9 Best Teas For Relaxing and Better Sleep of 2024, Tried And Tested

Looking for the best sleep tea? There really isn’t anything quite like a cup of warm tea, specially before bed. Whether it’s your winding down ritual or you’re post meal delight, it’s a great way to reap the benefits of a warm, herbal tea for sleep. Having a cup of tea before bed combined with a great sleep routine and sleep hygiene practices is foolproof way to create better winding down habits to increase sleep quality.

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Our Top 10 Best Sleep Tea Picks [2024]

Best Overall: Pukka Night Time

Ingredients: Oat flower, licorice root, chamomile flower, lavender flower, lime flower, valerian root, tulsi leaf.

Best Loose Leaf: Art Of Tea Sleep Tea

Ingredients: Organic Peppermint, Organic Chamomile, Organic Lemon Balm, Organic Fennel, Organic Licorice Root

Best Sleep: Raw Essentials Sleep Tea

Ingredients: Chamomile, Passion Flower, Lemongrass, Rose Petals, Lavender Buds

Best Blend: Art Of Tea Soothe Tea

Ingredients: Organic Peppermint, Organic Chamomile, Organic Lemon Balm, Organic Fennel, Organic Licorice Root

Best Tasting: Yogi Tea Bedtime Soothing Caramel

Ingredients: Chamomile Flower, Rooibos Leaf (Redbush), Roasted Chicory Root, Skullcap Leaf, Nutmeg, California Poppy, L-Theanine Suntheanine and essential Oils.

Best Chamomile: Origin Tea Chamomile

Ingredients: Chamomile Flowers

Best Lavender: T2 Tea Sleep Tight

Ingredients: Lemon balm, Lavender, Jasmine Blossoms, Rose Petals

Best Valerian: Celestial Wellness Sleepytime Extra Tea

Ingredients: Chamomile, Tilia Flowers, Valerian, Spearmint, Lemongrass, and Hawthorn.

Best Budget: Planet Organic Chamomile Herbal

Ingredients: Certified Organic Chamomile Flowers

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Why Drink Herbal Tea For Relaxation And Better Sleep?

Insomnia is one of the most common medical complaints in adults. The list of tried, tested, proven (and failed) methods of relaxing or trying to get a better sleep is huge. 

We have written in depth about all of the most effective ways to hack sleep and optimise your human potential in some of our other articles. Herbal remedies have been used for centuries for improving health and encouraging some kind of relaxation effect on the body and mind, with an epic sleep as the most desired outcome.

The most common herbal ingredients you find in the best herbal sleep and relaxation teas are chamomile, lavender, valerian, spearmint, lemon balm, hawthorn, california poppy and l-theanine. Sleep disturbances can affect daily life considerably and reduce the quality of life. You will find that the vast majority of the best teas for sleep will include some variation of combination of these couple of ingredients.

The importance of a good night’s sleep is well-established, nevertheless many people suffering from sleep disorders prefer not to use prescription drugs, which come with their own potential side effects, and prefer to opt for a more natural approach to improving sleep. All of the ingredients mentioned offer some degree of proven benefits in inducing sleep hormones, reducing stress, anxiety and muscle muscle relaxation. 

One 2017 study evaluated the effectiveness and safety of a herbal compound in primary insomnia symptoms and sleep disturbances. It found both a shorter time to fall asleep plus “daily symptom improvement in subjects receiving the herbal compound showed significant reduction in tension and irritability, difficulty in concentration, and fatigue intensity”.

Best Sleep Tea - Buyers Guide

Best Overall: Pukka Night Time

This really is the perfect tea to help wind down after a long day. Quite easily our top pick for relaxing and sleep inducing tea is Pukka’s organic night time tea. The ingredients in this amazing tea are indeed frequently used for nervous system disorders, depression and anxiety, low sexual vitality, irritability, and urinary incontinence. The best part is Pukka uses plastic free tea bags and covers each tea bag in a recyclable envelope and the tea bag can be composted so it's good for your sleep and good for the environment at the same time.

Ingredients: Oat flower, licorice root, chamomile flower, lavender flower, lime flower, valerian root, tulsi leaf.

Best Loose Leaf: Art Of Tea Sleep Tea

A calming sleepytime tea with smooth and minty flavor notes. Steep this tea for sleep either to accentuate a midday nap or head to your evening slumber. We can attest to the fact that this loose leaf tea minimises the use of extra resources in the tea bag to minimise waste and it also absolutely knocks you out so you can fall asleep instantly. Even insomniacs will approve of this tea for sleep.

Ingredients: Organic Peppermint, Organic Chamomile, Organic Lemon Balm, Organic Fennel, Organic Licorice Root

Best Sleep: Raw Essentials Sleep Tea

Our sleep is so often neglected with our busy schedules and overactive minds. The sleep blend is a combination of flowers and herbs designed specifically to help you unwind and prepare for a good night’s sleep. Chamomile has been used since Roman times as a sedative. Lemongrass prolongs your sleep and calms your muscles and nerves. Passionflower helps to relieve anxiety and insomnia. This combination makes for a beautiful nightly ritual to calm your mind and relax your body.

