Drink up. Photo: Shutterstock.
If you’ve been having difficulty sleeping lately, there’s a new natural way to help you get some rest. It’s not water and it’s not booze; it’s cherry juice. Researchers at Louisiana State University have found that drinking tart cherry juice two times per day can help you sleep almost 90 minutes more per night.
The study found that when older adults drank cherry juice twice a day for two weeks, then went two weeks with no juice, and finally went two final weeks drinking a placebo, they averaged about 84 minutes more sleep time when consuming tart cherry juice.
As it turns out cherry juice is a source of your two favorite natural sleep aids: melatonin and tryptophan (that amino acid in turkey that makes you sleepy). While many adults take melatonin as a supplement before bed, cherries are naturally loaded with the sleep regulating hormone. Drinking a glass of cherry juice during the day and another before bed could help you achieve a better quality and longer duration of sleep.
The red pigments in the juice contain an enzyme that slows the breakdown of tryptophan which allows it to work longer inside the body. That enzyme additionally reduces inflammation as an added bonus. Research has found that Montmorency cherries are especially high in Proanthocyanidins, or the compounds found in the red pigment.
Next time you catch yourself tossing and turning, consider tart cherry juice as a natural and non-habit forming option to help you get some sleep.
