A Home Soy-Milk Recipe for Calming the Spirit and Promoting Sleep

A cup of soy milk before bed to calm the spirit and aid sleep — could anything be nicer?

Such a soy-milk recipe actually exists. Drawing on the effects of certain medicinal-edible herbs, I have combined a soy-milk formula that helps some insomnia patients.

The recipe: Suanzaoren (Ziziphi Spinosae Semen) 5–15 g (5 g per person), soy or black beans as needed, hongzao (jujube, pitted) 3–5 pieces, huangxiaomai (processed wheat, Triticum Fructus) 10–30 g (10 g per person, dry-fried yellow), chenpi (Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium) 1–3 g (1 g per person), shanzha (Crataegi Fructus, dry-fried yellow) 2–6 g (2 g per person).

Use all of the above as soy-milk ingredients; add water and make soy milk in a home machine. Drink a cup 1–2 hours before bed. Such soy milk can improve mild-to-moderate insomnia and can also help healthy people sleep more deeply. It will not, however, work well for severe insomnia or insomnia caused by brain disease.

In the above recipe, soybeans can be replaced by yogurt to make a smoothie. Such a smoothie not only calms the spirit and aids sleep but also helps lower blood sugar, blood lipids, and weight; however, for patients with high cholesterol or hyperglycemia it cannot replace medication.

All five ingredients are both medicinal and edible. The recipe is derived from Zhang Zhongjing's Gancao Dazao Tang (Licorice and Jujube Decoction) and has a calming and digestive-supporting effect. People with excess stomach acid should replace the shanzha with an equal amount of wuzeyu (cuttlebone, i.e. the internal shell of the cuttlefish).