If you’re like most people who have tried prescription sleep aids, only to be turned off by the harsh side effects, or the poor quality of sleep they provided, then you’ll be happy to know that particular natural sleep aid ingredients do exist that can safely and effectively help you sleep, all without a prescription. One of these promising ingredients is hops. This article will discuss the many benefits of hops for better sleep, and how to find the best natural sleep aid.
What are Hops?
Hops are an ingredient often found in high quality natural sleep aids. This may sound surprising, since most people are familiar with hops in alcoholic beverages, especially beers. Like many different herbs and natural elements, however, hops have many different uses aside from just flavoring your favorite happy hour drink. Hops are found throughout Asia and Europe, and it is the flowers of the hops plant that contains medicinal qualities. These hops plants are common, and can grow as tall as 22 feet!
Hops benefits
Again, people who are just learning about the extensive benefits of hops may be surprised to know of its medicinal uses, having only ever heard hops discussed when evaluating different types of beer. However, hops have several vastly different kinds of benefits as well. First of all, as beer drinkers will know, hops have a bitter quality. This makes hops an excellent digestive aid, calming spasm in the digestive tract and easing digestion overall. On top of that, hops are an excellent tension reliever. It helps muscles to relax and helps soothe away anxiety – probably why so many people enjoy a beer to wind down at the end of a long day! Also, hops have aromatic properties as well. When dried out, the aromatic qualities of hops help to aid sleep.
Hops for sleep
As described above, the aromatic properties of hops do help aid in getting to sleep. For this reason, hops can be used in products designed to be used in aromatherapy with an eye towards relaxation and getting to sleep. It is the tension relieving property of hops, though, that is most associated with sleep and quality of sleep. Hops helps to relax and ease tension out of muscles, while also calming anxiety. This makes hops an excellent addition to any product or supplement designed to soothe or promote relaxation. Obviously, this carries over well to sleep, as right before bed is when most people want to wind down and relax, but find themselves tightly wound and tense from the stresses of the day.
Hops in sleep aids
The tension relief provided by hops is precisely why it is used in so many sleep aids. Quality sleep aids, like those containing melatonin and 5HTP, are all almost certain to also contain hops. When hops is included in natural sleep aids, the tension held deeply in muscles along with all of the stresses of a long day are gently and naturally released from the body, preparing it to fall asleep easily and stay that way until morning. The inclusion of hops is one of the main reason that natural sleep aids are becoming more and more popular every day.
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