Lately superfoods and superfruits are all the rage. These are powerful antioxidant-rich and nutrient-rich foods offering condition specific natural health remedies.
The juice of one superfruit, tart cherry juice, in particular has caught the attention of those suffering from sleep issues including insomnia.
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Cherry juice and cherry juice concentrate is one of Mother Nature’s leading sources of naturally occurring melatonin and other powerful antioxidants. However, before you rush out an buy a bottle to enjoy before bed, check out a few things to take into consideration.
The Best Type of Cherry Juice to Drink for Sleep?
The first thing to understand is not all cherry juice is the same. Not all cherries offer the same sleep benefits. You see, most of the sleep benefits of cherries is found in the Montmorency tart cherry variety.
These are tiny, ruby-red fruit grown in the Traverse Bay Farms region of northwestern-lower Michigan. This farm-rich region of Michigan is located on the 45th parallel and grows over 65% of all of the tart cherries in the United States.
Studies has shown the Montmorency variety contains high amounts of melatonin. This is a hormone naturally produced in the pineal gland of the brain and helps you to fall sleep.
In addition to the Montmorency cherries for sleep efficiency, they are also packed-full of proanthocyanins. These are similar to the red tannins found in wine. This powerful compound helps your body to convert tryptophans to serotonin and helps you sleep.
Thus, the Montmorency tart cherry sleep benefits are documented and proven in a number of published research papers. So let’s learn why tart cherry juice helps you sleep.
What’s Cherry Juice?
Cherry juice is made from tart cherries, specifically the sour cherries. While there are several types of Michigan-grown sour cherries including Bing, Rainer and Lambert, the more popular sour types are the Montmorency and the Balaton. These are the two most popular Michigan-grown tart cherries.
Both of these cherries taste tart and are used to make tart cherry juice, the Montmorency cherry juice is on type that offers the most published research for cherry sleep benefits.
It takes the juice of approximately 100 cherries to make just one ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate. It is the concentrated cherry juice that is used to make the cherry juice for sleep. When looking for the best cherry juice, look for a sediment-free guarantee. This simply means, you won't find and chunks or sludge in the bottom of the bottom. Sediment usually occurs due to poor quality cherry juice concentrate or old concentrated juice.
How Much Cherry Juice for Sleep?
A number of studies have shown drinking cherry juice can help adults fall asleep fast. In addition, to falling asleep faster, drinking cherry juice also lengthens sleep time for an additional 60 to 90 minutes when compared to the placebo. In fact, one tart cherry juice sleep study showed the cherry group participants enjoyed an increased sleep time of 84 minutes longer.
The study had participants drink an 8-ounce serving glass 60 minutes before bed. This allowed the body time to absorb the naturally occurring compounds in the cherry juice for sleep benefits.
Why Cherry Juice is Good for Sleep?
While tart cherries offer a number of powerful antioxidants and health benefits with no added sugar, there are really two reasons tart cherry juice improves your sleep. According to published research, the presence of melatonin and proanthocyanins point to the main reason for cherry juice for sleep.
Fortunately, tart cherries combines these two compounds into one powerful superfruit. In addition, to drinking the tart cherry juice, many allow take tart cherry capsules daily to improve sleep, too.
Tart Cherry Juice Recipes
Add tart cherry juice to your daily diet is simple. You would simply need to add one-ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate to water or a smoothie, mix and enjoy. Here is what you will need for a bedtime cherry juice drink:
100% Pure Glass of Tart Cherry Juice
- One ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate
- Eight ounces of water. Simply mix together and enjoy a refreshing pre-bedtime drink
Check out this step-by-step fail-proof video to make a 100% pure glass of tart cherry juice for sleep
Cherry Smoothie Night-time Drink
- One ounce of tart cherry juice concentrate
- Four ounces of yogurt. Enjoy a plain yogurt, vanilla or coconut yogurt. Simply mix in the tart cherry juice concentrate and enjoy.
FAQ for Cherry Juice:
What is the Proper Dosage of Cherry Juice for Sleep Deprivation?
Most of the research on the effect of montmorency tart cherry juice used 1-ounce in cherry juice concentrate in the study. For most of the studies, this was used one-a-day, while other studies instructed participants take 1-ounce of concentrated cherry juice twice a day.
When to Take Cherry Juice for Sleep?
Most folks drink a glass of cherry juice about an hour before bedtime. This allows the naturally occurring melatonin to begin working its magic. In addition, drinking this red juice also supports healthy immune systems.
Which Cherry Juice is Best for Sleep?
While there are several types of tart cherries including Bing, Rainer and Lambert, the Montmorency tart cherry is the one that has most of the published research conducted on it. The reason is the crop size of the Montmorency cherry is usually consistently larger and more readily available for research and the production of concentrated cherry juice for sleep.
Do Cherry Capsules Work Just as Well?
Most people drink the red juice cherry juice due to the presence of melatonin. However, when compared to the cherry capsules, the cherry juice actually contains less of the melatonin found in the cherry capsules. Here are the melatonin amounts found in the fresh fruit, the juice and cherry capsules.
Tart Cherry Products and Melatonin:
Fresh Tart Cherries: Up to 13.5 nanograms (ng) of Melatonin per gram
Tart Cherry Juice Concentrate: Has up to 10 times more the Melatonin per gram when compared to the raw fruit.
Tart Cherry Powder: 137+ ng per gram
Learn more about the 7 Natural Health Benefits of Tart Cherries
Sources and References:
- Effects of a Tart Cherry Juice Beverage on the Sleep of Older Adults with Insomnia: A Pilot Study – ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Pilot Study of the Tart Cherry Juice for the Treatment of Insomnia and Investigation of Mechanisms. – ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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