It’s almost daylight savings time. While we are looking forward to our clocks “falling back”, it’s the adjustment to sleep patterns that is definitely the downside.
I am a big believer in the importance of sleep, and in a house with teenagers, it’s a major topic of conversation. I was very intrigued when I heard that tart cherry juice can be a natural sleep aid, as tart cherries contain melatonin.
Truly I hadn’t even seen or heard of tart cherry juice (which is a little surprising since I do love cherries and Cherry Chip is my ALL TIME favorite cake flavor). So I went right away to choosecherries.com to find out more about sleep research and tart cherries.
Here’s a bit of what I’ve learned regarding sleep:
- Research shows that switching from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time can compromise sleep rhythms.
- Sleep disturbances impact overall health and is considered an important risk factor for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease
- It’s not just the quantity of sleep that counts, it’s the quality (aka sleep efficiency) .
- Nearly 1/3 of Americans suffer from sleep disturbances and that’s meant rising sales of over-the-counter sleep aids. I think we’d all rather find a natural way to get great sleep.
And here’s what I’ve learned about tart cherries (aka Montmorency cherries) and sleep:
- Adults who drank tart cherry juice slept about 40 minutes longer, on average and had up to 6 increase in sleep efficiency (quality sleep).
- Researchers found that drinking tart cherry juice daily helped reduce the severity of insomnia and time spent awake after going to sleep.
- In a different study, researchers found that drinking tart cherry juice twice daily for 2 weeks helped increase sleep time by nearly 90 minutes among older adults with insomnia.
Ok, insomnia is THE WORST, so finding a naturally based aid to ward it off sounds great to me. Timed to coincide with the start of Daylight Savings Time, and courtesy of my relationship with One2One Network, I’m going to take a “Tart Cherry Juice 14 Day Sleep Challenge”.
I’ll be drinking the recommended amounts of juice and/or concentrate and tracking my sleep patterns (with a fitbit).
Be sure and check back to see how it goes, and there will be a giveaway, so you could be a big winner!
Do you drink Tart Cherry Juice? Do you want to try this with me?
i’m in! As I have gotten older, insomnia has kicked in. Hope this works