Beat Your Insomnia With Herbal Remedies

Rather than reaching for the sleeping pills when you’re having trouble grabbing some shut-eye, Yahoo’s Healthy Living weblog suggests six effective all-natural herbal sleep inducers.

A couple of the suggestions probably won’t surprise you (namely chamomile and lavender, which are always among the first recommendations of this kind), but there are several you may not have seen before.

They are:

• Valerian root
• Chamomile Tea
• Celery
• Lemon balm
• Lavender
• Hops

Before you get too excited about hops, keep in mind that a pre-bedtime beer can actually disturb your sleep according to the FDA. Instead, the post suggests a bag of hops under the pillow can be a great sleep inducer, particularly for women. Be sure to check the Yahoo post for details on how to use each. (Hint: Apparently valerian root is the most potent of all.) On a similar sleepy food note, we’ve also heard that a lettuce-filled sandwich can help you sleep like a log. Photo by Joi.