We all understand that when we are not able to sleep at night then, we should drink warm milk. It will relax your brain and your body so you can get quality sleep. Follow this article to know how warm milk helps you sleep and the advantages and disadvantages of drinking milk before hitting the bed.
We all have heard that drinking warm milk can aid us in sleeping peacefully at night. It will increase the production of melatonin and tryptophan in your brain. These brain chemicals are basically responsible for inducing sleep and for the regulation of your sleep. There are many moments when a person is not able to sleep because of stress, environment, or any other factor. When something like this takes place then, drinking warm milk can make your body calm and regulate your body’s blood pressure.
Although drinking warm milk does not have any serious disadvantages, it can cause discomfort to some people especially to someone who is lactose intolerant. It can make you feel gastric and it can also make you gain weight. Drinking milk late at night can also interfere with your liver functions. Sure, it aids us by inducing sleep but it can also make us feel heavy and gastric. To avoid that, you should drink milk at least one hour before hitting the bed, not five minutes before you go to sleep. You have to make sure that your stomach is fit to digest the milk without any trouble.
Follow this article to know how warm milk helps you sleep and the advantages and disadvantages of drinking milk before hitting the bed.
Table of Contents
How does warm milk help you sleep?
We all have tried drinking a cup of warm milk to get a good night’s sleep. But we really do not know how it actually works, all we know is drinking milk will make us fall asleep. Following are the ways through which warm milk aids us by inducing sleep.
- Controlling your sugar levels
- Tryptophan
- Melatonin
- Protein
- Calming effect on nervous system
- Relax your muscles
- Magnesium
- Relieves your anxiety
- Burns your calories
Controlling your sugar levels:
Drinking a glass of warm milk will control the sugar levels in your body. A person who has excessively high sugar levels in their body will naturally urinate more, this will derange your sleep. Drinking warm milk will control the sugar levels in your body, making it easy for you to get a good night’s sleep. When you sleep peacefully, you will be fresh in the morning.
Tryptophan:
Tryptophan is an amino acid that aids us by inducing sleep. One of the main functions of tryptophan is to promote quality of sleep. According to research, a person who drinks warm milk before hitting the bed will have more tryptophans in their body as compared to someone who has not consumed milk. Tryptophans will increase the production of serotonin in your body, this will make your brain calm down and fall into quality sleep.
Melatonin:
We all understand that melatonin is a hormone produced in our body that is solely responsible for your body’s sleeping and waking up schedule. It keeps your body in check and makes sure that your brain and body gets rest on time everyday. Drinking warm milk will increase the production of melatonin and make sure that your bodily schedule is not disrupted for any reason at all.
Protein:
We all have felt hungry all of a sudden when we are just about to sleep even after we had a full dinner. When something like this takes place, you can have a glass of warm milk instead of eating something just before laying down. Drinking warm milk will give you protein and it will stop your craving to have something. Always remember that eating something just before you go to bed is not a clever idea, it will cause indigestion and gastric problems.
Calming effect on nervous system:
It is paramount for you to have a calm nervous system when you are about to sleep. Any disruption will cause you to feel anxious. Drinking warm milk will have a calming effect on your nervous system and it will relax your cortisol levels. When the stress level in your blood is not imbalanced then, you will be fit to have a good night’s sleep.
Relax your muscles:
When your muscles are not relaxed and they are stiff from tension then, there is a probability that you will not be fit to sleep peacefully at night. You will keep on tossing and turning in your bed to find one good position that will help you relieve. When something like this takes place, you can try drinking warm milk, this way your muscles will feel relaxed which will make you get a good night’s sleep.
Magnesium:
We all understand that magnesium is paramount for our body. It regulates blood pressure and enhances the functions of your nerves. Drinking warm milk before you hit the bed can enrich your body with magnesium. When your blood pressure is normal then, you will naturally feel relieved and your body will be relaxed and you will be fit to have a good night’s sleep. Drinking warm milk daily will enrich your body with magnesium and other minerals.
Relieves your anxiety:
We all have felt excessively anxious at least once in our life, so much so, we were not fit to have a good night’s sleep. When something like this takes place, you can drink a glass of warm milk, this will relax the tension in your muscles, making it easy for you to fall asleep peacefully. When your muscles are relaxed, you will not feel stressed and anxious and you will be fit to lay down and dream instead of thinking about negative thoughts.
Burns your calories:
We all know that it is paramount for you to not eat anything before we lay down to sleep. When we eat something we take away our body’s chance to digest the food properly and it makes you gain weight because your calories are not burning. To avoid that you can drink warm milk, this way you will not get any fat in your body and the warm milk will aid your body by burning your calories down. This will make you feel light and you will be fit to get a good night’s sleep.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of drinking milk before hitting the bed?
We all understand that the most prominent advantage of drinking milk before you hit the bed is falling asleep faster and peacefully. But there are several disadvantages of drinking milk before you go to bed as well. Following are the advantages and disadvantages of drinking milk before hitting the bed.
Advantages of drinking milk before hitting the bed:
Following are some of the main advantages of drinking a glass full of milk before you hit the bed.
