AS – If you’re struggling with sleep there are a host of aids and routines designed to assist in getting the rest you need.
One possibly surprising place to look for help is… your fruit bowl.
And one fruit in particular: cherries. And especially tart cherries, such as those of the Montmorency variety.
These tart cherries have been shown to have considerable quantities of melatonin, a hormone in the human body that plays an important role in regulating our vital sleep-wake cycle.
“A study by Louisiana State University found that participants who drank tart cherry juice twice a day for two weeks slept an average of 84 minutes longer each night.”
Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland, a tiny gland in the brain. Its production is linked to the time of day and increases when it’s dark, indicating to the body that it likely time to sleep.
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Eating a bowl of cherries, or drinking cherry juice, can raise melatonin levels in the body, making it easier to wind down and fall asleep, and then also increase the duration of that sleep.
Tart cherries induce the zzzzz’s
Tart cherries generally have higher levels of melatonin than sweet versions …