After a to-do infused day, your body’s finally ready for sleep.
But not that organ incarcerated in your cranium. It’s wide awake, ready to solve riddles, and ceaselessly issuing you useless stress inducing information (like the fact that you forgot to turn on the dishwasher before burying yourself under the softest fleece blanket in the world). The barrage of bullets your brain’s suicidally delivering itself’s almost enough to make you miss that prescription for those pills with all the horrible side effects. Almost. For those of us who avoid the pills (or who’ve trialed and errored them before avoiding them), sometimes white noise, meditation, or playing Yanni on loop just isn’t sufficient to elicit the kiss of the Grim Reaper’s cousin. On nights like these, sometimes something supplemental (but natural) is entirely welcome. And bit by bit, I’m slowly learning about a ton of these little known cures for your hyper head at bedtime. Wild lettuce, for example, is one highly celebrated remedy we covered on this site not long ago.
And today’s nighttime herb?
Passionflower.
(Tell me that doesn’t look like it should be cornering Sigourney Weaver in a spaceship…)
The way this stuff works is by upping the level of a chemical in your brain called GABA. See, when GABA’s on the rise, that means all that cranial combat we just mentioned above finally can diminish. For that reason, it’s a formidable foe of insomnia and a fantastic friend at rest hour. And, as for research on the stuff? Much as with wild lettuce, it’s not always easy to find facts on stuff that companies can’t profit off (because they can’t patent natural herbs in their products). But it definitely exists.
Per studies done Dr. Michael Traub under Gaia herbs, the stuff had a significant impact in the lab:
“The efficacy of P. incarnata tea on sleep quality was measured by an Australian team in a controlled fashion in a study of 41 healthy young adults, using sleep diaries validated by polysomnography plus an anxiety inventory. Subjects with a history of sleep disorder were excluded. Participants were exposed to 1 cup of either Passionflower or placebo tea (Parsley) for one week, followed by a 1 week ‘washout’ period, and then crossed over. Sleep quality was significantly better (p <0.01) for those who drank Passionflower tea."
Indeed, the pros propose taking it in tea form. (Perfect hair, lighting, and face-posing optional.)
And, now, we end on a bit of duh-but-necessary-to-add-in advice:
Don’t take this stuff if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding. Ask your doctor first if you’re one of those people who’s allergic to everything or prone to psychosomatic reactions. (We all known at least one.) And, finally, just ’cause it came straight outta mother nature’s womb, doesn’t mean it can’t bring about harm should you overdo it. Anything that alters your body chemistry at all – from herbs to the chemical turds big pharma shizzes out – can potentially be detrimental if not moderated. So, restrict your intake, say the experts. Save it for those bad nights – and you’ll be good in the long run. As for me, personally? The only thing that makes me raise and eyebrow is the fact that it must taste like parsley – seeing as that’s what they used for the placebo during the research.
But if that’s the worst bit about this twisted flower reminiscent of an alien preparing to pounce?
Then hand my fried mind a cup five minutes ago.
’cause parsley’s still a better slumber love story than pills.