Other applications also included supporting anxiety relief. Studies have found that ingredients in relaxation drinks can help promote alpha wave brainwave patterns and improve focus. Depending on the formulation, relaxing drinks can promote RAPID Eye Movement Sleep (REM) sleep. An occasional relaxation drink is probably fine for most healthy adults, but read labels for warnings and maximum daily portions.
It makes sense that people taking supplements or medications should first ask their doctor about possible interactions. Then check our table for container size, price, calories and sugar per container, which vary widely. A new range of spa drinks should help you feel calmer and more relaxed, but some experts are skeptical that they can live up to the hype. Think of them as the opposite of energy drinks.
A new wave of relaxation drinks can reduce stress and anxiety, and even help you sleep, according to the companies that sell them. The drinks have not been tested in rigorous clinical studies, but at least some of their ingredients have been shown in studies to aid sleep or reduce anxiety. Three drinks listed GABA, a chemical that can regulate stress and anxiety, but even at the maximum recommended daily doses, two Dream Water 0-calorie Sleep and RelaxZen Night contained far lower amounts than the daily dose of GABA used in a published study. Representatives from Recess, Moment and Kin Euphorics, three popular beverage brands that claim to help you relax, emphasized that their drinks are meant to evoke a sense of calm, not necessarily to treat anxiety disorders.
One reason why relaxation drinks appeal to me is that I’m wired and tense at the best of times, and these aren’t the best of times. It is a fairly broad category that includes sports drinks, energy drinks and, of course, relaxation drinks. Relaxation isn’t really about the ingredients of the drink, says Benjamin Witte, founder and CEO of Recess. You’d think that a relaxation drink doesn’t have a lot of sugar, but some brands have more than 100 calories per serving — not to mention artificial colors and flavors.
A spokesman for the federal substance abuse and mental health agency said that relaxing drinks “don’t contribute to emergency room visits or that visits are so rare that they couldn’t be counted. Unlike the other drinks on this list, Recess’s blend aims to fuel energy, albeit in a relaxing way. In this sense, the relaxation drinks are not much different from the energy drinks that inspired them. The stress that Witte talks about also affects sleep, which is why the relaxation drink category also includes drinks with melatonin.
Interestingly, people at CR found that most of the drinks tested didn’t contain significant amounts of these relaxing ingredients — in most cases, they were either below the levels on the label or well below the levels tested in legitimate studies.
