Juicy Drink Helps Adults Sleep

PHOENIX - Millions of Americans struggle with sleep problems. And if you're one of them, you may have tried just about anything to get a good night's rest.

FOX medical team reporter Deena Centofanti says if you're struggling to get to sleep, you may want to try something a little juicier than milk or chamomile tea.

A new study says tart cherry juice improves the quality and duration of sleep. Researchers from the School of Life Sciences at Northumbria University say cherry juice increases the level of melatonin in the body. That's the hormone that regulates sleep.

People in the sleep study who drank the sour montmorency cherry juice -- not the sweet kind -- slept 25 minutes longer than those who drank other beverages.

The research also found people who regularly drink cherry juice have improved quality of sleep. In the study 20 healthy volunteers drank a 30ml serving of either tart cherry juice or a placebo juice twice a day for seven days.

The researchers found that when participants drank cherry juice for a week there was a significant increase in their melatonin levels -- more than the control condition and those of placebo drinkers.

Specifically, the cherry juice drinkers saw an increase of about 15 minutes to the time spent in bed – 25 minutes in their total sleep time and a 5 to 6 percent increase in their measure of sleep quality.

Cherry juice drinkers also reported less daytime napping time compared to their normal sleeping habits before the study and the napping times of the placebo group.

According to Dr Howatson, this is the first study to show direct evidence that supplementing your diet with tart cherry juice concentrate leads to an increase in circulating melatonin and provides improvements in sleep in healthy adults. One of the study’s authors says these results provide us with more evidence of the relationship between how we sleep and what we eat.