Maybe you don’t know but drinking green tea before bed isn’t such a good idea if you have trouble sleeping.
It contains caffeine that is stimulating your brain and makes you awake. You don’t want that, don’t you?
It is a difference between the caffeine in tea and coffee. If you drink a cup of coffee; the substance will start to work immediately.
It will release slowly because tannins will slow it down. This means you will have caffeine effect for many hours after drinking it. This is the reason why people stay away from this tea in the late hours.
All real teas have caffeine. Green tea is second with the most caffeine amount after black tea. Read more about drinking it in the evening and what are the alternatives.
Green tea before bed: yes or no?
People who are sensitive to caffeine should not drink too much of this invigorating substance.
If you are sensitive to the substance and you drink it through all day then you should skip a cup of green tea before bed.
Everyone reacts differently on substances so you could try it and see if it will affect you or not.
L-theanine action
Let’s see which compounds of green tea affect your sleep. It contains one of the major amino acids that is called L-theanine.
This amino acid in our brain stimulates the formation of alpha waves which can be described as a state of deep relaxation.
This situation stimulates imagination, visualization, memory, learning, and concentration…or a nice transition to sleep.
In addition, L-theanine stimulates the formation of dopamine, one of the hormones of happiness. It will relax you, reduce stress levels and reduce the feeling of anxiety.
Theine
Green tea also contains caffeine (some people still call it theine, it is the same compound) that promotes the functioning of the organism.
Caffeine typically bound to tannins; which cause a slow release of it.
With a cup of this drink, you consume a smaller amount of caffeine as if you drink a cup of coffee.
Preparing green tea differs from making a cup of coffee. We use a different amount of substance and prepare it differently.
We boil the coffee but we pour hot water over the real tea. Caffeine is released with high temperature so this means that we consume more of this invigorating substance with coffee than tea.
Did you know that you can drink a tea that tastes like coffee? You can and it is healthy and delicious.
While coffee can stimulate us very quickly, the effect of real tea is more gentle, slow and constant.
You should also be aware of the counter-effect of L-theanine which increases the clarity of thought, concentration and has a relaxing effect to prevent the emergence of “nervous” energy that appears with coffee.
Green tea health benefits
There are many health benefits of this tea but I will stress out the most important ones.
Prevents the growth of cancer cells
There is a link between the consumption of green tea and a lower prevalence of various forms of cancer.
Recent studies confirmed that catechins have the most credit for this. They are a specific type of flavonoids that act as a powerful antioxidant.
Laboratory tests have found that catechins which are present in the leaves of the tea plant prevent the growth of cancer cells and the activity of free radicals.
Free radicals are molecules that cause cell damage which may result in cancer.
Studies have shown that catechins are 100 times more powerful to destroy free radicals than vitamin C and 200 times more powerful than vitamin E.
Helps with weight loss
If you want to lose weight in a healthy way, you must reduce the number of fat cells in your body. The formation of fat cells is linked to the hormone insulin.
Its job is to remove excess glucose from the blood. Insulin ensures that glucose is converted into triglycerides which are deposited in fat cells – and thus we gain weight.
So, how can green tea help you? When you want to lose weight it is very important that the blood sugar levels remain low as possible and constant.
This way sugars won’t change into fat. Drinking green tea on an empty stomach causes a decrease in blood sugar and helps you not gain weight.
These aren’t all qualities of the drink. Consuming it reduces the possibility of heart disease (lowers bad cholesterol and blood pressure). It should also purify the body and protect your teeth.
Anti-aging
People from Okinawa reach high age also because of regular consumption of green tea. Body cells recover faster and better because of its antioxidants.
This is why we can slow down aging and preserve vitality for a long time.
The studies were analyzed by the length of the telomere, the structures at the end of chromosomes, which are at each cell division slightly shortened.
Can you reduce the amount of caffeine in green tea?
If you try drinking green tea before bed and it will affect your sleeping quality and length; you should try the next technique. Did you know that you can decrease caffeine in your drink?
The majority of caffeine will release in the first minute after pouring the tea leaves with hot water. Pour hot water on the leaves or tea bag and leave it for one minute.
Then throw that water away and heat new water and pour it again. This procedure will make your tea contain less caffeine. Try it and you will see if your sleep improves.
Green tea alternatives before bedtime
I must say that I love this invigorating drink and it didn’t cause me any side-effects when I drank it before going to sleep.
But we are different and our bodies react differently to caffeine. If you are caffeine sensitive you can also try teas that haven’t got it.
Do you like drinking tea before bedtime? Then you should try herbal teas. They don’t have any caffeine.
The second reason for trying them is their relaxing effect. Mint, chamomile, lemon balm, linden, and lavender herbs are excellent alternatives before bed.
These herbs have relaxing effect so they are recommendable before sleeping. If you prefer fruit tea you can drink it as well.
So, is drinking green tea before bed good for you or not? I leave the answer to you.
You have all the information that you need. I provided you the process of making decaf drink and herbal alternatives that are proven for good sleep.
The choice is yours; you should try different approaches and see what suits you.
