Moon milk is the new food trend promising a blissful night's sleep

Marie-Claire Dorking
·Contributor
Moon milk is the new wellness trend on the block [Photo: Getty]
Moon milk is the new wellness trend on the block [Photo: Getty]

Scooch over Horlicks (remember that?), there’s a new pre-bedtime drink designed to help you get a better night’s sleep. Step forward moon milk.

Before you ask, it has nothing to do with your period. The latest trend on the wellness block is in fact a soothing, hot drink designed to help bust that Sunday night insomnia.

According to Pinterest, where all good wellness trends begin, saves moon milk are up a whopping 700% as the wide awake club search for an au naturel cure to their sleeplessness.

☾ MOON MILK ☾ This dreamy potion is used in Ayurvedic traditions as a remedy for sleeplessness. With beautiful adaptogenic herbs and ayurvedic spices, Mermaid Latte lends itself perfectly for this recipe, however any of our lattes would work beautifully with the addition of some adaptogenic herbs. We’ve made ours with homemade hemp milk, but you could also use any kind of nut milk. Get the recipe for our homemade hemp milk and Moon Milk via #linkinprofile ✨ #nutraorganics #mermaidlatte #moonmilk

A post shared by Nutra Organics (@nutraorganics) on Feb 20, 2018 at 1:30am PST

But what exactly is moon milk?

A cup of hot milk before bed is nothing particularly groundbreaking, but 2018’s version has had a 2018 reboot thanks to a stirring of spices, natural sweeteners and something called adaptogens.

“Moon milk contains a range of different herbs and spices including a herb that is used traditionally in ayurvedic medicine, an adaptogen called ashwaganda made with withania somnifera which means sleep inducing,” says Dr Chris Etheridge, medical herbalist.

“Adaptogens are defined as non toxic substances especially plant extracts that are believed to increase the body’s ability to resist the damaging effects of stress and promote or restore normal physiological functioning within the body. They help the body deal with stress more effectively.

With ashwaganda in the moon milk it is also a nerve iron tonic and it is very relaxing. Traditionally it has been used in a milk preparation at night time to help promote sleep and ensure a good healthy sleep.”

In other words a cup of moon milk can help you can help you calm down, which is obviously beneficial for a restful night’s sleep.

Made @alison__wu’s lavender cacao moon milk✨ used the adaptogens I had on hand which were @sunpotion ashwagandha & reishi. Also added @lakantosweetener cause it’s thee absolute best. Have a wonderful night everyone • • P.s. check out her site for the recipe!

A post shared by Ashley (@findingmyelement) on Apr 18, 2018 at 7:18pm PDT

To make a mug of moon milk, simply heat up your milk of choice (apparently cockroach milk is on the up), add some natural sweetener (honey, maple syrup, vanilla), your choice of adaptogen powder (such as ashwaghanda) and sprinkle with some spices.

happy love day really feeling the soft colours & pastels the last few days. yesterday, i made a blue smoothie, today a pink elixir. part of loving myself today was making this and having a bath – at 3 pm- even if that means asking my partner to come over later. we must try daily to grow love for ourselves, to maintain this so we can radiate love and be better people to those around us. it’s not all baths and candles, that may mean confronting an issue you’ve been avoiding because you deserve answers. goal: show love daily so today just becomes another day. . recipe -1 capful of rose water – 1 tsp of rose hips tea in 3/4 cup water (made on stove) – cacao butter chunk – 1 tsp maca, start slow, I take lots 1 tbsp – 1/8 tsp reishi – 1 to 2 tsp beet crystals – 3/4 cup homemade nut milk . . i topped with rose pedals & cacao nibs cinnamon or ground vanilla would be delicious in this as well. feel free to switch up the adaptogens depending on the time of day – you could include ashwagandha for a moon milk. . thank you for following along, so much LOVE. anyone interested on a blog post about why I use certain adaptogens? xx Jordan Bruce brucesroots.com

A post shared by Jordan Bruce BA, RHN (@brucesroots) on Feb 14, 2018 at 3:32pm PST

Of course, on top of helping you drift off into a blissful night’s sleep, the pretty pastel hues of the various moon milk recipes also make it ridiculously Instagrammable.

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