In the middle of a particularly challenging day do you ever feel like you could really use a hug? And not just any hug, but one of those hugs that seems to melt all the tension in your body and soaks down to your heart to make you feel warm inside? Or maybe you long for a soothing cup of Earl Grey or green tea in moments like these. Well, if your favorite hugger isn’t around or you want to give your tea an extra soothing effect, L-theanine is there with wide open arms. 

Calming and Soothing 

I suppose there’s a reason that many cultures turn to a nice cup of tea as a daily ritual to maintain a sense of balance. L-theanine is an amino acid found in green and black tea and it’s known to soothe an overly excited brain and can also support calm states and relaxing brain waves, called alpha waves. This incredible plant compound may have the ability to enhance serotonin and dopamine, which could help the body better deal with daily stressors. 

Supports Restful Sleep

Isn’t this what we all long for?! It’s the stuff our early morning and afternoon daydreams are made of! The soothing effects of L-theanine can help maintain states of calm and ease throughout the day. As you spend more time in a balanced state your mind has less to unwind at the end of your busy day, leaving you feeling more at ease and ready for restful sleep. And of course, we all know that getting a good night’s sleep can be a key factor in maintaining a sense of ease and centerness throughout the day, so it’s a cycle that we can all get behind! 

Enhanced Focus

We all know that mamas are master multi-taskers but sometimes this can backfire and leave us feeling twisted and unable to focus fully on one thing. We seem to have trained our minds to be thinking and doing 20 things in each moment, which is not always the best for maintaing a sense of centered presence! As L-theanine turns up the juice on those soothing alpha waves, many may find that the fight-or-flight craze known to keep your mind spinning begins to settle, leaving us better able to focus properly on the task at hand.  Perhaps as this plant extract’s balancing waves wash over you, you may find yourself in such an enhanced state of focus that you discover that you can follow every complex twist and turn of the elaborate tale of your 5th grader’s day at school!  

John J.Foxe, Kristen P.Morie, Peter J.Laud Matthew J.RowsoneEveline A., Bruins Simon P.Kelly Assessing the effects of caffeine and theanine on the maintenance of vigilance during a sustained attention task. Neuropharmacology Volume 62, Issue 7, June 2012, Pages 2320-2327

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22326943/