Product Review: Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea and Sleepytime Extra Tea

After experimenting with Ambien (zolpiderm) and other prescription sleeping pills and experiencing ill effects from them such as grogginess, confusion and even hallucinations (watch out for Ambien!), I decided to go the natural route. I then tried melatonin, to no avail. Melatonin has been receiving quite a bit of press lately about how it's been proven to be ineffective. Frustrated with my inability to sleep, but also afraid of venturing into a world of addictions to little pills, I decided to try tea for my chronic insomnia. I was, after all, advised to do so by a wise elderly woman living in my community. She told me that if the tea doesn't even work, then at least my body would be warmed up by it, increasing the likelihood that I would drift off to sleep. In this article, I am reviewing both Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea and Sleepytime Extra Tea.

So I purchased Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Tea. It comes in a meadow grass-green box with that adorable little bear set by a gently roaring fireplace. It's one of the cutest packaging that Celestial Seasonings has put out (even though many of its boxes are quite interesting). There are 20 servings in the box, and the tea itself is a "100% Natural Herb Tea" and is "Caffeine Free" as well. The latter quality being no surprise, of course. Make sure to avoid caffeine at least 5 hours before your bedtime, by the way. As with all herbal teas, this tea is void of any calories.

The ingredients are listed as follows: Chamomile, spearmint, lemon grass, tilia flowers, blackberry leaves, orange blossoms, hawthorn berries and rosebuds. The lemon grass and the orange blossoms lend it a lovely scent, yet the spearmint is the prevailing scent.

However, after trying it, I realized that it was no special from any other herbal tea. I was relaxed from the scent and the warmth and the qualities of chamomile, but I was no where closer to falling asleep. At least it had a pleasant taste and had none of the bitterness that herbal teas sometimes possess.