Stress is complicated. The causes are personal, the symptoms are all over the place, and the solutions are rarely simple. But what if the solution were simple? Could something as simple as raw honey help reduce stress?

Here's what the research says.

You can’t talk stress without mentioning sleep.

Before doing anything else about stress, look at your sleep. Poor sleep feeds into stress as stress feeds into poor sleep. It’s an infinite feedback loop: when sleep is disrupted, cortisol spikes.

A key benefit of raw honey is that it replenishes glycogen stores in your liver. Taking a spoonful of honey gives your body a steady source of energy through the night, keeping your brain from triggering stress hormones. Raw honey also contains tryptophan, an amino acid that gets transformed into serotonin and melatonin — hormones responsible for putting you to sleep.

But quality sleep and steady energy levels are just one part of the stress equation.

Raw honey is packed with antioxidants. Why does that matter?

As you know, stress’s impact isn’t just felt mentally. Stress is known to increase oxidative stress in the body, which triggers inflammation and tissue damage in addition to cortisol production. Raw honey is dense with antioxidants that push back against the cycle that causes damage to the inner workings of your body.

As we discussed in our “Is Honey a Health Food?” blog, the benefits of raw honey add up over time. With time, oxidative stress can be significantly reduced, keeping cortisol production down as well.

This is also why raw honey matters. The heating and filtering used in processed honey destroys many of these bioactive compounds. Unfiltered and unprocessed honey is honey as it’s meant to be.

How can raw honey reduce even more stress?

While raw honey can aid in mitigating stress, combining it with herbal tea multiplies the impact. Studies have shown that chamomile tea works on the same receptors targeted by anti-anxiety medications. A trial even showed that combining honey with chamomile tea over a 2-week period meaningfully improved sleep quality and reduced anxiety.

Raw honey and chamomile tea share two of the same brain calming flavonoids: apigenin and chrysin. This combination produces antioxidant interactions that can’t be achieved by either alone. Stacking raw honey and herbal tea minimizes stress with a simple relaxing routine.

Here at Local Hive Honey, we hope all our customers are relaxed and thoroughly de-stressed, and if our honey helps them chill out, even better. Check out our online store to find varieties unique to regions across the country. Or use our honey finder to find the perfect honey for your tastes — or to give as a gift.