The 7 Best Natural Sleep Aids to Help You Get a Deep Night's Sleep

I'm a big fan of falling asleep…and staying asleep au naturale, sans anything but a cool pillow and a warm blanket. But there's no shame in admitting that sometimes life gets too crazy and even on the days that you are dog-tired it’s impossible to fall asleep and/or stay asleep. Luckily, science has provided us with plenty of natural sleep aids that are super easy to use (and less likely to lead to addiction). 

In this article, we list the 7 best natural sleep aids to help you get a deep night’s sleep. But, first, let’s discuss why sleep is so important…

You've probably heard that sleep is important for your health, but you might not know why. In short: getting a good night's sleep helps your body recover from the day's stresses and function better. It improves your memory, focus, and attention span, which are all important for staying mentally sharp throughout the day. Sleep also plays a role in regulating hormones and other chemicals in your body; it can help improve how you feel emotionally—whether that's by improving mood or reducing anxiety or stress. Finally, if you're looking to get into shape or lose weight, getting adequate sleep is vital for burning calories at an optimal rate (and keeping them off).

Once you've worked on your sleep hygiene, it's time to learn how to stay asleep. If you're having trouble getting your brain and body to cooperate when it comes to slumber, here are some tips:

• Relax before bed. The best way to prepare for a good night's sleep is by doing some relaxing activities before bed. This can include taking a bath or reading a book (not using tablets or computers).
• Avoid caffeine (including dark chocolate) and alcohol past 3 p.m., as they both interfere with sleep quality and quantity by causing restlessness, insomnia, poor quality of sleep, daytime fatigue, and headaches.*
• Try meditation for 20 minutes each day.*

Once you’ve exhausted these, it may just be time to try some natural sleep aids below:

Vitamin B6 is a water-soluble vitamin that is important for the health of your nervous system. It helps with the production of serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that helps you feel happy and relaxed. Vitamin B6 also supports healthy brain function, including memory and learning.

In addition to its benefits for sleep, vitamin B6 may help prevent anemia (which can inhibit restful sleep), migraine headaches, depression, and other mood disorders like seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Ashwagandha can help you sleep deeper and longer, reduce stress and anxiety, boost your immune system, and even slow the aging process.

Ashwagandha is an Ayurvedic herb that has been used for centuries to promote relaxation, relieve stress and anxiety, and improve sleep. It's considered a powerful adaptogen that helps the body cope with stress better than other herbs do.

Magnesium is a mineral that helps your body regulate sleep. It's also found in dark leafy greens and nuts, so if you're eating enough of those it should be no problem getting enough magnesium. If you're not, you can turn to supplements, like Plantfully Systems Tranquility, as well.

Magnesium has been shown to help people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer by relaxing their muscles and promoting deep REM sleep (the kind of sleep that makes us feel rested).

You may be familiar with melatonin as the hormone that helps regulate your sleep-wake cycle. But what does it do in the body?

Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in your brain, which can be stimulated by darkness and suppressed by light. As you grow older, your body produces less melatonin—and if you don't regularly get enough of it (through diet or supplementation), it can affect how well you sleep at night.

You can find melatonin in some foods—but not all. And because most people aren’t getting enough through diet alone, supplements, like Plantfully Systems Tranquility, are often recommended as an easy way to increase your body's production.

Valerian root is a flowering plant that grows in Europe and North America. Valerian root is also a sedative, meaning it helps you relax. It can also be used to treat anxiety and insomnia. Some research suggests that valerian may have some anti-inflammatory properties that could help with the pain associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter, which means that it’s a substance that your brain uses to transmit signals between neurons. GABA is made from glutamate, another neurotransmitter, which means that the two chemicals are very similar chemically.

GABA plays an important role in helping calm your nervous system and relax your muscles.

The amount of GABA you need depends on the cause of low levels of this essential chemical in your body: if you have anxiety or insomnia due to stress or overwork then more supplementation may be required than someone whose lack of sleep stems from another issue such as restless legs syndrome or heart palpitations caused by abnormal electrical activity at night.

Passionflower is a flowering herb that has been used in traditional medicine to treat anxiety, insomnia, and heart palpitations. In traditional Chinese medicine, it's even thought to help with hypertension by calming the nervous system.

In Western herbal medicine, passionflower was used as an antispasmodic to reduce cramping or spasms of various muscles including those of the bowels or uterus (whereas other herbs were used for more specific muscle types such as bile ducts). The name passionflower comes from its use in treating epilepsy and convulsions associated with hysteria; this association has since fallen out of favor but remains popularly associated with this plant.

Because it's not overly sedating when taken at bedtime like other sleep aids can be, passionflower is usually considered safe for long-term use if needed on occasion—or every night if you're struggling mightily to get some shuteye. As always though: talk to your doctor before consuming any new supplement!

As you probably know, sleep is a pretty important part of life. It helps us to feel refreshed, alert, and energized for the day ahead. If you're like me and have trouble getting up in the morning because you're so tired from not getting enough quality sleep at night, then I'm going to share some natural sleep aids that have helped me get more restful nights of sleep.

It's important that if you choose to use these supplements or herbs as part of your nightly routine, they should be used under the guidance of a doctor or healthcare professional. And if you want even more tips on how to improve your sleeping habits naturally, read one of our favorite articles on the subject, “20 Simple Tips That Help You Fall Asleep Quickly”!

So there you have it, the 7 best natural sleep aids to help you get a deep night’s sleep. And…if you’re wondering, our new Plantfully Systems Tranquility sleep supplement was formulated to use all seven of these natural sleep aids. How cool is that?!

But before we wrap up this article, I want to give you one last piece of advice: if at first you don’t succeed (or even if you do), try again! There are plenty of ways to improve your sleep quality, from exercise and meditation to medication or therapy. Don’t let lack of sleep hold back your dreams—get out there and get yourself some rest!