- Induce sleep
- Stronger bones
- Healthy immune system
- Aids in digestion
- Makes you feel relaxed
- It is natural
- Aids in mental health
Induce sleep:
We all understand that drinking milk before you go to bed can help you get a good night’s sleep. It will increase the production of melatonin, tryptophan, and serotonin in your body. This way your body will start getting relaxed and you will feel light and calm. Your brain will start to calm down and your body will follow its regular schedule of sleep because of the increase in melatonin.
Stronger bones:
Drinking milk will make your bones and muscles stronger. When you drink a glass full of milk before you go to bed then, you will give your body its much needed calcium. Calcium will make your bones stronger and especially when you drink milk before you fall asleep. This way the calcium from the milk will work more effectively. Other than bones, milk also aids us by making our teeth stronger. Drinking milk will make our teeth muscles and roots stronger and also the calcium inside milk will benefit by fighting the cavities.
Healthy immune system:
We all know that milk is enriched with Vitamin A, B, D, Zinc, and other nutrients. These nutrients will aid your body by making your immune system stronger. When your immune system is stronger it will be fit to protect your body from getting any virus and disease. A stronger and healthy immune system will aid you by fighting with germs and bacterias.
Aids in digestion:
Milk contains Vitamin D and Vitamin B which aids our body by increasing our metabolism. Drinking milk at night will convert the food that you had into energy and makes it easy for your stomach to digest the food. It will stabilize your metabolism and you will not feel heavy when you go to bed. Otherwise, you will not be fit to rest properly if your stomach is not digesting its food properly.
Makes you feel relaxed:
Drinking milk before you go to bed can increase the production of serotonin in your body. It is a neurotransmitter that also performs as a hormone for your body and it is responsible for keeping your emotions stable. When your body has its required serotonin then, your brain will calm down and let you relax. You will not feel anxious and stressed.
It is natural:
It can be excessively dangerous for us to lack any of the nutrients because every nutrient and mineral has its own function. We see people taking vitamins and magnesium, you can avoid taking any of the supplements if you drink milk daily before you go to bed. It will give your body all the nutrients it needs naturally. All of the supplements have some side effects but drinking milk will not have any side effects on your health.
Aids in mental health:
We all understand that when our body does not have enough serotonin we will feel anxious, depressed, stressed, and other mental illnesses. Drinking milk daily before you go to bed will make you feel relaxed and relieve your anxiety with the production of serotonin. You will be fit to get a good night’s sleep otherwise you will spend most of your time stressing over things and thinking about all the negative outcomes.
Disadvantages of drinking milk before hitting the bed:
Following are the disadvantages of drinking milk before hitting the bed.
- Lactose
- Interfere in liver’s functioning
- High sodium
- Antibiotics
- Glucose intolerant
Lactose:
There are many people who are lactose intolerant and they are not even aware of their intolerance. The main indication is that you will not be fit to digest the milk and it will make you feel heavy, gastric, and bloated. You might feel excessive cramps in your stomach because of drinking milk and this will keep you up all night and even if you lay down, you will not be fit to get a good night’s sleep.
Interfere in liver’s functioning:
According to healthcare professionals, at night when you are fast asleep, the liver removes all the junk from your body and cleans your system for the next day, but if you drink milk before sleeping then, you will interfere with liver’s functioning. It is paramount for your liver to achieve this task without any interference.
High sodium:
We all understand that sodium is important for our body just like every other mineral but it is paramount that it is in a required amount. Drinking one glass of milk can have 44 mg of sodium. Drinking it daily can make your body get more sodium than necessary. Excessive sodium in your body can cause you to start vomiting and have a fever.
Antibiotics:
It has been said that many of the farms use antibiotics on cows to make them produce milk for a long time and in a larger quantity than normal. These antibiotics also affect a cow’s milk and make the milk less effective. These antibiotics also affect our immune system and they make the milk powerless, which we are unable to digest.
Glucose intolerant:
Just like lactose intolerance a person can also be glucose intolerant. When a person is glucose intolerant, they might wake up in the middle of the night to satisfy their cravings for hunger. When a person drinks milk in that case, they will make the sugar levels in their blood rise more than normal. Drinking milk when you are glucose intolerant is not a clever idea.
Conclusion:
We all understand how paramount it is to drink milk especially when we are about to go to bed. Drinking milk before hitting the bed can aid you in achieving quality sleep faster. You will be fit to sleep for a long time peacefully and that is because drinking a glass of warm milk will increase the production of melatonin, tryptophans, and serotonin in your body. These hormones will make sure that your body’s sleep cycle is not deranged and you are feeling relaxed before you go to bed. It is excessively paramount for you to have relaxed muscles before you hit the bed. When your mind is clouded with negative and stressful things, you will not be fit to get a good night’s sleep. When you feel anxious and stressed and you are unable to sleep because of that then, you can drink a glass full of warm milk. It will immediately make you feel relaxed and boost your serotonin, which will stable your emotions.
Drinking milk before you go to bed has many advantages that we know about but it also comes with certain disadvantages that we must know. Like there are many people who do not know if they are lactose or glucose intolerant. If a person is either of those things then, drinking milk can make things strenuous for them when they go to sleep. They will feel heavy, bloated, gastric, and their stomach will not be fit to digest the milk. You have to be careful about these things before you move forward.
