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 (hello, Twinkie!). 

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.  

What does it take to feel energized each day? Today, we’ll look at how getting a pet can help you improve how you feel overall. 

Whether you’re conscious about the environment or would like to reduce your shopping expenses, swapping disposable items for reusable ones can help make a change in the environment.

It takes the average person 7 minutes to fall asleep. Some require longer than 7 minutes and others require less time. While some people do not have any difficulty falling and staying asleep, others do. If you are one of those that find it hard to fall asleep without a sleeping pill or other medications, be rest assured you’re not alone. There are proven tips to help you fall asleep fast.

Practicing just 10 minutes of restorative yoga and meditation a day has proven to help relax individuals enough to encourage the ideal sleeping environment, leading to a better night’s sleep. Even if you can’t devote the time every night to the practice, including it in your routine a few times a week may be just enough. Want to learn more?

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!