Oh, good choice! I like chai, chamomile, Rooibos and Oolong to de-stress and relax a little too! I also find that MSM (I use it mixed in water) relaxes me, even puts me to sleep sometimes. A lot of people say they can't drink it at night because it gives them lots of energy. Unfortunately, it does the opposite for me, but it's helpful when I need to relax.

Chamomile relaxes me, but never makes me sleepy or tired. MSM does more for me in terms of sleeping than the teas. I drink them mostly for their health benefits though, or else it wouldn't be worth it just for a little relaxation. I try to drink a glass of water with around 1 1/2 - 2 tablespoons of MSM before bed & it'll get me sleepy, but if I'm having a whole lot of trouble with my sleep, it won't be enough to keep me asleep.

I have these sleep phases where every few months I'll only be able to sleep a few hours a night for exactly one week. It's so weird! I can't find the cause of it, but it's like clockwork. So it happened a week ago again & I was so desperate I had to get an OTC sleep aid, which I hate doing because they can have damaging effects on your brain and can be addictive. But when you're desperate, you know? Plus, the stress I've been under is unreal this past month, so I went ahead with it. I mean, I think the benefits outweigh the cons in this situation, especially since it's only for a short period of time.

I went with Unisom, which I'd never taken before. I took one gel capsule that night and holy moly! I was out. I don't think I've slept like that since I went under anasthesia. Lol. It really did the trick. The only problem was, even 12 hours later (of full, solid sleep! No waking up!) I woke up super groggy and draggy. It took a couple hours for me to shake it off. I'm a lightweight with any kind of meds, even if it's an OTC sleep med though.

I do like the Unisom! It gave me amazing, much needed sleep. I never have taken a full capsule after that first night though. I did not expect it to put me out like that. The next night, I knew I was still going through that crappy sleep phase, so I just poked a hole in the gel capsule with a pin & dropped several drops of the liquid from the Unisom capsule on my tongue. It was much easier. I slept perfectly without waking except once to go to the bathroom & could've fallen asleep on the toilet. lol.

Then, the next night, I did the same, dropped a few drops on my tongue. Only the bad thing was, it didn't work. I couldn't go back to sleep, so the Unisom kicked in a little, but I couldn't fully get to sleep (stress, I think) and I ended up just crappy and draggy all day. That night, I added more drops from the same capsule on my tongue. It worked. The next, I took the remaining amount of the capsule.

After that, I've only taken it once since & it was the other day. I poked another hole in the second capsule of the pack & dropped it on my tongue again. I used smaller than my pinky fingernail of liquid and it worked fine. I should be through with the weird week-long sleep phase, so now I'm getting decent sleep without the sleep aids.

Before Unisom, I tried a 3 mg melatonin supplement, which worked the first time, then I found that it only barely got me to sleep. It's like it only helps you get tired and then won't help you actually stay asleep. For me, anyway.

I've never tried the POM drinks, but heard they're really healthy. I hate having sleep trouble & it's much worse when I'm under loads of stress. It's like I'm tired easier, but need lots more sleep than usual too.

Now I'm tempted to have some Chai tea. Lol. Only I am too lazy to go fix it at this hour. Haha. less