Detox While You Sleep With These Juice Recipes Meant for Bedtime

If you celebrated Green Juice Day recently (yes, that's a thing), most likely you raised a tall glass of your favorite good-for-you blend in the morning.

But Sarah Cadji says you should really be sipping your daily green juice at night, calling it the perfect multivitamin nightcap.

Cadji, owner of London juice hotspot Roots & Bulbs, covers the concept with juices for all day long in her new book, Pure Juice. The overlooked evening "juice desert" is a powerful time to support your body's nightly cellular cleanup, she says.

"Your body has been heavily burdened by the food choices you made, the drinks you consumed, and the snacks you ate during the course of the day," Cadji explains in the book.

"Your body at this stage is longing to rest, recoup, and restore, before it all has to start all over again tomorrow. Injecting a wide variety of nutrients into your system will carry it through to the next morning," she adds.

With recipes for cleansing, digestion, and getting better sleep (hallelujah to all three), Cadji has literally created the detox of your dreams. —Erin Hanafy

Click through for five recipes for more productive slumber...

(Photos: Pure Juice)

 

Papaya Cleanser
Papaya is an exotic fruit with intense nutritional benefits. It’s a healing fruit, very high in antioxidants, and can help digestion thanks to its fiber content. Most importantly, papaya contains papain, an enzyme that targets inflammation. Drinking this juice in the evening ensures that all the goodness from the papaya will stay in the body undisturbed, so that it can help do what it is supposed to.

Ingredients
1 green (unripe) papaya, peeled and seeded
1 medium-size cucumber, unpeeled
1 green apple, unpeeled
A handful of mint
1 tsp raw honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Always buy your papayas green and juice them before they have ripened. Don’t let them ripen, as most of their healing benefits and enzymes are found during their unripe phase. Juice the papaya together with the cucumber and the apple and add the mint at the end. Finish off by adding the raw honey and cinnamon.

Drink immediately or pour into an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.

 

Pineapple Digestive
Pineapple's benefits are best saved for dinner so your body can absorb them throughout the night. It's star power comes from bromelain, a digestive enzyme that breaks down protein and is rich in anti-inflammatory properties. Consumed at dinner, pineapples can help you absorb the most important nutrients and help fight free radicals.

Ingredients
Scant cup of chamomile tea
Pineapple, peeled
2 handfuls of kale (stalks removed)
1 baby lettuce head
A handful of mint

Before you do anything, make a small cup of chamomile tea and set it aside.

The secret to pineapple is that most of its nutrients hide in its core stem, so make sure you juice the whole fruit with the rest of your ingredients. Mix your pineapple with the kale, then juice your lettuce with your mint. At the end, add the cup of chamomile along with one ice cube, as this will allow it to all come together evenly at one temperature.

Drink immediately or pour into an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.

 

Sweet Potato Weight Loss
You might find the addition of sweet potato in a juice a bit peculiar, but it’s perfect for a dinner juice because although it’s filling it’s also very nutritious. It’s a great source of beta-carotene (which is a powerful antioxidant) and it contains vitamin B6. The ingredient is your go-to if you're trying to cut down on carbohydrates, lose weight, or gain muscle.

Ingredients
1 sweet potato, peeled
2 medium-size cucumbers, unpeeled
1 green apple, peeled
A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root
1 stalk of lemongrass

Start by juicing your sweet potato and one cucumber, then add the apple and ginger together with the lemongrass, and finish off with your last cucumber. Don’t forget to stir it continually.

Drink immediately or pour into an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. Serves 1 (1 cup)

 

Sleep Enhancing Honeydew
This juice recipe is sweet enough to replace any dessert and it contains tons of vitamin C (the juice of a honeydew provides 35 percent of the daily recommended dosage our body needs). It also prepares us for a good night’s rest, with an incredible amount of hydration for our skin. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 medium-size cucumber, unpeeled
1 handful of spinach (stalks removed)
1/2 small honeydew melon, rind removed
1/2 handful of cilantro
1 stalk of lemongrass

Start juicing your cucumber with the spinach. Then add the honeydew and the herbs.

Drink immediately or pour into an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.

 

"Tulsi" Basil Juice
Tulsi, otherwise known as holy basil, can help relieve cold symptoms. But in holistic medicine it's used most to alleviate stress—so pretty much everyone should get their hands on some. In short, this beautiful herb will enhance your overall well-being.

Ingredients
2 medium-size cucumbers, unpeeled
A handful of tulsi or basil
1 red apple, unpeeled
1 tsp fresh aloe vera or bottled aloe vera juice

A great way to start juicing this recipe is to wash and chew four to five tulsi (or basil) leaves. The taste will liven up your palate and prepare it for the juice. Mix your cucumbers with your tulsi (or basil), add your apple, and then the aloe vera and stir.

Drink immediately or pour into an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours.

Tip
If you can’t get a hold of tulsi, substitute it for regular old basil, which is still fantastically good for you.

Post-juice, how to get better sleep? We've got a cheat sheet for that, and an asana to try. Sweet dreams!