Are you struggling to get to sleep at night? While the exact amount of sleep we need tends to vary from person to person, as a rule of thumb, we need between seven and a half to nine hours sleep. If we don’t get the sleep that we need, our minds and bodies will struggle to function the following day. Of course, when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep, it’s not just about quantity but also quality.

Not getting enough sleep every so often won’t kill you. However, if you’re constantly not sleeping properly, it’ll lead to problems. When we struggle to sleep, most of the time we focus on our bedtime habits and sleep schedule. But they're not the only areas that can help us get a better night’s sleep. Just like certain foods make it harder for you to fall asleep, such as coffee, others make it easier to drift off.

Some fresh fruits and vegetables, for instance, can make falling asleep much easier. This is especially true when you consume certain combinations of them, and the best way to do that is by making a smoothie. Smoothies might be a breakfast food, but actually, they’re fantastic for helping you drift off.

The reason that certain fruits work well as sleep inducers is because they contain things like magnesium which is a natural sedative. As well as melatonin, which is a sleep regulator and serotonin, a chemical that induces sleep. (There’s a lot more to fruit and vegetables than vitamins and nutrients you know.)

So what fruits and other ingredients make the perfect bedtime smoothie? For everything that you need to know about bedtime smoothies, keep reading.

Smoothie 1: Sweet Dreams Smoothie

Made up of a combination of warm milk, banana, honey, cherries and nutmeg, this smoothie is perfect for helping you to drift off. Warm milk has been used for centuries to help induce sleep. However, when mixed with these other ingredients, it becomes, even more, effective. Say goodbye to plain milk, as once you’ve tried this clever concoction, you’ll never go back.

So how does this smoothie send you to sleep? The calcium in milk is a natural relaxant, and the tryptophan helps to induce sleep. Bananas contain melatonin and serotonin, two chemicals that are great for helping you to get to sleep. Bananas also contain high levels of magnesium which is a fantastic muscle relaxant. The honey helps to boost the release of melatonin, getting it into your bloodstream more quickly. While the cherries help to regulate sleep thanks to the melatonin in them. And last but not least, nutmeg is a natural relaxant that has been used for centuries to help induce sleep.

For a smoothie that will have you drifting off as soon as your head hits the pillow, give this tasty recipe a try.

Smoothie 2: Tart Cherry Smoothie

This soothing smoothie is perfect for aiding sleep. Made up of bananas, kiwis, soy milk, tart cherry juice and vanilla, it’s tasty and amazing for inducing sleep. This might seem like a strange combination, but it's amazing for helping you to drift off. This combination really is the perfect sleep-inducing recipe.

Of course, the question is, how do these ingredients work to send you to sleep? As we’ve already mentioned, bananas are high in magnesium, a muscle relaxant. As well as melatonin and serotonin, that help you to fall asleep and stay asleep. Kiwis are an essential ingredient as they boost serotonin levels in your body, helping you to stay asleep. Soy milk is a fantastic temperature regulator, which helps to keep your body at the perfect temperature. Often, we wake up because we're too hot or too cold, but not anymore. Tart cherries are known to have the highest levels of melatonin found in any fruit, making them the best sleep inducer. And last but not least, vanilla for flavour and to help soothe the body, reducing anxiety and stress.

If you’re feeling stressed out before bed, this is the perfect smoothie for you. It’ll help to calm your body, relieve stress and send you to sleep - what more could you want?

Smoothie 3: Sleepy Seeds Smoothie

For helping you to fall asleep quickly, the Sleepy Seeds Smoothie is perfect. Made up of a mixture of fruits and seeds, this smoothie is amazing. Full of banana, blueberries, raspberries, spinach, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, it's a must-try.

Thanks to it’s high amounts of magnesium, melatonin and serotonin; banana is the superfood of sleep. (These three chemicals aid relaxation and induce sleep.) Blueberries are high in antioxidants. Something a recent study has shown can help you sleep, among many other things. Raspberries contain B6 a vitamin that helps to boost melatonin’s sleep-regulating production. Spinach contains tryptophan, a sleep-promoting food. And also contains B6, which helps to increase how quickly tryptophan gets to work. As for the pumpkin and sunflower seeds, are both packed full of tryptophan which the body uses to produce serotonin and melatonin. (These are the two most essential chemicals for a good night's sleep.)

This smoothie is packed full of all the most essential ingredients for getting a good night’s sleep. It might be a bit of a strange bedtime drink, but if you let the fruits and seeds work their magic, you’ll love the results.

Sometimes, when it comes to how our bodies work, we have to think outside the box. Warm milk might work well at helping to relax you, but when you mix it with other sleep-inducing foods, it becomes a much stronger sleep aid. Smoothies might be a more common breakfast food than a bedtime snack. However, if they’re packed full of sleep-friendly substances, there’s no reason not to drink them before bed. If you struggle to sleep at night, give these recipes a try. The chances are after a couple of nights of drinking these; you'll never go back to warm milk again. As these recipes are delicious and fantastic for helping aid sleep.