Ingredients: Chamomile, Passion Flower, Lemongrass, Rose Petals, Lavender Buds

Best Blend: Art Of Tea Soothe Tea

This soothing aromatic blend is crafted with minty, calm, and slightly sweet botanicals. This blend has been known to restore balance in the digestive system with each and every sip. We often recognise that our sleep is often affected by upset stomach and that when we can calm the gut we find that we fall asleep twice as fast. Drink this tea half an hour before bed to soothe the gut and drop into sleep without the tummy rumble and grumble.

Ingredients: Organic Peppermint, Organic Chamomile, Organic Lemon Balm, Organic Fennel, Organic Licorice Root

Best Tasting: Yogi Tea Bedtime Soothing Caramel

This tea comes heavily recommended by Tim Ferriss to hack sleep the natural way. He says this particular tea has been instrumental in getting him to sleep fast, know as sleep latency. Relax, and breathe in the enchanting aroma of Yogi Soothing Caramel Bedtime tea. This blend is a delicious combination of Organic Chamomile Flower, Skullcap, California Poppy and L-Theanine specifically formulated to support relaxation by calming the body and mind to promote a good night's sleep. Sweet, creamy Rooibos, Caramel and Vanilla flavours add soothing and warming flavour that's just right for drinking before bedtime.

Ingredients: Chamomile Flower, Rooibos Leaf (Redbush), Roasted Chicory Root, Skullcap Leaf, Nutmeg, California Poppy, L-Theanine Suntheanine and essential Oils.

Best Chamomile: Origin Tea Chamomile

There is nothing quite like a bit of chamomile to get you in the sleep zone. This is probably the most popular and most bought type of relaxation and sleep tea. Find your inner calm and stress relief with our Organic Chamomile. Have a cuppa before bed and you will find a soothing and relaxing blend that is not only comforting, but enjoyable to smell and look at.

Ingredients: Chamomile Flowers

Best Lavender: T2 Tea Sleep Tight

Need a little shut eye? Sail away to the Land of Nod with a dreamy blend of lemon balm, lavender, jasmine and rose. The perfect sleepytime tea with a glorious aroma and delicate sweet flavour.

Ingredients: Lemon balm, Lavender, Jasmine Blossoms, Rose Petals

Best Valerian: Celestial Wellness Sleepytime Extra Tea

More than 40 years ago, they created a truly soothing herbal tea to help folks wind down the day.They named it sleepytime tea and it quickly became everyone's favorite bedtime tea. Today, their calming sleepytime blend of botanicals is available in herbal, decaf green and wellness teas, so you can always find the perfect cup for your bedtime routine. This relaxing herbal tea starts with their time-honored sleepytime blend of chamomile, spearmint and other soothing herbs. They then add Valerian, long trusted as a natural sleep aid, for an especially calming cup.

Ingredients: Chamomile, Tilia Flowers, Valerian, Spearmint, Lemongrass, and Hawthorn. Not only that, they also practice responsible sourcing and purchase most of their ingredients directly from the farming communities that grow them, plus use sustainable packaging meaning tea bags without strings, tags or staples, keeping tons of material out of landfills every year.

Best Budget: Planet Organic Chamomile Herbal

Looking for an enjoyable, organic ingredient sleep tea without the price tag? Enjoy the enchanting taste of Planet Organic Chamomile Herbal Tea which is produced from organic chamomile flowers of certified herb gardens.

Ingredients: Certified Organic Chamomile Flowers

How To Choose Your Tea For Relaxing And Sleep

Organic Ingredients

We know that you are already aware of the benefits of buying organic food, the same applies for organic herbal ingredients you find in tea bags and loose leaf tea blends. 

Always have a preference for organic ingredients but we definitely appreciate the fact that generally organic ingredients list come with a higher price tag. But, when we buy tea with an organic seal we know we can drink our relaxing sleep tea without having to be concerned about bad chemicals and pesticides that are used alot in standard agriculture and farming. Organic also means that a product contains no genetically modified organisms or GMO’s

Sustainability and Environmentally Conscious Tea

Whilst we are aiming to share the best ways to look after ourselves on RG, we also care dearly about our environment and the impacts our habits have on sustainability. Your relaxing tea and the products that hold the herbs should also do as minimal amount of damage as possible to the earth in its harvesting, production, packaging and transportation. Alarmingly, a 2019 paper showed that a variety of tea bags release microplastics into the liquid you are drinking due to the construction and make up of its packaging. In this regard, it is always better to opt for paper envelope packaging like those found on the Pukka Tea varieties or compostable tea bags to prevent excess waste and environmental impact as well as putting only the good stuff in your body. Avoid plastic at all costs!

Final Word On Best Tea For Sleep

Herbal tea is one of the many methods to positively contribute to your sleep hygiene and nightly preparation for the best possible sleep and subsequently the most effective recovery. We place Pukka Night Time tea at the top of our list for its commitment to quality ingredients, the popularity and other reviews of the sleep tea, the effectiveness of Night Time tea and helping you transition into sleep and the Pukkas commitment to sustainable, environmentally friendly packaging. In saying this, all of the other 8 types of relaxation and recovery teas we mention in this list are ones we have used extensively and can personally vouch for their taste, efficacy and quality.

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