Wendyl wants to know: Drink unlikely to put you in land of Nod

Good Night Drink'n'Dream. $2.79 for 250ml.

I first found this drink in a dairy and was quite alarmed at the warning notice on the label which took up a lot of the back of the can.

It seemed strange that this drink should be sitting comfortably on the same shelf as energy and soft drinks when it should not be consumed by pregnant or breastfeeding women, children under the age of 12, people on prescription medicines or sedatives or antidepressants. It can also occasionally cause mild gastrointestinal symptoms or headaches and should not be used while driving or mixed with alcohol.

Surely a drink this powerful should require a prescription! Further investigation on its website tells me that its inventor designed it as a drink to take when travelling to help you sleep on the plane.

Which is fine. But why is it being sold as a drink in dairies, and now in Countdown where I found it last week?

Carbonated water

Fructose
This is sugar and you will get 18g or just over 4 teaspoons of sugar per 250m serve.

Acid: citric acid
This is natural and probably in here for flavour.

Acidity regulator: sodium citrate
This is a natural product and will be in here probably as a preservative.

Valerian extract (80mg/100ml, 0.08 per cent)
Valerian is well known as a herb which can help you to relax but my research shows that there are many conflicting studies. Some say it has no effect at all, others say it does. The recommended dosage is between 270mg and 450mg of aqueous valerian extract. So 80mg per 100ml, which means you will get 200mg per serve, is a low dose.

Rosehip extract (30mg/100ml, 0.03 per cent)
I can't find any studies to say that rosehip helps you to relax or sleep. It can help arthritis, heart disease, colds and flu and stomach disease and can even be energising because it has high levels of vitamin C. Recommended dosage for this extract is 5g to 10g a day, so this is a low dose at 75mg per serve.

Lavender extract (10mg/100ml, 0.10 per cent)
Lavender does have lots of studies to support its role as a herb which encourages relaxation. The recommended dosage is 1 to 4 drops of lavender oil which is 20mg to 80mg. At 25mg per serve this is a low dose.

Cactus fig flavour
Cactus fig or prickly pear is popular in Mexico as an intoxicant. However, this is just the flavour, which is probably artificial, so I doubt it would have much effect.

My recommendations
This drink doesn't contain any preservatives, artificial colours or sweetener so that's good.

I'm not a naturopath but my research shows that the herbs this drink contains with the intention of helping you to sleep are present in such small doses that I doubt they would have much effect on the average person.

Traditionally any herbal remedy will take a while to work and needs to be taken for a while so I'm not sure one of these drinks would have an instant effect.

I would definitely not want to see a child drinking this though, which is entirely possible when it is being sold freely in dairies and supermarkets.

My advice is if you want to sleep and get help from herbs naturally then visit a naturopath or health shop and get the right dosage of valerian and other herbs which can help when taken over a long period of time.

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