Cherry juice helps you sleep

One of my health secrets is to drink a glass of CherryActive every day. I sleep like a log and now a study confirms why.

Researchers from Louisiana State University have found that drinking Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day for two weeks helped increase sleep time by nearly 90 minutes among older adults with insomnia. This is actually better than the results with any sleeping pill.

The Montmorency cherry is especially high in melatonin, which is the natural sleep hormone the brain produces to maintain sleep. A shot of CherryActive, which is a pure concentrate you put in a glass of water, also has the antioxidant power of 103 carrots (amazing isn’t it?) and is much lower GL than any other fruit juice because the main sugar is xylose and the Montmorency cherry is not that sweet.

As well as providing antioxidants it is a rich source of polyphenols and these are thought to help preserve tryptophan, from which the brain makes melatonin.

Read this article in the Daily Mail for the full story on the study.

Given the terrible side effects of sleeping pills this is an important study. Other natural sleep promoters are 5-HTP, the form of tryptophan that converts into melatonin, magnesium and amino acids that help make GABA, namely taurine and glutamine. In the US you can buy GABA itself (500-1000mg).

Read my special report on how to get a good night’s sleep for more top tips.

CherryActive is available from health food stores and, online from HOLFORDirect.com.