The ‘soothing’ warm drinks to add to your bedtime routine to boost your sleep

have been linked to  quality, length, and even how long it takes to drift off, but research also suggests drinks could play their part. 

In particular, one study found that warm milk or cocoa could help you sleep better, backing up age-old advice passed down through generations.

This is down to a mixture of milk peptides, called casein tryptic hydrolysates, which were found to possibly help relieve stress and enhance sleep in a 2021 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry study.

“A glass of warm milk or cocoa can be soothing and relaxing as part of a bedtime ritual,” scientist Dr Linia Patel, a registered dietician and researcher in the department of clinical sciences and community health at the Università degli Studi di Milano in Italy told the .  

Interestingly, , commonly drank before bedtime due to its mild sedative effects, is actually better bathed in rather than drunk.

Patel said: “If you’re primarily looking for its sedative effects, adding camomile oil drops to a warm bath could be a better alternative for relaxation without the risk of disrupting your sleep by waking up and going to the loo.” 

There is reportedly little to no evidence it works as a sleep inducer, according to Kevin Morgan, emeritus professor of psychology at Loughborough University’s Clinical Sleep Research Unit.

Too much alcohol in your system could also impact the amount of time spent in the quality REM sleep (rapid eye movement) phase, even if it may help you fall asleep quicker. 

It also impacted men and women differently in a University of Michigan study which compared the impacts of drinking bourbon or vodka mixed with caffeine-free Coke until their blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) reached 0.1 before an eight hour sleep.

The alcohol had a relatively minor impact on men’s sleep patterns, whereas the women in the study slept for nearly 20 minutes less and more intermittently than they did when they were sober.

were found to raise the risk of insomnia, according to findings published in the science journal Nutrients.