Short Bits 2025

Short Bits is my method of sharing information that would be too short for a separate blog post. Following are my short posts for 2025.

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01 – Use Honey to Help You Sleep (2025-04-06)

I have seen manuka honey at Whole Foods Market for years when shopping there, but I thought it was very expensive. A former dental hygienist tried to get me interested in manuka honey a few years ago, but once again I thought it was too expensive, even if it was beneficial for your health.

I began shopping at Trader Joe’s a few years ago and last year while shopping there I noticed that they sold manuka honey for $13.99 for a 8.8-oz jar with a UMF-10 rating. I didn’t think the price was too bad, but I wanted to further research the health benefits of consuming it before deciding to purchase a jar.

I researched the health benefits of manuka honey and I came across two excellent posts about manuka honey, one on the Dr. Axe site and one on the Life Extension site. One of the benefits listed in the Dr. Axe post was that consuming honey in general can help you sleep better. I was already taking magnesium glycinate, which helped improve my sleep quality. However, I thought I’d try consuming manuka honey to see if my sleep quality improved even more.

My sleep quality did improve even more after I began consuming about one tablespoon of manuka honey not long before going to bed. Before I began consuming manuka honey, I was getting 10-11 hours of sleep. After I began consuming manuka honey, I began getting 11-13 hours of sleep. That might seem like a lot of sleep to most people, but I’m usually up for well over 24 hours before going to bed.

Based on what I read in the Dr. Axe post, any honey should work if all you’re interested in is better sleep. However, manuka honey has other potential health benefits, so I prefer to use manuka honey over regular honey.

I found a brand of manuka honey on Amazon with a UMF-12 rating for $15.90 for a 8.8-oz jar, which is a slightly better rating than the brand I was buying at Trader Joe’s. I’d eventually like to purchase manuka honey with a UMF-15 or UMF-16 rating, but it’s a bit too expensive for my current budget.

What are your thoughts about manuka honey? Let me know in the comment box at the bottom of the page and thank you for visiting.

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Post header image courtesy of makeshyft_tom on Pixabay.

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