A couple weeks ago a pilot study was published looking into tart cherry juice for insomnia. Here’s a few details:
15 older adults who have chronic insomnia but are otherwise healthy drank the cherry juice blend twice a day for 2 weeks. They kept a sleep diary during this time and during another 2 week time.
The results showed that on the cherry juice they had less time awake in the middle of the night. Tart cherry juice contains naturally occuring melatonin, which is thought to be responsible of the effect. The authors state that this was a mild effect, and that cognitive-behavioral therapy and pharmaceuticals have a larger effect on insomnia.
So what’s our conclusion? At this point in time, you could try tart cherry juice, but if you have significant insomnia, other treatment methods will be more successful.