Sleep Better: This totally simple food hack could be a game changer

Sleep better with this food

There’s no shortage of soothing sleep tricks, and you’ve probably tried a few too: a warm bath, sleep apps, ear seeds, or strictly no cell phones in the bedroom…

The latest hack for better sleep comes from TikTok again, and it’s about a food that’s super easy to get in any supermarket: users claim that tart cherry juice helps them fall asleep! In a viral video that garnered more than 197,000 likes and a lot of reactions, user @missalanablack spoke about her sleep problems. When she saw another user post a video about drinking tart cherry juice before bed, she gave it a try: “Why didn’t I find out about cherry juice sooner? I’ve been taking so many supplements to help me fall asleep and stay asleep… and all I needed was tart cherry juice…” Noting that she was “done” 15 minutes after one cup of the juice, she added, ” I didn’t wake up once that night.”

TikTok user @hymtherapper also decided to try the tart cherry juice tip in an older video, but ended up drinking it in the middle of the day. In the video – in which he was clearly surprised by the sour taste of the juice – he said he felt sleepy 15 minutes after drinking a cup. “I’m just waking up,” he shared in another clip, in which he said he slept for six hours. “Just want to let you all know the juice worked.”

Of course, any health-related claims on TikTok should be taken with a pinch of salt, but people seem to swear by the hack. Our colleagues from the magazine “SELF” That’s why experts asked whether you should drink a glass of sour cherry juice for better sleep – here you can find out what’s really going on.

Studies suggest that tart cherry juice helps with sleep can

There are some studies that indicate possible sleep-promoting effects of tart cherry juice, but unfortunately they are older and only had a small number of participants.

For example, in a 2012 study, researchers had 20 adults drink tart cherry juice concentrate or a placebo before dinner for a week. They discovered that the people who drank the tart cherry juice had increased levels of urinary melatonin (melatonin is a hormone the brain produces in response to darkness that helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle) compared to the placebo group ).

A 2018 pilot study of eight elderly people suffering from insomnia found that drinking tart cherry juice in the morning and before bed for two weeks increased sleep duration by an average of 84 minutes. Researchers noted that tart cherry juice may be “partially responsible” for relieving insomnia.

“While the studies are small, they have shown that tart cherry juice has mild to moderate benefits for sleep,” Kelly Waters, MD, sleep medicine specialist, told “SELF”.

The connection is seemingly simple: tart cherries contain melatonin, but they also contain compounds that may increase the bioavailability of tryptophan — an essential amino acid involved in the production of melatonin — in the body. “Theoretically, if levels of tryptophan are higher in the body, it could promote sleep,” said Deborah Cohen, DCN, RDN, associate professor in the Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Tart cherry juice is a harmless sleep aid – but don’t expect miracles

“Tart cherries contain a lot of melatonin. Will the juice blow your mind? No. But if you want a drink before bed, I think tart cherry juice is a fantastic one,” said W. Christopher Winter, MD, neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at the Department of Neurology and Sleep Medicine in Charlottesville.