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Honey is made primarily of natural sugars, including glucose and fructose. It also contains small amounts of water, minerals, enzymes, and plant compounds.
One theory suggests that a small amount of carbohydrate before bed may help maintain liver glycogen during the night.
Glycogen is a stored form of glucose. The liver can release glucose between meals to help keep blood sugar within a normal range. Some supporters of the honey remedy claim that providing a small amount of sugar before sleep may reduce the likelihood of waking when the body needs energy.
This idea is biologically plausible, but it has not been adequately demonstrated as an insomnia treatment.
Most healthy adults can regulate blood glucose throughout the night without eating honey before bed. Frequent nighttime waking is also more commonly associated with stress, an uncomfortable sleep environment, caffeine, alcohol, pain, medication, sleep apnea, or other health conditions.
Could Honey Affect Sleep-Related Brain Chemicals?
Another common claim is that honey may help tryptophan enter the brain.
Tryptophan is an amino acid used by the body to produce serotonin and melatonin. Serotonin contributes to mood regulation, while melatonin helps coordinate the sleep-wake cycle.
Eating carbohydrates can stimulate the release of insulin. Under certain circumstances, this may change the balance of amino acids in the blood and make it easier for tryptophan to cross into the brain.
However, this process is more complicated than simply eating a spoonful of honey. It does not prove that honey produces enough melatonin to make a meaningful difference in sleep.
Honey should therefore not be described as a natural sleeping pill. At most, a small amount may be a relaxing part of a bedtime routine for some people.
What Research Says About Honey and Sleep
Research examining honey specifically as a sleep aid remains limited.
Some early studies and registered clinical trials have investigated whether raw honey may improve sleep quality. Although preliminary findings have attracted attention, the evidence is not yet extensive or consistent enough to recommend honey as a standard treatment for poor sleep.
There is somewhat stronger evidence that honey may relieve nighttime coughing associated with an upper respiratory infection in children over one year of age.
In those circumstances, improved sleep may result from reduced coughing rather than a direct sedative effect. That is different from showing that honey treats insomnia in otherwise healthy adults.
More high-quality trials are needed to determine whether honey has any meaningful effect on falling asleep, staying asleep, or total sleep duration.
Why Salt Is Added to the Mixture
Sodium is an essential mineral. The body needs it for fluid balance, nerve signaling, muscle contraction, and normal blood pressure regulation.
The idea behind adding salt to honey is that an extremely low sodium intake could activate stress-related systems in the body. Supporters of the remedy suggest that restoring a small amount of sodium may help the nervous system relax.
This reasoning is largely based on research involving sodium restriction or depletion. It does not establish that a person eating a typical modern diet will sleep better after consuming extra salt at bedtime.
Most people already obtain sufficient—and often excessive—sodium from their regular diet. Adding more salt is unlikely to correct a deficiency unless one actually exists.
There is also no convincing clinical evidence that sea salt, pink salt, or another specialty salt has a unique sleep-promoting effect.