family up? Tell us in the comments below!

10 Ways You Can Get Better Sleep  

It's 7:00 AM and your alarm goes off. It went off ten minutes ago, but you couldn't pull yourself out of bed. You still feel like you can't, so you hit the snooze button one more time, roll over, and pray your coffee maker was set correctly the night before so you can get some caffeine in your system ASAP. 

Sound familiar? When it comes to modern day living, sleep can feel like a scarce commodity. We often go through our days already exhausted right off the starting line.

Sometimes improving the quality of your sleep means making a few lifestyle adjustments and taking a good look at what you're sleeping on every night. Here are 10 ways you can get back to giving your body and mind the rest they need to wake up feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to go in the morning.   

1. Exercise 
   While exercise is a great way to help relieve any tension, stress, and anxiety that may be keeping you up at night, getting a good work out in can physiologically improve your sleep too. Exercise can trigger longer periods of slow-wave sleep which is the deepest and most restorative phase of sleep you can get each night. Still not enough to get you to the gym? Polls have found that people who exercise regularly, even if they don’t get any more sleep than those who don’t, actually report better quality of sleep which means they wake up feeling better than their non-exercising counterparts. Go break a sweat!
   
   
2. Find the Perfect Pillow 
   Do you wake up feeling like your neck is stiff in the middle of the night? Maybe your shoulder hurts from laying on it, and you toss and turn frequently. These problems can be solved by finding the perfect pillow. It may take a little experimentation before you find the right fit, but once you do, your body will thank you.  
   
   
3. Clean Up Your Diet 
   It's probably not much of a surprise that the pizza you ate yesterday wasn't sitting well by the time you brushed your teeth before bed. Ditch inflammatory foods, sugar, and anything else that could be causing sleep disturbances like acid reflux and indigestion for a better rest. 
   
   
4. Reduce Stress
   Feeling a little worried about that project that's due early next week? From work to relationships to difficulties with finances, reducing stress is often easier said than done. You might have to think outside the box a little, but coming up with ways you can change your lifestyle to reduce stress can help rest your mind and relax your body when it's time for sleep. 
   
   
5. Cut The Caffeine 
   No one wants to hear that they should give up their morning java, especially if they're already feeling like they need a jump start. But if you're having sleep trouble, it's important to consider reducing your caffeine consumption, particularly within 6 hours of bedtime. You might not notice a difference right away, but if you dodge caffeine for a few days, you'll probably find you're sleeping better. 
   
   
6. Use a High-Quality, All-Natural Mattress 
   Cheaping out on your mattress purchase means you could be cheating yourself out of some invaluable, high-quality sleep time. When shopping for a mattress, it's important to find one that's made from all-natural materials so that you can avoid any off-gassing from petroleum-based foams that can smell harsh and reduce your sleep quality. To top it off, synthetic fibers like memory foam and polyester make it harder for our bodies to regulate their temperatures. Shoot for mattresses and toppers made out of natural fibers like ecofoam, natural latex, cotton and wool so you can sleep easier and more comfortably.
   
   
7. Consider a Weighted Blanket for Anxiety
   If anxious thoughts are keeping you up at night, a weighted blanket might be the perfect fit for you. Weighted blankets work by providing deep pressure touch stimulation without uncomfortable restriction. The deep pressure from the weight of the blanket causes the body to produce serotonin and endorphins all night long while you sleep. Serotonin and endorphins are necessary to help us feel relaxed and calm.
   
   
8. Say Goodbye to Screen Time Before Bed
   Studies have found that people who use phones, iPads, light-emitting eReaders and other similar devices at bedtime take longer to fall asleep and have disrupted circadian rhythms. If you're going to read before bed to relax, stick to books and ditch the screen. 
   
   
9. Keep Your Bedroom Cool 
   Don't make it so cold that you're uncomfortable, but research suggests sleeping in cooler environments as low as 66 degrees can help you sleep better. 
   
   
10. Reduce Clutter in Your Bedroom  
    Marie Kondo, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, says "A messy room equals a messy mind". If your sleeping space is cluttered and full of distractions, you might have trouble relaxing and getting to sleep. Clear the clutter and see what happens! 

Sleep is something that directly impacts your life every day. Keep up to date on all the latest and greatest tips for getting the best sleep by subscribing to our newsletter here!

- Buy an Organic or Natural Mattress that uses pure wool as the natural fire retardant

- Increase your comfort with a Natural Fiber Topper - get the toxins out of your softness!

- Use pillows from sustainable or natural resources and free of toxins - remember this is where you lay your head every night for 8 hours!

- Chemical free sheets - Organic sheets that are never treated with any chemicals, yay!

- Organic Cotton Barrier Covers to protect your sleep!  Sleep better and protect your pillows, mattresses, and toppers with Barrier Cloth covers that keep the dust mites and bugs out of your bedding.

Why does sleep help turn us into more competent versions of ourselves? Part of the answer is the simple fact that chronic sleep deprivation, which for most of us means routinely getting six or less hours of sleep each night, essentially makes us feel and act like we’re drunk. This breakdown most likely affects you even if you think you can function without sleep and not suffer the consequences...