A 2025 systematic review in Food Science & Nutrition pulled together seven human trials on tart cherries and sleep. Across the studies, tart cherry juice or concentrate improved sleep quality, cut the time it took to fall asleep, and pushed total sleep time up. The largest single effect, from a pilot in older adults with insomnia, was an extra 84 minutes in bed asleep.
The review, published September 16, 2025, is the first to synthesize the field. Its authors call the evidence promising but caution that the trials are small and varied, with sample sizes between 11 and 20 participants. Tart cherry is not a treatment for clinical insomnia, they note, and the benefit is real but incremental.
What the trials actually measured
The standout number comes from a Louisiana State University pilot published in the American Journal of Therapeutics. Eight adults aged 50 and older with chronic insomnia drank 240 milliliters, roughly 8 ounces, of Montmorency tart cherry juice twice a day for two weeks. Total sleep time rose by 84 minutes on average compared with placebo.
Other trials in the review reported smaller but consistent gains. One 2023 study of 16 participants found a 22-minute increase in total sleep time, a 24-minute reduction in sleep onset latency, the time it takes to drift off, and a 2.4 percent improvement in sleep efficiency, the share of time in bed spent actually asleep.
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Why cherries might help
Tart cherries are one of the few foods that contain measurable amounts of naturally occurring melatonin, the hormone the body uses to regulate its sleep-wake cycle. They also supply tryptophan, an amino acid the body converts into melatonin and serotonin.
The melatonin dose from an 8-ounce glass is small, far below the levels in a standard supplement. The mechanism appears to work through the whole cherry rather than any single compound. Researchers at LSU showed that a cherry polyphenol called procyanidin B-2 inhibits an enzyme that breaks tryptophan down, leaving more of it available to be converted into melatonin.
At Cleveland Clinic, registered dietitian Beth Czerwony puts it plainly. "Tart cherries have different enzymes in them that can actually keep the tryptophan in your body longer," she told the clinic's health desk. "That can help you fall asleep sooner and keep you asleep for longer."
A practical dose, and its limits
Most trials that reported a benefit used either 240 milliliters, about 8 ounces, of tart cherry juice twice daily, or a smaller volume of concentrate. Timing is usually one to two hours before bed for the evening serving, though some studies also had participants drink a glass in the morning.
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Ashley Dawson, a registered dietitian at Texas Health Plano, cautions that tart cherry juice is not a treatment for chronic insomnia and that the juice is relatively high in natural sugar, which can itself interfere with deep sleep in large amounts.
Cleveland Clinic and the Sleep Foundation both frame the evidence the same way. It is worth trying if you sleep poorly and want a low-risk addition to a wind-down routine. It is not a substitute for basic sleep hygiene, and anyone with persistent insomnia, or on blood thinners that can interact with the juice, should talk to a doctor before making it a nightly habit.
Readers curious about foods that carry the same active ingredient can look at other melatonin-rich options in the diet, most of which show similarly modest effects in the research.
Start with one 8-ounce glass an hour before bed for two weeks, the window used in the trials, and judge from there.
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This article is made and published by Jesper Bengtson, who may have used AI in the preparation.