Drink This, Sleep 90 More Minutes A Night

Gulping 16 ounces a day could knock you out cold

No, it's not whiskey. New research from Louisiana State University finds that drinking tart cherry juice twice a day can help you sleep nearly 90 more minutes a night.

Researchers had seven older adults with insomnia drink eight ounces of Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day for two weeks, followed by two weeks of no juice, and then two more weeks of drinking a placebo beverage. Compared to the placebo, drinking the cherry juice resulted in an average of 84 more minutes of sleep time each night.

(Are you getting the recommended amount of shuteye? Find out How Many Hours of Sleep You Really Need.)

Cherry juice is a natural source of the sleep-wake cycle hormone melatonin and the amino acid tryptophan, says study coauthor Frank L. Greenway, director of the outpatient research clinic at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at LSU.

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