By the evening edition.
A cup of hot chocolate before bed would improve sleep. This advice is not just a grandmother’s tip. Chinese scientists looked at the effects of hot milk on mice.
With the temperatures dropping, what could be more tempting than snuggling up under a blanket with a nice cup of hot chocolate? This little pleasure can be very restorative. Especially for sleep. Scientists from South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, whose work was published in 2021 in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistryand relayed by the magazine Top Healthin fact reveal that warm cow’s milk could have real beneficial effects on sleep.
To achieve these results, they started from the observation that dairy products contained tryptophan, an amino acid precursor of serotonin, a neurotransmitter promoting sleep. Chinese researchers sought to verify the beneficial effect of cow’s milk on sleep and studied two groups of mice: the first drank warm milk every day while the second was a control group.
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The duration and quality of sleep would increase by 58 to 83%
And their study demonstrated that tryptophan is not the only component of warm milk that helps you sleep well. Peptides, which are short chains of amino acids, grouped under the label “tryptic casein hydrolyzate (HCT)”, present in milk, also play a role: they are capable of acting as sleeping pills.
These peptides reduced the time it took for mice in the first group to fall asleep, and “increased their sleep duration by approximately 400% compared to the control group.” According to scientists, they prolong “significantly the duration of sleep and increase its quality by 58 to 83%”.
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Drink hot and with dark chocolate, to benefit from maximum benefits
According to the researchers, “it is during the digestion process that the milk molecules could deploy their sleep-promoting activity.” Hence the interest in drinking it before bedtime.
A glass of milk produces the same effect, but it must be admitted that it is much less exciting than chocolate. Prefer a preparation based on dark chocolate: this helps reduce nervousness, thanks to the magnesium it contains, and therefore finds its place before bedtime.
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The fact that the drink is hot also tends to improve the quality of sleep. Hot drinks allow you to perspire and therefore facilitate a drop in body temperature, which is essential for falling asleep quickly and enjoying quality sleep.
